Miami’s hockey program begins anew as summer comes to a close

In the ever-evolving college sports landscape, it’s easy to find programs at the peak of the mountain while others are in the depths of the valley.

At the end of the last college hockey season, one might aptly define Miami University’s program as within the latter.

A 7-26-3 record, including a National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) record of 1-21-2, left those with a vested interest in the RedHawks without much hope.

While the team on the ice looked stronger in certain areas and showed spurts of energy in big games, the win total didn’t reflect the message, and athletic director David Sayler knew that.

After much deliberation about the program's future, Miami Athletics parted ways with head coach Chris Bergeron in favor of another voice, Anthony Noreen, former head coach of the United States Hockey League’s (USHL) Tri-City Storm.

Since being introduced to Oxford, Noreen has been hard at work introducing himself to players, finalizing his coaching staff and creating a roster to win games and help rebuild the program through culture, identity and competitiveness.

Noreen’s procedure for finalizing his list of players who fit the mold followed a simple three-step plan. He started with the players who were already in the program and recruited to the school under the previous staff.

The emergence of the transfer portal gives athletes a way out if they don’t want to be at a school anymore. There are a myriad of reasons why this would be the case, one of which is a coaching change.

However, Noreen did not have any issues with returning players.

“I give a lot of credit to the university and the previous staff because every single kid that was part of this program after I got the job came and met with me and said, ‘I want to stay,’” Noreen said. “I think from the outside, it might look like all is bad just based on the record, but there’s a lot of good here.”

One returning player is junior forward John Waldron, who registered a career-best 22 points in 36 games last season. Waldron described his feeling for the upcoming season with the new coaching staff as one that resonates with much of the RedHawks fandom.

“I think there’s a lot of change, and I’m excited to see the new drills, the new systems, the way we practice, the way we approach development and the way everyone is going to be to each other,” Waldron said. “I’m just amped up and ready to go. It feels like I could play a game tomorrow.”

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter

After sorting through the current roster, Noreen utilized the transfer portal to bring in players who could be impactful from the jump, including fifth-years Christophe Fillion and Colby Ambrosio.

Fillion is a transfer from Quinnipiac University who was a key cog in the team's 2022-23 national championship run.

Ambrosio is moving to Miami from Boston College, arguably the best team in college hockey last season and national championship runner-ups to NCHC’s own Denver University Pioneers.

Ambrosio played two seasons under Noreen and new Miami assistant coach Troy Thibodeau with the Tri-City Storm in 2018-19 and 2019-20. To recruit Ambrosio, Noreen detailed his goals for the RedHawks and how Ambrosio would fit in the puzzle.

“Once our season came to an end at Boston College, I got a call from coach Noreen and coach Thibodeau, with whom I’ve been really close for a while now,” Ambrosio said. “They called me and said, ‘This is what we’re doing. This is our plan. We want you to be a part of it. We think we could have a really good team this year.”’

Noreen’s recruiting style in the offseason prioritized finding players who can make a significant impact on the program outside the rink.

“I think they’ve all got traits about them, and the way they go about things, where they’re going to push to make each other better,” Noreen said. “[Our recruiting] couldn’t just be, ‘Go out and recruit the best players.’ We needed the right players, and to me, the right players right now are guys who have something about them that makes people around them better on and off the ice.”

The third and final step of Noreen’s plan was to find players who were uncommitted and recruit them like he did the players who transferred, even if they might not make an impact in year one.

None of these steps could have been executed without, as Noreen says, “the right people in the right seats.”

Thibodeau and David Nies, the new recruiting coordinator, joined Noreen in Oxford after serving as assistant coaches with him in Tri-City. Thibodeau assisted him from 2018-2021 before becoming an assistant coach at Dartmouth College, and Nies assisted him from 2022-2024.

“They’re guys that I worked with at different points in my career,” Noreen said. “They’ve gone on and done their own thing and proven themselves in the hockey world, and having the chance to see it come full circle and work with those guys again has been a dream come true. If I was going to do [this job], I couldn’t be happier to do it with two guys like that.”

Learning the ropes as new coaches in a new location can be a challenge, but with the help of Zack Cisek and Adam Phillips (who took the head coaching job at Adrian College in August), both assistant coaches from the previous Miami staff, it was easy for Noreen and Thibodeau to become acclimated.

“[Zack and Adam] love it here; They wanted to be here,” Noreen said. “They’ve been tremendous assets, especially for me and Troy and David. They’ve been unbelievable for us. I think we’ve developed a really good cohesion amongst us so far.”

There’s still a lot of work to be done, but it’s a fresh start for everyone in the program. “People will get what they earn” is how Noreen described the outlook for the team. Whether the player in question has won a national championship or is an underclassman looking to play more minutes, the new direction of the program revolves around skill and competitiveness, but, most importantly, integrity and being a great teammate.

The winds are changing within the Miami hockey program, and the start of fall marks the start of a new era.

@jjmid04

middleje@miamioh.edu