LONDON, UK – After winning the club’s first league title in 38 years, outgoing Streatham IHC coach Adam Carr believes recruiting a team around a tight knit locker room has been the key to success this year.
The 35-year old’s team lost just once all season picking up the Cup along the way, before having their season cut short due to the covid-19 outbreak last week.
The EIHA confirmed the National Ice Hockey League South league title win to the joy and relief of everyone connected with the South London club, but with a clean sweep of trophies a real possibility in the play-offs the news signalled a silver lining, rather than a silver haul for Carr and his team mates.
“Of course, it was disappointing not to get the chance to win all four trophies” admits Carr, after the play off weekend in Bracknell and national final in Coventry were cancelled due to concerns around the spread of the virus.
“When you win something, you want that moment on the ice. But when it was officially announced we’d won the league, I felt a massive relief and felt I could go in to my retirement happy winning all the trophies available.”
The rookie coach put together a strong roster last summer, building on the foundations laid by previous incumbent Jeremy Cornish. The signings of former GB junior international Vanya Antonov and controversial (and initially suspended) winger Ryan Watt particularly raised eyebrows across lower league UK hockey, backed by a depth of talent unrivalled in the National Ice Hockey League South.
“For me the most important thing was getting the right people in the locker room” continued the Durham born centre.
“It was important for me to sign players I knew personally, knowing what they are like both in the room and as a person. Those who I didn’t know, my first questions were always, what are their characters like, what are they like in the room? I knew from my time in Milton Keynes you need a tight room to be successful.
“After that I wanted to balance the speed, the toughness and the skill across the squad. From what I wanted in my mind last summer and what I was lucky enough to get, it was pretty much exactly as required.
“Overall I wanted people who wanted to be here for the right reasons and who would buy in to how I wanted to play.”
Even before a puck was dropped, high expectations due to the names on the roster, were tempered by a recent history that has seen Streatham navigate difficult times as a club.
The last time the club, formed in the 1930’s, won a league title was in the 1981-82 season in the old Inter City League. Since that time the club have been in the top league, played at Wembley, gone bankrupt, had the rink shut, then re-opened, said farewell to an 80-year-old rink and opened a new one – with a brief spell playing in Brixton in between.
Not many clubs in British hockey have survived conditions like that and still been able to continue skating. The club owes its life to the ongoing commitment of fans, players and coaching staff, who managed to keep it going and sustain improvements along the way. Of course the emotional toil of years gone by, naturally left the fanbase wary of over confidence.
“There were two things I felt we needed to overcome” admits Carr, when asked about those early expectations.
“Even before we started, there were some people largely outside the club, saying we wouldn’t lose a game all year, and I always knew we would lose at least one and it would be our reaction that would be important.
“The second thing was complacency. A couple of times over the year we’d gone on big winning streaks and I could feel complacency in training. It only happened twice and to be fair I said to the boys I could feel complacency setting in and they switched back on.
“We didn’t take any nights off and it showed in our results. Even in the game we did lose (to Solent Devils) we didn’t deserve to lose it really, as we outshot them 66 to 16 and I think that shows how the boys all bought into it all and saw the bigger picture and what we wanted to achieve.”
The meanest defence in the league marshalled by Captain Michael Farn and backed by Damien King between the pipes, plus big performances by Watt and late arrival Luke Brittle when it mattered paved the way for success.
Several players posted their personal best points tally’s with Ben Paynter and Scott Bailey each bagging over 50 each, while Danny Ingoldsby and Brandon Miles lit the lamp on a regular basis. Carr himself was in fine form ending as third top point scorer in the league, while Antonov was a stand out at all ends of the ice, dominating every game he played before departing in January – he still finished team top scorer regardless.
All of these statistics of course mixed strangely with the fact that the team also played a physically intimidating style of play, sometimes overstepped the mark and picked up the most penalty minutes in the whole league by some margin. An approach that won few friends from bruised and battered opponents on the ice and aggrieved opposition fans around the league, who had to sit and watch their teams bulldozed at times, both physically and on the scoreboard. In contrast, the coach himself picked up one two-minute minor all season.
It was just over three years ago that Carr, fresh from fourteen long and successful years with Milton Keynes Lightning, headed down to South London to sign for Jeremy Cornish at Streatham. Coaching wasn’t on his radar as he pitched up in South London after having his jersey raised to the rafters in MK. A move that came about following a reshuffle of the leagues and MK moving up to the Elite League.
“It was quite difficult at first” says Carr. “I was set in my ways being in MK for so long, but people at the club made me feel so welcome and it reminded me of when I first joined MK from the Isle of Wight, as it was, and is, a club run for the right reasons and everyone was so welcoming.
“I’d been used to same group of boys for a long time and of course the team management and fans and it was hard to get used to. But it was a fresh start at the latter part of my career and a good move for me.”
Two years competing in the revamped NIHL put Streatham firmly as one of the low budget smaller clubs in the league. But this did not stop them competing and pulling off shock results along the way. When the leagues reshuffled again, and Cornish opted to step away for family commitments, Carr as Captain was asked to take over. A role he stepped into with enthusiasm.
“You learn from all your past coaches” he admits, when asked what style he adopted.
“I had three main coaches over my career, Nick Poole, Pete Russell and Jeremy. All were completely different as coaches and completely different as people as you could get, so you try and pick out the best bits from all of them and avoid the bits you don’t like. I was influenced by bits of all three in my coaching style.
“I think one of the main things I enjoyed being a coach was seeing things we do in training, coming to life in a game. When it works, and the guys can see themselves its working, it gave them trust in me as a coach and I found that rewarding and enjoyable.
“Even aside from the coaching I still got a buzz from playing this year. A few times we’ve had the rink full down here and it was amazing.
“Even in warm up in the cup final you could see the buzz and energy around the place. And you could see it in our performances. In the biggest crowd of the year we were 4-0 up in the first period and you could see the boys drawing off it.
“Some of them haven’t played in front of a crowd like that and when crowds are pumped up it makes a massive difference, even to guys like me who’ve been lucky enough to play in games like that across my career.”
With two trophies added to an already impressive personal collection built up in MK, Carr now hands over the reigns to Captain Michael Farn, who will take the club forward when the next season begins. It’s a move Carr believes will be good for his former team mate and fellow North Easterner, and also Streatham as a club.
“I was really pleased he decided to take over” explains Carr.
“We spoke a lot about Farny coaching in our journeys to the rink. He’s younger than me and still got the legs to play as well, and I always said I think he’d be perfect for it.
“He sees the game similar to me, we want it played the same way and he is a perfect fit, he loves it down there as I did, and he’s already putting a great team together and they’ll be all looking forward to a successful season ahead when the puck drops again.”
Streatham now wait, along with the rest of the world, to see if and when things can return to normal and the puck can drop once more in the UK capital.
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