According to a report in the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, Mark Carlson will stay head coach and general manager of the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and will not be behind the bench at Massachusetts next season.
The report states that Carlson was a serious candidate and visited the Amherst campus earlier this week.
“I went out and visited [UMass],” Carlson said in the story. “It is a very nice place, a great campus, great facilities, a terrific athletic director and [associate] athletic director. But I love Cedar Rapids and our ownership and our community and our fans. This is the best junior hockey league in North America and I want to be here.”
Carlson, who played at Massachusetts-Lowell and was an assistant coach there and at Northeastern, has won over 400 games in Cedar Rapids, including the 2005 Clark Cup championship and 2005 and 2011 Anderson Cups for most regular-season points.
Previously, Rand Pecknold and Paul Pearl turned down offers to coach at UMass after Don ‘Toot’ Cahoon stepped down earlier this offseason.
