Coach Mark Carlson hits 1,000-game milestone with Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

CEDAR RAPIDS — Stashed rather neatly in one of the bookcases in Mark Carlson's office at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena are a bunch of spiral-bound notebooks.

He pulls one out and shows you. Every single page is full of scribbled, handwritten notes and diagrams of hockey formations and plays.

They go back years. Wherever he has traveled, whether it was scouting for the next great player or simply observing someone's practice, Carlson has taken notes.

He searches for, but can't find, a notebook from a trip he made to Calgary many years back, observing Western Michigan University Coach Andy Murray when he was in charge of Canada's national team. He considers Murray, a head coach in the National Hockey League for 10 years, to be one of his mentors.

'I can't believe I still keep all this stuff,' he said, shaking his head. 'It's so disorganized. So disorganized.'

If there is one thing you can't ever say about Mark Carlson is he's disorganized. You don't win as consistently as he has in junior hockey without consistently having every 'i' dotted and every 't' crossed.

The only head coach and general manager the RoughRiders have had in their 17-year existence has won 559 games, taken his team to the United States Hockey League playoffs 14 times, won the Anderson Cup twice for most regular-season standings points and the Clark Cup championship once.

This season's team leads the USHL in standings points (57) with a 27-10-3 record.

Carlson has 40 of his former players playing NCAA Division I hockey this season and has produced over 200 college players in his career here. Fifteen RoughRiders graduates have played in the NHL, 21 have gotten drafted and 17 currently hold NHL contracts.

He hits an incredible milestone Friday night when his club hosts Waterloo at The Stable: his 1,000th-career USHL game. Only one guy has coached in more, and that just happens to be Waterloo's P.K. O'Handley.

This couldn't have been scripted better.

'The cool thing is that I think we share a lot of the same values,' Carlson said. 'What we think is important, as far as teaching the players, teaching the kids. I think we have a lot of similarities as far as individual discipline and team discipline and trying to do things the right way. How you operate on and off the ice.

'We have the same beliefs in the USHL and respect the league a ton. We have respect for the people that came before us, that built the league, the people that are responsible for what the league is, all the people in the league today. That's the thing I think is cool. That P.K. and I, I think it's safe to say, have the same beliefs in all those things.'

O'Handley, the all-time USHL wins leader, said people would be surprised to know he and Carlson have forged a strong friendship over their years in the league. They are the faces of rival franchises, recruit against each other, want to beat each other when their teams meet.

But that's as adversarial as things get.

'Our friendship is something I value and cherish,' O'Handley said. 'I've told others this, but Mark is the first guy to call when things have happened in my life, to offer support and help and just say 'You have a friend here.''

O'Handley said he hoped Carlson would be able to sit back and reflect at some point this weekend on his milestone, though that doesn't sound much like the guy known as 'Carly.' He is as much an in-the-moment coach as you'll see.

Never look ahead, never look back, work your butt off and be humble. Those philosophies are the reasons he's had so much success.

'When I first came into the league, I was at a table, having a discussion with a bunch of other coaches and the commissioner (Gino Gasparini),' said Carlson, who was an assistant at Northeastern University when he was offered the Cedar Rapids job in the summer of 1999. 'I remember it like it was yesterday. He said this league is very unforgiving. I tell you what, that hits the nail on the head. If you're not on point all the time, during the season, in the offseason, and you make mistakes by not working or not concentrating well, this league will not forgive you. You are in trouble.'

'Mark's a grinder,' said Bliss Littler, head coach of the Wenatchee Wild in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League, a former longtime USHL coach and one of Carlson's best friends in the business. 'When I was in the league, as coaches, we'd laugh that we'd be at the lake or playing golf in the summertime, and Carly would be outworking us, out somewhere trying to find his next player.'

Not everyone understands the difficulty of coaching in the USHL. Guys move on to college or the pros after a season, and you are immediately building another team from scratch for the following season.

'The USHL is as difficult an environment as I have been in,' said Minnesota State Coach Mike Hastings, who won 530 USHL games at Omaha. 'To have the success year in and year out that Mark has had speaks for itself. If you let up one bit in that league, you are going to pay for it.'

'You look at what a coach and a general manager has to do in this league, when you have both titles,' Carlson said. 'You are replacing 15 players a year, team building, coaching, preparing for the season, going through all the things that you go through. It's 12 months a year. You'd better be able to grind, or else you aren't going to be in the league.'

Carlson, 47, has remained in the league despite having four different owners and a plethora of opportunities elsewhere. He turned down the head coaching job at the University of Massachusetts in 2012 and the head coaching job with the Soo Greyhounds of the Major Junior Ontario Hockey League last offseason.

He said he'd love to be in the NHL someday, which doesn't sound unreasonable if you consider USHL grads Jeff Blashill (Detroit Red Wings) and Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay Lightning) are head coaches there now. But he's also quick to point out how much he enjoys Cedar Rapids, the age group he coaches and working for RoughRiders majority owner Tony Sdao.

'I got a text from a coach today who is not in this league anymore saying 'I don't know if I have the same impact on my players that I had when I was in the USHL,'' Carlson said. 'In the USHL, I believe you have an unbelievable oportunity to have an impact on players in their hockey careers, and hopefully help them improve as people and be successful in life. You go through the grind because it's the best development league in the world, in my opinion. You are fortunate and proud to be in it.

'As far as other opportunities, it has to be the right opportunity, not just any opportunity. Cedar Rapids is a tremendous place in a tremendous league.'

So what does he consider the 'right opportunity?'

'The right opportunity is all about working with the right people and having the resources and the right setup to have success,' he said. 'I'd love to be a coach in the NHL someday. But it's all about getting the opportunity, you know?'

If that right opportunity to leave never comes, he seems OK with that. The RoughRiders are his baby, literally his program.

'I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to coach 1,000 games,' Carlson said. 'This is all true stuff. I was fortunate that (initial owner) Butch Johnson hired me at the start, I was fortunate that Pat Forciea decided to keep me, I was fortunate that Michael Reinsdorf and Steven Edelson made the decision to keep me, I was fortunate that Mr. and Mrs. Sdao decided to keep me. I've had a lot of good players and assistant coaches and met a lot of good people along the way.

'What I think is cool is that I have been able to start at 1 and go all the way to 1,000 (with the same franchise). I think that's a really neat thing. And, yes, I will try and enjoy that part Friday night.'

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