Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9501030110
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-6 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The nomadic ways of Craig Herr's youth only set the stage for what was to come during his career as a player in the East Coast Hockey League.
Herr's father was a salesman of the traveling variety. Young Craig spent the carefree days of his youth in exotic locales such as Mound, Minn., and Naperville, Ill.
As a hockey player, Herr has spent time with teams in Dayton, Ohio; Greensboro, N.C.; Huntsville, Ala.; and Tallahassee, Fla.
Craig Herr may have found home in Roanoke.
Since coming to the Roanoke Express in a trade from the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks three weeks ago, Herr, a 24-year-old fourth-year professional, has been hot enough to melt the ice.
Herr, who had but one goal and eight assists for Tallahassee, has eight goals and five assists in his first 12 games with Roanoke through Friday's game at Richmond.
On Dec.23 in Raleigh, N.C., Herr picked up his second hat trick as a pro with three goals in a 5-2 victory. He has been a big factor in Roanoke's recent surge to the top winning percentage in the ECHL.
``I don't think I'm the fastest or most talented guy on the ice,'' said Herr, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound center. ``I'm just a piece to the puzzle.''
What's puzzling is why hadn't Herr didn't score more often for Tallahassee.
Herr accumulated 20 goals and 34 assists last season for a miserable Huntsville team that relocated to Florida during the summer. In Huntsville, he didn't see eye-to-eye with his coach, Terry Christensen, and wasn't sure he wanted to play in Tallahassee.
``I wasn't exactly jumping for joy'' at the prospect of going to Tallahassee, Herr said. Christensen ``called me in the summer, and I asked him, `Am I in the plans there?' I asked him flat-out, `If I'm not in the plans, should I come down there?' He said, `Oh no, you're going to be a big part of the plans.'''
zThose plans quickly fell through. The Tiger Sharks, the Southern Division's last-place team, struggled from the outset. There weren't many opportunities for people to score, especially Herr.
``It didn't really seem like we had a system,'' Herr said. ``I can't make any excuses, though, because it was my fault that I couldn't score. I wasn't getting many breaks.''
Of course, it's tough to score for a team that can't control the puck.
``The way our teams was playing, I was playing a lot of defense,'' Herr said.
Herr said Christensen never railed at him personally, but he felt the pressure was on him to pick up the offense.
Christensen knew Herr could score. That's why he kept him throughout the 1993-94 season, even though the Express tried to trade for him.
Roanoke coach Frank Anzalone, who desperately tried to pry Herr free from Huntsville, discovered him purely by accident before last season.
Shortly after he was named the coach of the expansion Express, Anzalone attended his first ECHL coaches' meeting and discovered a pile of game videotapes the league office was returning. They were protest tapes that had been sent to commissioner Pat Kelly during the previous season by clubs seeking to have fines and suspensions reduced.
Most of the clubs left those tapes behind at the coaches' meeting, where Anzalone gathered them like an anxious child taking an armful of presents from under the Christmas tree.
He saw something he liked in that kid from Greensboro. He couldn't get him, though. Herr was on his way to Huntsville.
``When I saw Craig Herr on the tape, I thought this was a kid who could do well in the system we played,'' Anzalone said. ``He has played well in every game he's been here. I don't know where we'd be without him. I think coming to a new team and a new system has re-energized him.''
Before joining Tallahassee, Herr always had been able to score. He holds 13 scoring records at St.John's, an NCAA Division III school in Minnesota. After college, he attended a tryout camp with the NHL's Minnesota North Stars, who sent him to a minor-league team in Dayton, Ohio.
He wound up playing with a minor-league team in Detroit, signed with Greensboro for the 1992-93 season and was traded to Huntsville last season.
He's used to the traveling. His family moved often because of his father's job, so Herr became accustomed to the idea of not staying in one place very long.
He was born in Louisville, then spent his childhood in Minnesota, Illinois and Kansas. He moved to Kansas City, Mo., when he was in the seventh grade and spent the rest of his school years there. He also played against current Express teammate Jeff Jestadt in local hockey leagues in the Kansas City area.
``Moving around has never really bothered me,'' Herr said. ``When you're traded, sometimes it's good to move. I think this time it's going to work out.''
by CNB