“Nice connection with the Golden Bears to Elks:” Jonathan Giustini signs in Edmonton

Jonathan Giustini cannot escape former head coach, now current president of the Edmonton Elks, Chris Morris.

The former University of Alberta Golden Bear signed with the Elks on March 12 — having cleared waivers for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — the same year Morris elected to leave the Bears for his old pro club.

Not that he’s complaining.

“I’m super excited about it. He was such a big reason that I came to U of A in the first place when he recruited me” Giustini stated, with the biggest smile on face, about his former head coach.

“Seeing how he can change the room and change a program like how he did at U of A really motivates me to want to be at the same program that he’s at. I’m super excited to still be around with him.”

The Bears didn’t win any conference or national championships with Morris, but they weren’t making it to the playoffs before him either. Now the same attitude towards a club that seldom makes it into the playoffs — like the Elks — transfers over from one team to the next.

But it’s not just Morris or Giustini, or one of the many other Elks-Bears connections. Mark Kilam, a former Bear himself, now coaches Edmontons’ Canadian Football League team, adding another Golden Bear in the mix.

“It’s something I’m really looking forward to. Not only Kilam, but Danny Nesbitt, who’s our special teams co-ordinator last year, and Aaron Grymes, who also helped out with the [defensive backs (DB)] a little bit last year, are both coaches for the Elks now. So there is that nice little connection with the Golden Bears to the Elks,” Giustini added.

We’ve seen this with the Edmonton Oilers — Noah Philp, Derek Ryan, Kris Knoblauch, maybe even Marc Lajoie — but it can be made no stronger than by the Elks, whose strict import rules make Canadian universities a top recruitment pool — even those that don’t win.

How Giustini went from Edmonton, to Hamilton, back to Edmonton

The connections don’t end there.

Ed Harvey, the Elks’ general manager (GM) as of November 19, drafted Giustini when they were both with the Tiger-Cats in 2024. Harvey then moved to Edmonton and signed Giustini here when the opportunity arose.

“Guess he wanted to bring me with him,” Giustini said.

It’s not unreasonable. Maybe Giustini was following Harvey, not Morris.

“He was the one that drafted me to Hamilton. So obviously he liked what he saw when he drafted me, and saw the opportunity to bring me along with him as well.”

To get this straight, Harvey was not the GM who released Giustini from his contract in Hamilton. Instead, Giustini signed with the Tiger-Cats, got sent back to school to finish his fifth year with the Bears, and then Ted Goveia, Harvey’s replacement, released him.

“When they released me it was really out of left field, to me, because they just signed me a couple months earlier, after the season and everything,” Giustini explained.

“I felt pretty good about going into camp there and being able to compete for a spot on the team. But then I got the call. So it is what it is, but it brought about this new opportunity to be able to play for the Elks.”

As of now, Giustini is signed as a safety. But he played DB and kicker well with the Bears. Theoretically, he could do both again.

“I hope that they give me a chance to showcase my kicking skills as well as my safety skills, because right now, I am going as a safety. But because those coaches that were with me with the Bears, know that I am able to kick — I’d say I’m quite good at it — they might be able to give give me a chance at competing for that spot as well.”

Same player, same coaches, slightly new team, maybe same position?

It’s too early to say, and it’ll be too early for a while. Alas, that’s what happens when you’re a rookie in a league that “has no superstars,” as Giustini’s GM would say.

“Maybe not a super big impact right away. But I feel like my work ethic and what I’ll bring to like the locker room and the type of type of teammate that I am, will be able to help bring out the culture around the Elks and the team that we can develop into a playoff team, and eventually a Grey Cup team.”