From Chicago To Minnesota
Noah Raushenberger Plays Hockey For St. Thomas
A photo of Raushenberger in the middle of one of his games.
Walking into the XL Energy Center, thundering chants battered one’s eardrums. The echo coming from the stands shook the entire stadium. The glare set the stage for what would be a historic game in the class 2A Minnesota Hockey League. If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were walking into the seventh game in a Blackhawks playoff series. In actuality, this was a high school game, the culmination of a hard fought season by a bunch of teenagers.
Senior Noah Rauschenberger began considering where he wanted to continue his hockey career at the end of the 2018-2019 season. After many visits and discussions with his family and his sports agent Chuck Linkenheld, Rauschenberger decided to take his talents as a defender to Saint Thomas Academy, an all-boys military catholic school in Mendota Heights, Minnesota. “When I went to visit, the school was nice but I wasn’t sold,” Rauschenberger said. “The fact that it was all boys deterred me a bit, but the hockey program sold itself. The facilities were incredible, the coaches were nice, and I knew I would be joining a winning culture.”
Compared to past teams he had played on, where the team was either a lot of returning players including himself or an entirely new team, the team for the Cadets had been playing together all their lives. “Joining the new school and the new team definitely took some adjusting, but it was nice to already have a secured spot on the hockey team,” Rauschenberger said, “So I got to know the hockey players and became friends with them prior to the season.”
Not only did Rauschenberger have to adjust to a new school and team, but also living in a new state. He moved up on August 12, 2019, two weeks prior to the start of school. “It really didn’t feel like home for a solid one or two months,” Rauschenberger said. Once Rauschenberger got into a routine, he began to feel more settled.
Some things took getting used to. Having never attended a military school or a Catholic school did not make the transition easier, yet Rauschenberger caught on quickly. “Wearing a uniform to school was a big adjustment, but the hardest part was being expected to know all the rules of the school,” Rauschenberger said. “Saint Thomas is vastly different from Parker.”
During the offseason, their team worked out with a trainer, but these sessions were not organized by the school. These workouts were meant to keep the team in shape and help build communication and community even during the summer months.
Prior to the 2019-2020 season, the two head coaches of the Cadets Hockey team retired. They had coached 16 years, winning five state championships. With an entirely new Coaching staff, the new season would set the tone for years to come. The expectation was to win the Section Tournament and advance to the State Tournament. “It wasn’t just an expectation set by others,” Rauschenberger said. “We set it as a goal for ourselves.”
Rauschenberger had already secured his spot on the team prior to transferring, however a large portion of the team still needed to be filled. Tryouts began in mid- November and lasted five days. After day one, the list of possible players was cut from 175 to around 40. From there the team played scrimmages against other schools over the weekend, trying out different rosters, and the roster was finalized on the Monday following.
Starting the season there was a lot of routine and structure, which Rauschenberger liked. He said, “Even though my team was much more structured than I was used to, I had much more free time compared to past years where I had to drive one or two hours to practice. My new team’s facility was across the street from our school, so I ended up having more free time.”
Rauschenberger knew the intensity would be different playing for a division 2A Hockey team in Minnesota, often compared to football in Texas. It was unlike any crowd he had played in front of before, with hundreds of cheering fans packing into the arena to watch games. Rauschenberger said, “One of our greatest accomplishments was going on a 16-1 streak during the regular season.”
After finishing the regular season with a record of 19-8-2, the Cadets advanced to their section tournament. After winning three games to advance to the state tournament, the Cadets were slated to play Andover, the number one seed in the state of Minnesota, at the XL Energy Center. In an intense and historic game, including a first period goal from Rauschenberger, the Cadets beat Andover 3-2 for the first quarterfinal upset of a one seed since 2012. Unfortunately, the Cadets lost the semifinal game to Hill Murray 3-2 in an overtime battle the next day, and finished fourth in state. “It was disappointing, but we gave it our all and came out of the tournament with a historic game win against Andover,” Rauschenberger said. “It was sad, but the season was a success overall and we managed to turn around some problems we had in the beginning of the season and ended up going very far in the tournament.”
As for his plans for next year, Rauschenberger is hoping to be drafted in either the United States Hockey League (USHL) draft in early May, or the North American Hockey League draft in early June. After two years of playing in one of these junior leagues, Rauschenberger hopes to play for a Division 1 college.
