New St. Thomas women’s hockey coach Bethany Brausen has Roseville and Gophers roots

St. Thomas athletic director Phil Esten knew Bethany Brausen’s destiny when he met her long ago.

“I knew since that day that she’d be a head coach,” Esten said Monday, one day after hiring her permanently to coach his university’s women’s hockey team.

“You could tell by the way she held herself, by her curiosity, by her commitment to just being excellent,” he added. “I didn’t know it’d be UST at the time. I’m so thankful that we’re here today celebrating the way that we’re celebrating.”

St. Thomas on Sunday made Brausen — a former Gophers captain and two-time NCAA champion — its next head coach, removing the “interim” tag on the title she’d held since November. Her promotion followed the sudden resignation of Joel Johnson, who had led the program since its transition to Division I play in 2021.

Brausen remembers the day she knew she’d coach. It came during a practice break at the 2013 NCAA women’s hockey final four won by the Gophers at their own Ridder Arena.

A reporter attending the practice tweeted about how she took command of the team, pulling them together.

“They made some comment about me being a coach one day,” Brausen said. “I think that was the first time I thought coaching could actually be a profession, something to pursue.”

Her promotion came after St. Thomas — 2-9-1 under Brausen and 7-17-2 overall — swept fourth-ranked Minnesota Duluth in WCHA play in St. Paul. It was their first sweep of a top-five program in their D-I era.

“Well, it certainly didn’t hurt,” Esten said about the timing of Monday’s announcement and last weekend’s sweep. “We knew this was something that was going to happen. We’ve known it for a while. It was just picking the right time.

“Bethany and I had several conversations the last couple of months and they just continued to reinforce to me that this is the right decision.”

Brausen was a Gophers assistant coach soon after her collegiate playing career ended and joined St. Thomas as an assistant in its first D-I season in 2021. She was the team’s acting head coach when Johnson coached the U.S. women’s team at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

She assumed the interim head coaching position on Nov. 19 after Johnson resigned following an unspecified incident four days earlier.

She said she has played for too many coaches who have influenced her to mention. She did mention the influence of legendary Winny Brodt, the former Gopher who grew up in Roseville just down the way from Brausen’s Little Canada home.

“She pretty much raised me as a player,” Brausen said.

She also mentioned longtime Gophers coach Brad Frost, who hired her as an assistant coach, as well.

“I certainly wouldn’t be at St. Thomas today without that opportunity in the first place,” Brausen said.

St. Thomas men’s hockey coach Rico Blasi has watched her work for the last 3½ years and calls her “intense” and “super smart.”

Esten doesn’t remember the specifics about the day he met Brausen, but he knows he saw the future that day.