Augustana @ UND (Exhibition) October 5

[iramurphy]

Augustana hockey is no cream puff and an amazing story. Their AD is Josh Morton who is a former UND football player. In a short period of time, he established key corporate relationships and obtained funding for a new hockey arena for a team that didn’t yet exist. He then convinced an assistant coach who had been the top recruiter for Motzko’s teams at St. Cloud and Minnesota to become their head coach.

He came from Detroit Lakes where he was an outstanding RB and along with Reed Manke led an overachieving, undersized team, to a state championship in FB. He was an outstanding, albeit undersized defenseman in hockey. His Dad who played at Providence was his HS coach. Garret was as tough of a HS defenseman as I have watched. Because of his lack of size, he didn’t receive D-1 offers until after he played an extra yr of juniors when St. Cloud State signed him. 

By his Soph yr he was a team Captain and by the end of his career he was All-WCHA and an academic All-American. Post college he played professional hockey in Europe before joining Motzko’s staff at St. Cloud. 

He successfully recruited a number of “lunch pail” guys to come to Augie to start their program.  They practiced together at rinks in town and lifted and conditioned at existing facilities on campus. Within just a couple of years he has put together a team that can hold their own against the top teams in college hockey. 
 

Raboin is arguably the hottest young new  coach in college hockey. He is married to his HS girlfriend who is a UND grad. I would definitely have him on my list of who to consider as our next head coach the next time the position opens up (if another major program doesn’t get him first).  I would also try to hire Josh Morton the next time the AD job opens up. It will be interesting to watch how Augie does this year. 
 

[tnt]

24 minutes ago, iramurphy said:

Augustana hockey is no cream puff and an amazing story. Their AD is Josh Morton who is a former UND football player. In a short period of time, he established key corporate relationships and obtained funding for a new hockey arena for a team that didn’t yet exist. He then convinced an assistant coach who had been the top recruiter for Motzko’s teams at St. Cloud and Minnesota to become their head coach.

He came from Detroit Lakes where he was an outstanding RB and along with Reed Manke led an overachieving, undersized team, to a state championship in FB. He was an outstanding, albeit undersized defenseman in hockey. His Dad who played at Providence was his HS coach. Garret was as tough of a HS defenseman as I have watched. Because of his lack of size, he didn’t receive D-1 offers until after he played an extra yr of juniors when St. Cloud State signed him. 

By his Soph yr he was a team Captain and by the end of his career he was All-WCHA and an academic All-American. Post college he played professional hockey in Europe before joining Motzko’s staff at St. Cloud. 

He successfully recruited a number of “lunch pail” guys to come to Augie to start their program.  They practiced together at rinks in town and lifted and conditioned at existing facilities on campus. Within just a couple of years he has put together a team that can hold their own against the top teams in college hockey. 
 

Raboin is arguably the hottest young new  coach in college hockey. He is married to his HS girlfriend who is a UND grad. I would definitely have him on my list of who to consider as our next head coach the next time the position opens up (if another major program doesn’t get him first).  I would also try to hire Josh Morton the next time the AD job opens up. It will be interesting to watch how Augie does this year. 
 

   If UND struggles this year and doesn’t even make the tournament, there needs to be serious discussion if the program/programs are going in the right direction.  At that point both of the above names should warrant serious consideration.  
   Hopefully the programs move forward and have a good year, but if not we can’t just continue stuck in the mud spinning our wheels when there are talented people out there who are moving other programs forward.