USU hockey names former player new head coach

The Utah State University hockey team announced the hiring of Todd Renae as its new coach for the 2019-2020 season.

Renae, 27, of Point Pleasant, New Jersey has been involved with hockey for 23 years and returns to the team he played for from 2016-2018. After spending two seasons playing college
hockey for a small school in North Dakota, a former teammate convinced him to come to Logan to finish playing hockey for the Aggies. “As soon as I came out here, I fell in love with the
area itself; Logan is beautiful,” Renae said. “Then we toured the school. I found they had a really good natural resource program. [So] I studied that here and played hockey.”

It should not take long for the team to acclimate itself to their new coach, as several of the players were teammates of Renae’s while he played at USU. “I’m looking forward to being
in that atmosphere again,” he said.

After a decent run in 2018-2019 — having made the regionals and nationals — the bar is high for the team heading into the next season and Renae is setting his sights even higher. “I’d like to
bring us our first national championship. I definitely think we’ll have the team that can do it,” he said.

Perhaps one of the biggest opportunities for Renae becoming coach of the Aggies is getting another chance to give back to the town that drew him to the school in the first place. “Obviously, the fans are amazing here,” he said. “It’s a special place to play hockey. Gives me goosebumps talking about it; being a part of that community where everybody knows the hockey team.”

Tryouts begin the week prior to the start of the school year, with the season starting in September. No dates have been finalized yet, so keep reading the Statesman and follow the team
on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with all things Aggie hockey.