Will Rooney is returning for his third season with the Hamilton Honey Badgers in 2021, the team announced Monday. Rooney was part of the Honey Badgers inaugural coaching staff under head coach Chantal Vallée, that finished second in the CEBL in 2019 and continued as part of Ryan Schmidt’s coaching staff in 2020, helping the team to a third place finish during the CEBL Summer Series.

“I’m excited to have Will back for a second season,” said Schmidt. “Having worked with him on the Raptors 905 staff as well as last season, it’s been great to watch his growth and development as a coach. He has a unique skill set that adds tremendous value to what we are building in Hamilton and plays a big part in our success as an organization.”

Rooney graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Communication and Media Studies from the University of Calgary in 2016. While there he worked as Video Coordinator and Manager of Operations for the men’s basketball team, which won a conference championship and a national silver medal.

Upon graduating from Calgary, Rooney interned with Ontario Basketball and was invited to work with Canada Basketball as a performance analyst for the Junior and Cadet women’s national teams during their Spring Assessment Camps. He is a two-time finalist for the Raptors Wayne Embry Fellowship where he met then-Raptors 905 head coach Jama Mahlalela. He was brought onto Mahlalela’s staff as a junior coach during the 2018-19 season and named Assistant Coach and Assistant Video Coordinator for the 2019-20 season.

Rooney is the second assistant coach named to Schmidt’s staff following the re-signing of Sheldon Cassimy on April 6. Schmidt and his staff are set to open the 2021 season versus Ottawa on June 5. The team is coming off a 4-4 record and third place finish in the CEBL Summer Series, which marked the first professional sports in Canada to return to play after Covid-19 halted sports in March of 2020. More than 1.2 million viewers across Canada watched games live on CBC, and games were carried to more than 130 million viewers around the world.