(Twitter/@sskroughriders)

By Mat Barrett

Riley with the Riders

Melfort’s Riley excited to be at camp, looking forward to having football back

Jul 15, 2021 | 1:57 PM

Training camp is well underway for the Saskatchewan Roughriders as they prepare for a 2021 season.

Melfort’s own Mattland Riley is in his first career Canadian Football League (CFL) camp after being drafted seventh overall in the 2020 CFL Draft. That season was ultimately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Riley told northeastNOW that when he first arrived at camp, it was a surreal feeling.

“I just had to take a second and kind of take it all in,” he said. “Because it was like ‘woah, this is normality,'”

Riley said the first few days of camp saw the offence and defence split and work on their own to try make sure everyone was on the same page before bringing the two together. Riley said he noticed a bit of the pandemic effects on players, with footwork not being quite as sharp, bit of tiredness, and more.

“Across the board, you could definitely see the effects of that,” Riley said.

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The offensive lineman played in Melfort at MUCC for high school before spending his university career with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies before being drafted. He said getting to the field and seeing and interacting with all the vets was quite a cool experience.

“Probably the coolest thing is seeing [punter] Jon Ryan in the locker room,” he laughed. “Just being like ‘Oh, I’ve watched that guy playing in a couple of Super Bowls.”

Riley also mentioned seeing Dan Clark being a cool experience as well saying that he remembers seeing Clark catch touchdown passes while Riley was in high school.

While there hasn’t been any football to play for over a year-and-a-half, Riley said he has been working hard in the gym with Ignite Fitness in Saskatoon and once they knew the season was cancelled, Riley hit the gym and continued to work. He said the first few months was a lot of weight room work and competing there for personal bests. Then once the calendar turned to 2021, more football related workouts were brought in.

With his first season starting, and the battle for spots on the roster heating up, Riley said a successful rookie year would consist of him getting better every day.

“As long as at the end of the season I can look back and say that I can continuously see progress through all the days that have built up on each other,” he said. “I would look back and say ‘that was a successful season’,”

As for excitement for his first snap as a Roughrider, he said it might be more exciting just to be at Mosaic Stadium.

“Probably the bigger shock is just going to be coming out of the tunnel,” Riley said. “And having the whole of Mosaic filled to the brim.”

Riley is also joined at camp by fellow Melfort product and fellow offensive lineman Logan Ferland. Riley said having someone like that, as well as former university teammates is a huge help to adjust to being on the team.

Riley added that he hopes to be an inspiration to kids from Melfort, showing them not to put their dreams on hold because they come from a small town, and to listen to their coaches and work hard.

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mat.barrett@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @matbarrett6