Miami University head hockey coach Chris Bergeron rounded out his coaching staff with the addition of Eric Rud as associate head coach prior to the 2019-20 season.
Rud comes to Oxford after spending the past five seasons as the head coach of St. Cloud State’s women’s hockey program. He previously served as an assistant coach at both the NCAA men’s and USHL levels of the sport. Rud works with the RedHawks’ defense, a unit that saw several underclassmen log heavy minutes on the blue line in his first campaign in Oxford.
"We want to welcome Eric, Amy, Sam, Gabbie and Max to the Miami Hockey family,” Bergeron said. “The more people I spoke to about Eric throughout this process, it became evident that he was the perfect fit for our staff. He is a veteran coach who has both head and assistant coaching experience. He has a track record of being a tireless recruiter of great hockey players and even better people. We are extremely excited to have him as part of our program."
Rud guided the Huskies to 48 victories during his five seasons at the helm of a program that won only 15 times the four seasons prior to his arrival. He joined the staff at SCSU in 2014-15. In his first season with the Huskies, SCSU posted an 8-28-1, 5-22-1 WCHA record. In 2015-16, the Huskies continued to move up under Rud's leadership with a 13-18-4, 9-15-4 WCHA record. This marked the most wins in a season for the Huskies since 2009-10.
A former assistant coach with the St. Cloud State University men's hockey team from 2005 to 2010, Rud served as an assistant men's hockey coach at Colorado College from 2011 to 2014. Between his time at St. Cloud State and Colorado College, Rud worked for one season as the head coach and general manager of the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers in 2010-11.
During Rud’s stint as an assistant for SCSU’s men’s team, Rud recruited several Husky standouts including notables Ryan Lasch (Hobey Baker Award top 10 finalist), Andreas Nodl, Garrett Roe, Drew LeBlanc (Hobey Baker Award winner), Nick Jensen and Nic Dowd (Hobey Baker Award top 3 finalist). In Rud's time at St. Cloud State, the Huskies advanced to the NCAA tournament three times and also advanced to the championship game of the NCAA West Regional in 2010.
A graduate of Colorado College, Rud was a two-time team captain and two-time WCHA Defensive Player of the Year for the Tigers during his collegiate playing career. He went on to play professional hockey from 1997 to 2002, and served as a player assistant coach with the Florida Everblades in 1999-2000 and with the Idaho Steelheads from 2000 to 2002. He joined the coaching ranks as an assistant with the USHL's Cedar Rapids Roughriders from 2002 to 2004 and was an assistant coach at Colorado College in 2004-05.
He has worked extensively with the USA Hockey program throughout his career and served as the head coach of the 2008 USA U-17 boys team in the Slovakia Four Nations Cup and the 2009 USA U-18 boys team at the Czech Republic Ivan Hlinka Cup.
A native of Inver Grove Heights, Minn., Rud prepped at Simley High School.
