1. What has the early stages of your Fall Camp been like?
"Camps went really well, we really put together a real competitive environment and you know what whether they're returning guys or list guys or maybe free agent guys everybody showed pretty well and it's really forcing us into a lot of difficult decisions."
2. What have you seen from some of your returnees?
"Yeah no doubt you know what we you know course we've Luke Nkwama and Jonathan Krahn who are great leaders and have a strong skill set up front right away and you know we got a number of other guys there obviously that that really lead the way for us so that that's a good starting point and you know our young guys they've ben really impressive and you know what we know we're gonna have a little bit different look, and we have arguably get 3 of the best 2003 born. 17 year old forwards you could possibly get in the SJHL, so we're pretty excited about that and it looks like we're gonna have a pretty exciting squad to watch."
3. What's your plan going forward has you can continue to wait for the go-ahead to play?
"Our plans have been put into place actually going back to June, we felt that if there wasn't actual games scheduled right upon us that we would go to what we refer to as the development phase we got a lot of creative ideas where it's not just a day after day of practice, but we would develop skills, develop our team play and develop a competitive atmosphere and that's been really good. It's something where it's optional for them they don't have to be here for that until we get 2 weeks away from our game schedule but they've all bought in and they want to be here so that's exciting."
4. What's your billeting situation been like thus far?
"Certainly different times right now Benny but it's been really tough, as excited as we are about our team and about our group you know the sad part is that come Monday when we reconvene here after the weekend and we simply don't have enough billets we've actually have more billets right now in your Yorkton than we do in Melville it's dire needs and I get it with COVID, I get that everybody's lives are disrupted but we're really trying to make a contribution to city and we really need that support it's not you know trying to cry wolf too early or anything like that but this is real you know guys will go home for the weekend and our billet coordinator Renee has been working really hard and I feel bad for her but it's reality we will not be able to bring guys back and that's the sad part it's real and it's a little bit stressful right now. "
5. Whats the assurance message you send to some prospective Mils billets?
"I know there's always different things that can attribute to it and you know if you have that revolving door of trading guys all the time you know what I don't believe in not obviously there's going to be player movement it's junior hockey you know what I look great at the start of the recruiting we look for good kids, good people we understand I wouldn't want to have an attitude or disciplinary problem in my dressing room so why would I expect that you do to. We've we went over and above with COVID precautions every player that came into camp had the test prior and if they couldn't have a test prior to wherever they're coming from then they got tested on arrival. We do daily temperature checks, we wear masks at the rink, and everywhere, we are over above what the majority of teams are doing and number 1 is we wanna keep our players safe we want to keep our staff and we wanna keep our billets and community safe and I think people that go down on a shopping spree to Regina and there's more risk going there then having one of these young players stay at their homes."
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If you're in Melville or area and you're interested in billeting a Millionaires' player please contact Renee at 1-306-730-7334
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Full audio of interview with Mike Rooney can be heard below:
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