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As the years roll on and team members arrive and eventually graduate, one thing remains constant for the Dalhousie AC Woodsmen.

Connor Morse is a DAL AC Team captain and senior member of the Woodsmen Team  along with Jessie Swinemar.  Both co-chair the 2016-17 Rick Russell Woodsmen Competition on Feb 11 2017.

The goal – to bring home a Canadian Intercollegiate Lumberjacking Association (CILA) championship.

“I don’t want to sound arrogant,” coach Geoff Larkin said. “But winning a championship is always the goal.”

It’s far from an arrogant statement when you glance at the Woodsmen team’s resume. The Men’s A squad has won three of the past four crowns since 2012 while the women occupied the top step of the podium in four of the past five seasons, which included a run of three titles in a row from 2011 to 2013.

Both teams are defending champions. The men finished the 2015-16 schedule with 4,072.10 points, well ahead of the Maritime College of Forest Technology (2,951.44). The women’s race was much tighter. Dalhousie collected 4,088.16 points to nip McGill University’s MacDonald Campus by just 169.89 points.

“We want to build off of that this year,” Larkin, a former Woodsmen team member who took over the head coaching reins this season after three seasons as an assistant, said. “We had a very successful season last year and we have a lot of returning members for both sides so we’re hoping we can continue to grow.”

The CILA calendar is made up of four meets in which teams compete in several disciplines to score points for their school. Events include the axe throw, water boil, pole climbing and various chopping and sawing competitions.

The calendar kicks off Oct. 22 in Fredericton at the University of New Brunswick. After a pair of events over the winter at Sir Sanford Fleming College and The Macdonald Campus of McGill University, the season wraps up Feb. 11 when the Woodsmen host the 32nd Annual Rick Russell Woodsmen Competition at MacMillan Show Centre.

Although the Woodsmen have had their share of success and are always contenders on the CILA circuit, Larkin cautioned continuing that success won’t be easy. The talent fielded by each school is strong and it takes a real commitment to training to shave seconds off your time.

“That’s what it all comes down to,” Larkin said.

But Larkin added he feels his lineup has what it takes to get the job done, as long as the athletes don’t forget how to get there.

“I feel like we have the talent, it’s just a matter of putting the work in,” he said. “You can’t control what the other teams bring forth but you can control what you bring forth so it’s just a matter of how hard we want to work to get there.”