The RedHawks Rise: Miami's Rebuild Making Progress

An institution of college hockey, Miami University has had its struggles over the past five seasons. However, under new Head Coach Anthony Noreen, the RedHawks look to restore their position at the NCAA level, and they are on the right track this season. The 2025-26 season is Noreen’s second behind the Miami bench. Last year was a kind of reset, he said.

“It starts with culture, and that was what last year was about for us, just establishing a set of standards and making a very clear cut decision on who and what we want to be as a program,” Noreen said. “We wanted to get through last year and make a decision on kind of who we thought could be part of the solution moving forward, and supplement with a group of guys that we thought were highly competitive and high character guys.”

Noreen acknowledged that there was a lot of staffing and roster turnover, but the changes set the foundation for Miami’s future. That future appears to have already started, as the RedHawks began the season 5-0 before taking down St. Cloud State and Arizona. They also battled to the very end against defending NCAA champion Western Michigan. Despite it being early in the process of rebuilding the program, the future remains bright for Miami.

Outside of the culture, there’s a lot that Miami has done to redevelop. Noreen explained how upgrades have been made in all aspects of the program without cutting any corners. This encompasses sports science, recruitment, plus a multifaceted player development system including teambuilding both on and off the ice. The classroom was also heavily emphasized as Noreen mandates all players attend every class and sit in the front rows without a hat on. Showing effort in the community was another key point that Noreen hammered home.

I’ve spoken at length about my belief that Ilia Morozov is the best freshman in college hockey and seeing as Coach Noreen recruited him at the junior level with the Tri-City Storm and the collegiate level at Miami, I got his thoughts on the youngest player in NCAA hockey.

“What separates him is his love for the game and his drive to get better. Anybody who spent any time around Ilia would tell you it's hard to imagine someone who loves the game, and someone who works at his craft more than Ilia does,” Noreen exclaimed. “I truly believe that his floor, meaning his absolute bottom level that his game will reach, is as high as any prospect I've seen. Like he's, he's the guy that you're, you're, you know just about as certain as can be that he's going to make it.”

With Morozov and the rest of the roster bought in, Noreen’s message is very simple. “I wanted to implant an unwavering belief that we are going to get this program back to where I think anyone who knows it and has been around it and has seen it believes that it can be.” 

That belief is paying dividends. Noreen’s RedHawks are off to a red hot start at 8-4 this season, and despite splitting weekends within the NCHC, the intensity and belief in the room are clear to Noreen. “We're not going to veer from that belief, that belief based on results or anything else,” Noreen said. “We are going to be all in full speed, 100 miles an hour, pedal to the metal to make sure we're doing everything possible.”

Noreen explained how guys wanted to be at Miami rather than a more well established program to be part of something special with this rebuild. He elaborated on this, saying how players at Miami could have gone just about anywhere in the country to play college hockey, but they chose Miami. 

After looking around college hockey and how quickly some of the turnarounds have happened, the sky is the limit for Coach Noreen. When asked about his message to the rest of the college hockey world, he shifted the focus to the players, highlighting their effort and intensity in restoring Miami.

“I think our players and our talk is what needs to be that message,” Noreen said. “We've got a group of guys that are bought in right now. They love Miami, they believe in what we're doing.”