The Calgary Roughnecks wrapped up their first weekend of training camp on Saturday evening, and CalgaryRoughnecks.com caught up with general manager Mike Board to discuss what he saw over the opening three sessions.
BF: With the first weekend over, did it meet your expectations?
MB: Absolutely, it was very competitive with a nice tempo and the guys definitely came into camp fit. All said and done, the guys look pretty good.
BF: Did the players come into camp in shape to your liking?
MB: That was the message we gave the guys beforehand – don’t use camp to get into shape, be in shape when you get here. We are going to go high tempo. We don’t have as long of camp or as many sessions as we’ve had in the past so these ones are going to be high-tempo and you’ll have to be ready.
BF: Who has impressed you so far?
MB: There are a couple of kids who have impressed me so far. Karsen Leung has looked good so far in the early going, and some of the local kids like Jake Hayes, Cam Copland and Brett Baron have done a really good job here. They’ve worked hard, been involved in the play and it’s impressive to see that.
BF: What do you want to see differently for next week’s camp?
MB: We worked on some systems here, and next week we will have one practice to go through some more systems on the Friday night. Then it’s almost like a game day ‘cause we will scrimmage at night against Vancouver. We will get a better read about what’s going on because you’re not going up against your own teammates, you’re up against another team. They have guys that are fighting for jobs, we have guys doing the same so I expect a really up-tempo, hard-hitting affair next weekend to get a look at these guys at the next level.
