From SILive.com
By Charlie De Biase Jr.
Before the 2023-24 American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) season began last fall, the expectations were extremely high for Adrian College’s Division 1 women’s hockey team.
The sting of surrendering a 4-1 lead and losing in overtime the season before during the ACHA National semifinals inspired motivation and, perhaps most importantly, there was an abundance of talent returning this season for the Bulldogs.
New Dorp resident Brian Carney, an assistant coach at Adrian, said the thought process was win or bust.
“The goal, from the start of the season, was to win it all — anything else would be considered a failure,’’ said Carney, who was entering his second season as head coach Carter Clarke’s one and only assistant. “We had some pretty high expectations because we knew we had the talent to win it all, we just had to go out and do it.’’
And do it, they did.
The Bulldogs, who are one of a whopping seven hockey teams at Adrian (one men’s and women’s NCAA team apiece; three ACHA women’s and two ACHA men’s teams), rolled through the regular season with a 23-6-2 record before capturing the Central Collegiate Women’s Hockey Association’s conference playoff championship with three more victories at the end of February.
Next up was a four-games-in-five-days marathon in the ACHA National Tournament at the Centene Community Ice Center in St. Louis. The No. 3-seeded Bulldogs cruised to wins over Arizona St. (5-0) and Michigan-Dearborn (8-1) before stopping No. 2 Midland University, 5-3, in the semis.
That set the stage for a third-and-final match against No. 4 Minot St., a team Adrian had blanked (3-0, 2-0) during back-to-back, non-league games back in October.
“We had played three unbelievable games leading up to the championship, including a game against a team that was ranked higher than us in the semifinals,’’ said Carney. “We had to play 60 more minutes of solid hockey. Minot has a really good goalie in Haylie Biever, but we just had the mentality to just go out there and bury them and fortunately we did.’’
Adrian, in fact, celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by completing their incredible season behind Tyler Turnbull (two goals, assist) and Macy Piche (two goals) during a 4-1 victory over Minot. They finished the campaign with a 30-6-2 mark overall and one that Carney won’t forget soon.
“It’s extremely rewarding to have a season like that, to go through all the trials and tribulations we encountered and to go and win a National championship,’’ said a proud Carney. “It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever been a part of.’’
So how did a Staten Islander wind up behind the bench after graduating from St. Joseph by-the-Sea and the University of New Haven (UNH) without playing a minute of hockey at either school?
It certainly wasn’t easy, but he started his journey to coaching at the college ranks after graduating from New Haven with a degree in Sports Management. Carney took part in two internships after leaving UNH, including one at Yale University, where he worked the social media for the men and women’s hockey teams, and later for a website called neutralzone.net, where he did analysis and recaps for high school hockey in Massachusetts.
“It was a little tough coming out of college. The job market was not great and I stayed in Connecticut for a year and did my internships,’’ said Carney. “I continued to look and found a website that had a listing for an assistant coach position for Adrian College’s ACHA Division 1 women’s team and I sent an email to the head coach, who was Hannah Griffin at the time.
“We eventually spoke on the phone. She was looking for a fresh face to join her coaching staff and I wound up driving to Adrian to formally interview. She was willing to take a chance on me and it was awesome to get the job — it was really a weight off my shoulders.’’
Griffin, however, wound up leaving Adrian before Carney got behind the bench for a game and a short time later, Clarke was hired as the new head coach.
“We hit it off from the start,’’ said Carney of his relationship with Clarke. “We’ve grown to really appreciate each other. We picked up the slack for each other right away and it’s been a great experience.
“I am forever grateful, however, to (Griffin) for giving me a shot.’’
As the lone assistant on a collegiate level team, Carney’s roles varied.
“I’d book hotels and arrange meals and also discuss line combinations and game plans with (Clarke)‚’’ the 25-year-old explained. “Of course, I’d help run practice and there was also a lot of time put into going over film.’’
Carney said although his Bulldogs don’t play in the NCAA like one of the teams at Adrian does, they are not a ‘farm system’ team.
“All the teams do their own recruiting and the players, for the most part, stay with the teams that recruited them,’’ he said. “There might have been one or two instances where a player had left our team to play for the NCAA women’s team, but that doesn’t happen often.’’
It’s been an extremely rewarding experience for Carney, who loved every minute of his time at Adrian. But the Islander became homesick at some point during his two-year tenure at the Adrian, Mich., school and knew at some point during the championship run that he’d return home once the season ended.
“I wouldn’t trade my experience at Adrian for the world. It’s something I never thought I’d do and to see the girls grow as people, it really was rewarding,’’ he said. “I had accepted a new job in the middle of February, but kept it to myself because I didn’t want to disturb our run and there’s things I will definitely miss.’’
Carney, in fact, starting his new job as an accounting coordinator for Professional Referee Organization based in midtown Manhattan. His first day was Monday.
“We primarily work with Major League Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League, handling expenses and working numbers,’’ said Carney, who goes to the organization’s headquarters twice a week while working the other three days remotely. “It’s been good so far. I’ve been learning the ropes with some good people who have been showing me the way.’’
In the meantime, he’s still relishing his experience — his championship run — with the ladies at Adrian College.
“How many people can say they’ve been a part of a college National Championship? It was really cool,’’ he said. “I can’t put into words how rewarding it was, but as much as I like Adrian and the experience I had there, there is no place like home and I’m happy where I’m at right now.’’
(Originally published at https://www.silive.com/colleges/2024/04/college-womens-hockey-staten-islander-brian-carney-was-assistant-coach-for-this-championship-team-from-michigan.html)
