There is nowhere else Mike Harder would rather be than coaching hockey at Colgate University.
To say the 1997 graduate, who is the school’s all-time leading scorer and previously served as an assistant coach for six years, is thrilled to be the Raiders’ 15th men’s hockey head coach would be an understatement.
“It’s really special for me to be back and be a part of it,” said Harder, who was named coach on June 2. “There are two things I love to talk about, hockey and Colgate. Marrying both of those things is very special for me. I’m a Colgate lifer. This is the job I wanted. I never applied for any other job in this field. In a lot of ways, I think it would be disingenuous to try to go to another program because I firmly believe that Colgate is the best place for a player to develop and go to school.”
Harder takes over for Don Vaughan, who announced his retirement after 30 years behind the bench and was the third-longest-tenured coach in Division 1. Vaughan has the most coaching wins in program history with 470.
