When Billy McHenry first took over as head coach of the Carson Senators roller hockey club in 2003, one of the first things he did was remember the words of his own high school football coach.
"I was fortunate to have a great high school coach who believed you should be a quality person first, and that you should play and have fun," said McHenry, who played for Georgia prep coaching legend Wayman Creel. "My first day as coach of this team, I told the kids we would play with that same philosophy."
The Senators had fun Saturday and Sunday at the Northern Nevada Roller Hockey League Tournament, winning four straight games to bring home the Sierra Cup at the Sierra Sports & Iceplex in Sparks.
Senior defenseman Dustin Zastre, who plays bass guitar for a band known as "Clubber Lane" - as in Clubber Lang in the 1982 movie, Rocky III - gave a pretty good Mr. T impression on Sunday. And the Senators gave a pretty good impression of Rocky Balboa when they rallied for back-to-back 6-5 victories against Douglas in the semifinals and then Elko in the finals.
Zastre scored with 52 seconds left in regulation, assisted by Ryan Dwyer and Charlie Macquarie, to take Douglas into overtime and then Bud Kop scored the game-winner as Carson advanced to the championship round. In the final, Zastre scored with five minutes left to tie the score and then delivered the go-ahead goal with 44 seconds left as Carson won the Sierra Cup for the third time since 1996. The Senators lost in the tournament finals in both 2003 and 2004.
"They've been the Cardiac Kids all year," McHenry said. "The last two games of this tournament were games for the ages. I just can't say enough about the character of these kids to come back like they did."
Carson took an early 1-0 lead against Douglas when Colin Cormier scored, assisted by Todd Crowell. Douglas scored three straight goals before Macquarie and Dwyer (assisted by Jon Jewell) answered to tie it at 3. Douglas scored on a power play with 1:23 left to take a 5-4 lead, at which time McHenry called for a time-out.
Carson won the face-off and pulled goalkeeper Travis Hall to go with an extra skater, and Zastre scored the equalizer on a 30-foot wrist shot with 52 seconds showing on the clock.
The Senators still weren't out of trouble because Dwyer was called for a two-minute penalty with 23 seconds left in regulation. The penalty carried over into overtime, but Hall came up big-time in the net for Carson.
"They took five shots in a row before I could breathe," the junior goalkeeper said. "One of them, I got it with my leg pad and covered it. The next thing I knew, my whole team jumped on me. It was a total adrenaline rush.
"There were no pushovers. Every game was a challenge," he added. "Douglas was really intense. We're the two best teams in the league, we're rivals, and we all know each other on a first-name basis because we've played against each other for so long ... Mikey Trute, Kyle Martinez, those guys are real good players."
Kop delivered the game-winner with two minutes left in overtime when he took a pass from Dwyer and put a 40-foot slap shot into the net. Kop had two goals and five assists in the tournament and was a defensive force in Carson's 10-5 quarterfinal win against Fallon on Sunday morning.
"Bud was a one-man wrecking crew in that Fallon game," McHenry said of Kop. "He was a physical force. He looked a linebacker out there."
Carson faced another challenge in the final against Elko, a team that lost its opener then won four straight to come back through the tournament's losers bracket.
Carson scored four times in the first period, two by Macquarie and one each by Cormier and Crowell (assisted by Eric Hastings and Zastre) to take a 4-3 lead. Elko tied it at 4 in the second period and took a 5-4 lead with six minutes left. Zastre tied the score at 5, assisted by Macquarie, and scored the game-winner on a long shot that scooted underneath the goalkeeper.
McHenry figures the final score adds up to a good omen.
"My number in high school was 65," he said with a chuckle. "I'm a math teacher so I was thinking about that Sunday night."
McHenry is certainly no stranger to athletics. He's coached a variety of sports - football and wrestling among others - in Nevada at Sparks, Incline and Carson.
He also played football at Lakeside High (1981 graduate) in the Atlanta area under Creel, whose coaching record in 38 years was 315-105-12. Creel's teams won two state titles, he was named National High School Football Coach of the Year in 1977, plus he has been inducted into the Georgia Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame (2002) and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame (1973). Coach Creel passed away in 1990.
Many of the lessons McHenry learned were passed on to the current Carson players.
"We weren't a disciplined team and we weren't a system team," he said. "These kids are talented and they were well coached when they were growing up. They know how to play. I just told them to have fun."
That the Senators did during a season in which they went 14-1, the one loss coming against Douglas in a game that was suspended with five minutes left to play.
"This is the best season I've ever had and the best team I've ever played on," Hall said. "These are all quality people and everybody gets along. Even if we lost, we had fun, and I think coach McHenry was a big part of that."
Notes: McHenry says there's a chance the Senators will get to play the Southern Nevada champion next month for what would be the first true state roller hockey championship - yet unofficial because roller hockey is not sanctioned by the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association. "We're looking at North versus South in a one-day, best-of-three series in Las Vegas," McHenry said. "Their season is still going, so we would probably go down there and play on a Saturday in mid-April." ... Zastre, who played with a broken right hand, and Dwyer were both named to the all-tournament team. ... Carson's White and Blue teams finished second and fourth respectively in the Northern Nevada J.V. Tournament. Both Carson J.V. teams were coached by Uriah Wise, who has long been associated with the local junior program. Lloyd Zastre, Dustin's father, has also been long associated with youth roller hockey in Carson City.
n Contact Dave Price at dprice@nevadaappeal.com or call 881-1220.
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Members of the Sierra Cup champion Carson Senators roller hockey team include (front row, from the left) Ryan Dwyer, Todd Crowell, Richie Copeland, Eric Hastings, (standing) Matt Miller, Bud Kop, Charlie Macquarie, Jon Jewell, coach Billy McHenry and Travis Hall. Not pictured are Dustin Zastre and Colin Cormier.