The men’s basketball preview posted on the Montana State University-Billings athletics Web site has dubbed the 2006-07 season as a rebuilding year for the program. Luckily for Yellowjackets head coach Craig Carse, he knows quite a bit about rebuilding, and not just on the court.

Carse was just a few months shy of his 50th birthday when he suffered a major stroke in May 2005 while sitting in his office with his son and assistant coach, David. Many factors combined to help save the coach’s life. Perhaps most importantly, the hospital was just across the street and his son was able to get him there quickly enough for medical personnel to administer a drug that helps dissolve blood clots.

This summer, the veteran coach spent nearly two weeks riding a bike across the country returning to other stroke victims some of the hope, support and encouragement that led to his own full recovery.

In Carse’s case, the stroke left the right side of his body neurologically paralyzed, meaning his speech was slurred and his vision was blurred. He couldn’t write and had trouble walking.

"I couldn’t put a nut on a bolt or move a penny from the table to the edge of the table," said Carse.

Then in July, Carse received a heart implant called CardioSEAL. The device, which has not yet been approved by the FDA but is available in the United States under a humanitarian-device exemption, is designed to close different types of holes in the heart without open heart surgery.

Extensive therapy over the course of the intervening months allowed Carse to return to the bench in October, just in time for the 2005-06 season, though he relied heavily on his assistant to do the bulk of the work. By the following spring, though, he realized he needed to do something to improve his health. That something turned out to be a bike ride across 15 states. The goal: to ride from Montana to his hometown of Sisterville, West Virginia.

By his own admission, Carse wasn’t a bicycle person, but he wanted to get healthier and needed something that would give him drive and purpose. He also wanted to promote the CardioSEAL device. With the help of Steven Goldberg at the University of Washington Heart Center and Jim Downs of the Spoke Shop in Billings, Carse developed a plan to ride through 14 states in 10 segments of about 80 to 120 miles a day. CardioSEAL-NMT Medical and the University of Washington Heart Center helped sponsor the ride.

Carse began training in May with an eye toward embarking on the tour the following year. On July 19, the one-year anniversary of the implantation of his CardioSEAL and the eve of a major recruiting trip to Las Vegas, he decided to test himself to see if he could ride 100 miles. Using a one-mile loop in his neighborhood, he began at midnight. By 7:59 the next morning, he’d done it. That success spurred him on to accelerate the start of the ride.

Between August 3 and 14, Carse logged 1,051 miles using two 24-speed bikes. The journey that took him through parts of Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia lasted 79 hours and 15 minutes of peddling.

During the trip, Carse stopped at hospitals and health centers visiting and encouraging stroke victims and caregivers. The ride also generated publicity with 37 newspaper, 13 radio and seven television stories related to the event.

Carse said what stood out most about the experience of riding across middle America was the people. "It was a reinforcement of how wonderful this country is and how great the people are."

In addition to accomplishing his goal, Carse believes the experience translated into some important lessons for his team.

"What it did was reinforce the philosophy we try to give these guys. We want them to be good people who realize they are fortunate to be athletes, who are quality students who can become good husbands and good fathers and quality people in society, whatever their career is," he said.

Carse continues to ride his bike daily and remains committed to the cause of supporting stroke victims and their caregivers. "This way, as a coach, I’m getting to give back a little bit. And as a coach you get a little more profile as far as a public figure, so sometimes people will listen," he said. "Hopefully we can help some people. So far I think we have."