Sources: Former Miami, OH coach Rico Blasi to become St Thomas’ first D-I hockey coach

UPDATE: The University of St Thomas made Rico Blasi’s hiring official on Friday

Longtime Miami University, Ohio coach Rico Blasi will be the first coach for the University of St. Thomas hockey team as they begin play in NCAA’s Division-I.

Sources confirmed the hiring to KSTP Sports Thursday night. An official announcement could come from the Tommies’ athletic department as soon as Friday.

Blasi, a native of Weston, Ontario, spent all twenty seasons of his head coaching career at Miami – his alma mater. He guided the Redhawks to ten NCAA Tournament appearances and back to back Frozen Four appearances in 2009 and 2010. His overall record in Oxford was 398–311–76 as he led the program during its transition from its longtime conference home in the CCHA into the newly-formed NCHC in 2013.

He was the youngest coach in Division I when he took the job at Miami 1994 and won the Spencer Penrose Award as college hockey’s national coach of the year in 2006 and was named the CCHA Coach of the Year four times. Blasi’s Miami teams won three CCHA titles.

Blasi initially took over as the Redhawks head coach after serving as an assistant under his college coach George Gwozdecky, who had departed Miami to take over the program at the University of Denver.

Blasi comes to St Thomas after spending a year working as the Associate AD / Men’s & Women’s Hockey at Providence College.

Edit: A previous edition of this story incorrectly listed Blasi’s NCAA Tournament appearances and Frozen Four appearances with Miami