A Q&A with Cedar Rapids RoughRiders head coach/CEO Mark Carlson

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mark Carlson recently got his very first tattoo. At the age of 56.

This is no mid-life crisis deal. Nothing like that.

It’s personal.

On the inside of his left forearm is ‘RLC’ in cursive script. Carlson’s father, Bob, died 21 years ago of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig disease. Bob Carlson’s professional career was in retail business, and he was known as a loving but no-nonsense type of guy. That included when it came to raising his children Mark and daughter Michelle.

Sound familiar? A tough-love approach with his players has made Mark Carlson one of the best junior hockey coaches ever, a guy on the verge of a major milestone.

He has 778 career regular-season victories, all with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, the only coach and general manager they have had since their inception into the United States Hockey League in 1999. P.K. O’Handley also accumulated 778, most of the wins coming with the Waterloo Black Hawks.

“Carly” has the opportunity to own the wins record himself this weekend as the RoughRiders host the Lincoln Stars for 7:05 games Friday and Saturday nights at ImOn Ice Arena.

Not exactly the type to sit back and reflect while a season is going on (there are upcoming games to get ready for after all), Carlson surely will think about a lot of people when he does indeed become the USHL’s winningest coach. His dad and mom, Fran, in particular.

They are his biggest influences, he says. His father’s signature is right there on his left arm.

“My dad would sign some things ‘RLC’: Robert Lee Carlson,” Mark Carlson said. “He would sign a lot of things ‘RL Carlson.’ I just wanted to do the ‘RLC.’ I’d never gotten a tattoo before, and I had some documents that he had signed before. So I brought those with me. I got it at Wildside with Johnny (O’Conner) there. It was cool how he made the copy of it. That’s the exact signature.”

The Gazette had about a half-hour conversation with Carlson earlier this week. The Lawrenceville, N.J. native, was a player at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, then an assistant coach at the school for Bruce Crowder (a big mentor).

He was an assistant coach at Northeastern University in Boston when he took his first (and so far only) head coaching job. He’s in his 26th season with Cedar Rapids, the COVID-19/Derecho season of 2000-01 cancelled for the team because the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena was destroyed by the aforementioned August 2020 storm.

Cedar Rapids has won the Anderson Cup for most regular-season standings points three times under Carlson. They won the league’s Clark Cup championship in 2005. He has been USHL Coach of the Year three times in his career.

He already holds the USHL record for all-time regular-season games coach (1,498). His RoughRiders teams have had 41 players drafted by NHL teams over the years and 40 who are playing or have played in the NHL.

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Gazette: Well, you mentioned him. How much has your dad influenced you in what you’ve been able to accomplish as a hockey coach and as a human being? He always pushed you, right?

Carlson: I mean, he influenced everything. I mean, his influence is everything, every single thing that I do, yeah.“

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Gazette: Your parents, your dad loved Cedar Rapids, loved this place, right?

Carlson: I first came here from Boston. My parents were gonna go where, you know, where I was, so they came out here to visit for the first time and immediately loved it.

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Gazette: You never played in the USHL, did you? How good of a player were you? Good enough to get drafted (by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 11th round in 1987 as a winger), obviously.

Carlson: I don’t know how you didn’t know. I must have never told you this, but I actually did play in the USHL. I played, I don't know the exact number of games, like three or four games for the Sioux City Musketeers back in 1988. I was at Lowell, and they had JV and varsity programs back then in the 80s. So I was on JV and varsity, and every day I would practice with both, the JV and varsity.

And you know, it was probably an immature thing, I was a freshman, but I wasn’t playing So I decided to contact Bob Ferguson, the legendary Sioux City and Des Moines coach. He had drafted me from the Philadelphia Junior Flyers when I was a senior in high school. They still had my (USHL) rights, and I wasn’t playing at Lowell, so he was kind of calling me once in awhile. So I came out and played. Then I realized pretty quickly, you know I should have stayed and kept battling. So I went back to school.

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Gazette: OK, what kind of player were you? You were a forward? A winger?

Carlson: Wing, left wing. Just, you know, hard working, hard-working team guy. I mean, I was always really into it. Like I didn't get lots of ice time at Lowell. But when I did dress, I always loved learning about the Xs and Os side of it, the motivational side of it, and the one-on-one interaction and trying to help get the most out of people. I used to actually tell the assistants at Lowell when I was playing, “I'll help you get the most out of these certain guys,” stuff like that. Because I knew my role and what I did. I loved being on the team, but I just always had a passion for trying to figure out how to get the most out of people.

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Gazette: So that was kind of where your coaching career was born, when you were still playing?

Carlson: Yeah, yeah. Bruce Crowder ... that's who I played for (at Lowell), and that's who I ended up with. He gave me my first coaching opportunity. My second opportunity, actually. I was assistant at the Lawrenceville School (in New Jersey) as a volunteer, and then Lowell was my first college job. He had mentioned that maybe I should get into coaching. But he also said, and I still share this with everyone today, that it's not as glamorous as it looks. Which was good advice.

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Gazette: I know you are a year-to-year type of guy, but, honestly, when you sit back and think about it, how surprised are you that you are still here in Cedar Rapids, in the USHL after all this time?

(Carlson has had multiple head coaching offers over the years in minor league professional hockey, Division I college hockey, major junior hockey in Canada and with the United States National Team Development program. He met his wife, Tammy, here in Cedar Rapids and helped raise her/their two now-adult sons Dustin and Brayton)

Carlson: Yeah, I mean, I just think again, like you said, it's day by day. And, you know, I just like the opportunity to work with young men that are the caliber of people that they are, the caliber of player that they are. To do that day in and day out, to help them improve and help them reach their goals and go through the ups and downs with them, and just kind of just do everything that I can, we can as a staff, to help them become better players and better people. It’s what I love.

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Gazette: How has the league changed since the very first day when you were here?

Carlson: Well, more teams. Of course people say it's changed, but you know what? The league has been great for a long time, right? And it's as competitive, you know, as it's ever been. It's always been competitive, it's always been hard for players and challenging for players and challenging for coaches and challenging for everybody ... We have been able to attract more players from all over the world, that's one thing different, for sure.

But there were great teams 20 years ago, too. Look at our Clark Cup team. I’d have to look, but maybe we had a couple guys on that team that hit 1,000 NHL games in their careers: Alec Martinez, Abby (Justin Abdelkader) was close. Teddy Purcell. Then there were other guys that played (profesionally) for a long time ... This has just been a heck of a league for a long time. It's going to continue to be.

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Gazette: How have you changed? How have you changed as a coach?

Carlson: As a coach, I mean, I think you just learn to, you know, if people are changing, then you probably have to adapt a little bit. So people in general, you know, have changed and the way of maybe bringing up children and whatnot has probably changed ... It's hard to say. Like I just think you learn to adapt and read situations to deal with and work with people.

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Gazette: In the many interviews we have done over the years, one of the best things I remember you saying to me was that you have learned that you can’t have tough love without the ‘love’ part. Can you expand on that thought? Because you always have been known as a demanding coach.

Carlson: Well, I think I am. That's what I'm told. And tough love, I don't know any other way, really, to go. It's tough love, and tough love means it's not going to be easy every day, and it's going to be difficult. But you know what? That’s something that happens when a person sees something in someone else. That's part of the love, in my opinion. You're trying to help people.

You're trying to help them to reach their potential. So you may be hard, and you may, you know, say some things, or show video or have hard coaching on the ice. But then, you know, the other part of that love is the relationship. And then you can know people and show people that you care.

(Carlson then picks up a brochure from his father’s memorial service 21 years ago. On the brochure is an attached post-it note in which he has written “I see something in you.” That brochure and post-it note have been on his desk the last 21 years.)

“At my father’s service, I met this gentleman who was a store manager for my dad. My dad would tell him at times that he saw something in him, and this gentleman explained that he eventually figured out that ‘Bob sees something in me. He thinks I can be really good at this.’

And then the gentleman explained to me how he had advanced in his career and moved on to a bigger store and a bigger store and a bigger store and was successful, and that how when he looks back on it, he said ‘You know, your dad wasn't just being hard on me for no reason. He saw something in me. He believed that I could be great.’

And that's coaching right there.“

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Gazette: How have kids changed over the years you have been coaching?

Carlson: I think that they've changed, but I think that gets overdone, though. I think it all comes down to how everyone has their own way of doing things. Families have their own way of doing things, and they've changed a little bit. But to me, not maybe as much as what a lot of people say. I mean, on this team here, we've got a lot of mentally tough, hard-nosed, energetic, confident players all the way down to our youngest guy, And to me, again, everyone has their own way, so I'm not criticizing their’s. There's certain ways to, you know, raise your kids and do things, and I think when you obviously see how the parents have done things, you end up seeing that in their kids.

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Gazette: I think there’s a belief out there that today’s athletes will abide by what you tell them to do, but they want to know why you are telling them to do something. Do you see that?

Carlson: Yeah. I mean, I do see that. But, again, I think that is something that maybe gets overstated. Hopefully we're explaining why, and, sure, we have no problem explaining why. We have a lot of meetings. So I do believe it's true that they want to know why. But again, maybe not to the extent that a lot of people say.

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Gazette: What has it been like to go through this journey with your wife? You’re back here taking care of the hockey opps, she is up in the front office taking care of that part of the club.

Carlson: From day one, she has always been a huge part in everything that we've done. And, you know, with the organization, she has expanded her role. Obviously love her more than anything. She has done, she just does an unbelievable job. And the passion that she has for the organization and the players and all the people that are involved in it, in the community, every aspect (is great).

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Gazette: She told me that loyalty is a huge thing with you. You agree with that?

Carlson: Very fortunate here to work for all the people that I've worked for. Currently with Mr. and Mrs. Sdao (team owners Tony and Jan Sdao) and family, to have been with them for all this time now, and the family atmosphere that we have together. That's what it's all about, is the people that you're working with and that type of thing. So very fortunate.

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Gazette: Who are you outside the rink? Who is Mark Carlson?

Carlson: I think, like, I’m a fun-loving guy that loves my family and my friends. I mean, that's outside hockey. That's what I love.

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Gazette: And Bruce Springsteen.

(There may not be a bigger fan of The Boss in Cedar Rapids)

Carlson: Oh, yeah! Absolutely!

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Gazette: I imagine you get the random text or call from a former player every now and then. I saw you met up with Ross Colton (former RoughRiders now with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche) over the summer when you were on vacation at the Jersey shore. What does that stuff mean to you?

Carlson: The guys call. I hear stories sometimes second hand, and those things mean a lot. Sometimes you hear them second hand and sometimes you hear them directly. But, again, I’m such a huge believer that the RoughRiders are not for everybody. But if you want to be a great hockey player, and you want to have success in life, then this is for you. There is absolutely no question about that whatsoever. But it’s not for everybody, we have seen that over the years with certain people. And that’s fine, you know what I mean? It’s not personal, we don’t hold a grudge. It’s fine.

But it’s a lot of fun. Last night I turn on the TV, Vegas and Colorado were playing, and we had seven players in that game. In one NHL game. Six with the Colorado Avalanche. I’m not trying to take credit. We’re a small part. But the demands and getting after it every day and working and being dedicated to it, hopefully with the love and affection and the care and everything else helps them. Helps guys move on and be able to reach their dreams.“

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Gazette: So how much longer you coaching?

Carlson: I’m young (laughs). I’m as excited every day as I was when I first started in college hockey and when I first started here. I’m a young guy.

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