The History of the
Mad Dogs Inline Hockey Club

Inline hockey is only been around Northern Virginia for only since the mid-90’s. With the construction of outdoor inline rinks in Leesburg and Ashburn around the same time period, fairly large house leagues were formed at each facility. The Ashburn rink was built at Trailside Park in Ashburn by Steve Lorusso and became the home of the Ashburn Inline League (AIHI), headed by Rob Eisenberg. The AIHI is the league that the Mad Dogs Inline Hockey Club is now officially attached to.

The Leesburg rink is located at the Douglas Community Center and it became the home of the Loudoun Roller Hockey League (LRHL) and its travel component, the Loudoun Lightning. These were the first roller hockey leagues in Northern Virginia and indeed, predated many of the region’s ice hockey programs. The impact these two leagues had on the development of hockey in this region is often under appreciated. Dozens of the top players produced by the Reston Raiders, Little Caps, Statesmen, and the Ashburn Xtreme travel ice hockey clubs trace their hockey beginnings to one of these outdoor roller hockey leagues.

Steve and Martha Foster founded the LRHL program and for many years it fielded a sporadic inline travel program called the Loudoun Lightning. It was from this program that the roots of the Mad Dogs began. Due to disagreements over how the Lightning program was operated, LRHL board member Jim Calloway and the Meier and Kelly families broke off and started their own travel inline team that was independent of any house league.

The first tournament they entered was a tournament in Fredericksburg – which they won – and at the time they called themselves the “NOVA Mad Dogs”. Jim Callaway says they came up with the Mad Dog name because he was always yelling at his players to “play like Mad Dogs.” Eventually, the NOVA part of the name was dropped.

The team also entered and won the NHL Breakout tournament that year and by the end of 1999 had quickly established itself as the primier inline travel team in the region. While some players were more consistent than others, and some played for only a tournament or two, the list of Mad Dog players in the first two years or so include the following:

Nick Bottorff
Brian Callaway
Jeremiah Cunningham
Andrew Harclerode
Kevin Meier
Reed Tomson
J.D. Zeigenbein
Bryan Blackburn
Drew Kelly
Brian Lynch
Jason Resto
Patrick Summers
Aaron Smith
John West
Matt Fairchild
Michael McGinniss
Justin Reinhart
Matt Deatley
Alex Bird
Patrick Knowlton
Drew Skinner

In 2001, the Loudoun Lightning won the U14 USA Hockey Inline National championships. However, restrictions placed upon the team by the LRHL leadership once again caused some families to break off from the Lightning and by 2002, the core of the national championship team decided to leave the LRHL program and join the Mad Dogs. Led by Gary Pouliot, this group included players such as Corey Toy, Adam Roeder, Stuart Keefe, and Gary’s son, Shayne.

By this time, many of the original Mad Dogs had decided to focus mostly on ice hockey – and Pouliot’s group became the core of the team. Brian Callaway, the youngest member of the original group, remained a team member.

In 2002, the Mad Dogs won the U14 USA Hockey Inline National championships with only six players present: Shayne Pouliot, Corey Toy, Adam Roeder, Brian Calloway, Stuart Keefe, Nick Dettmer and Attila Tassi in the net. The other major national championship enter by this team was the very elite TORHS nationals where they placed 3rd, losing in the semi-finals to the Detroit Mission Vipers 2-1.

Throughout 2002 and 2003, other players played sporadically for the Mad Dogs, including Shiloh Noone, John Keegan, and Nick Pogu and the team participated in major tournaments all over the country, including Triple Crown, AAU, ECHO, and USA Hockey Inline tournaments.

However, by 2003, the Mad Dog club expanded beyond one club. Dave Lumsden formed a U12 Mad Dog team and Tim Murdock formed a U10 Mad Dog team. In 2004, California transplant Steve Baldwin, who had a background of organizing roller hockey in Southern California, decided to formalize the club and became the Mad Dog administrator. He created teams in every age bracket and then, in 2005, created teams
in every birth year. In some age brackets, “B” teams were formed. Tryouts were standardized and Shawn Lucus, formerly of the Loudoun Thunder Inline Club, came aboard as the communications director and established a state-of-the-art web site which has become the frequently visited hockey web site in the region.

The club has won numerous national and regional championships and is well on it way to establishing itself as one of the dominant inline hockey clubs in the East.

Many Mad Dog alumni have gone on to play for top prep schools, colleges, and even Junior A ice hockey teams. Corey Toy, for example, was selected to the US National U17 ice hockey team and now plays Jr. A with the Omaha Lancers; J.D. Zeigenbein plays with the Washington Jr. Nationals; Nick Pogu is with the Virginia Statesmen Junior team; Bryan Blackburn plays for Nowich University; Matt Fairchild was recruited by the U.S. Air Force Academy, a Division 1 hockey program; Jason Resto plays for the Joutenai Colts Junior team in Idaho; Nick Bottorff plays juniors with the San Antonio Diablos; and Jeremiah Cunningham and Shayne Pouliot play for Salisbury and The Gunnery prep schools.

The Mad Dog mission has been to create teams that cater to the best hockey players in the region and that would not only be fun to play for but would be very competitive. The Mad Dog leadership believes that the skills learned in inline hockey transfer to ice hockey in a very beneficial way and thus, much effort has been made to recruit the region’s most talented travel ice hockey players. Moreover, all Mad Dog coaches are experienced ice hockey coaches.

Today, Mad Dog teams have players who hail from the Ashburn Xtreme, Little Caps, Frederick Fury, Prince William Panthers, Reston Raiders, Virginia Statesmen, Bowie Bruins, Jr. Capitols, Jr. Nationals, Montgomery Blue Devils, Hagerstown Bulldogs, Tri-City Eagles, and NOVA ice hockey programs.