THE NEVADA ESKIMOS?
Team takes camp to Sin City
If there was ever a year for the Edmonton Eskimos to get away for mini-camp, this is it.
With snow still blanketing the ground here earlier this week, the Eskimos coaching staff travelled to Las Vegas to begin preparations for the upcoming mini-camp at the University of Nevada April 21-24.
“It’s one of the worst winters we’ve had around there and with snow still on the ground, it seemed like mid- September. So it’s nice to be down in Vegas where it’s obviously much better,” coach Jason Maas said. “Anytime the players are soon to arrive and you go out there to get the field ready and have your plans in place and it’s only a couple of days away, it’s more a reality that football’s right around the corner.”
The club was more than happy with the facilities at Bill ( Wildcat) Morris Rebel Park last year, after moving mini-camp headquarters from a couple of different fields in Florida in previous years, and are back in Vegas again.
This time, however, there is a decidedly National Hockey League feel to America’s newest hockey town, thanks to the success of the upstart Vegas Golden Knights.
“They’ve been, obviously, very well followed here now,” Maas said of the expansion franchise that became the first team to punch its ticket into Round 2 of playoffs after sweeping the Kings on Tuesday. “People are pretty excited about it, there are signs all over the place. We went to Topgolf (golf-centred sports bar) as a staff, and the night before, they had a huge viewing party there to watch the game.
As it no doubt will be with the arrival of the National Football League’s Oakland Raiders franchise in 2020. But right now, the Eskimos are the ones who’ve found a home away from home in Sin City.
And they ’re bringing a full house, with every healthy body off their roster taking part this year alongside the host of hopefuls looking to earn an invite to the main training camp in May.
“I think it’s hugely beneficial just from a team-camaraderie standpoint, getting everyone together,” Maas said. “We get three extra practices for the year and we get better as a team.
“Also, the guys you’ve signed to your roster, you can compare them to your starter and your backups from the year before. You get to see who’s improved and you get to see it doing your schemes. We’re going to hit the ground running in training camp because of these three days here.”
Typically, an Eskimos minicamp consists of 50-60 players, including the quarterbacks and a handful of veterans to help put the prospects through the paces. This year, Maas expects more than 70 players on the Rebels’ parallel practice fields.
That number would have been significantly higher had it not been for a host of injuries last year. Any player who wasn’t able to finish the year isn’t expected to participate this week.
“We’re making sure we’re giving them an extra four or five weeks,” Maas said. “Pretty much anybody that was injured at the end of the year or had surgery is not going to end up coming here. We want to make sure everyone gets to camp without any limitations and don’t want to hinder anybody.
“It’s more just looking at everybody that’s healthy right now and anyone that we have signed. As a coach, I’m concerned about every single one of our players and not a battle here or a battle there. I just want to get better and use this to set the tone for the up and coming season.”