Cole Klubek’s headshot at Hilbert College. (Submitted by LRSC)
Lake Region State College has a new women’s hockey coach.
The school announced Tuesday that it has hired Cole Klubek to take over the program. Klubek’s hiring was effective March 16 and he is expected to arrive on campus in early April.
“We are excited to welcome Coach Klubek to our Lake Region State College and Devils Lake community!” said LRSC’s new athletic director, Colden Hutton. “During the interview, his enthusiasm and energy to lead our women’s hockey team was evident to everyone present. The college looks forward to seeing him succeed in all aspects of the program.”
Klubek is currently in Wyoming, where he teaches secondary English. He was previously a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Wyoming.
“I look forward to coming to LRSC and celebrating the achievements of our student-athletes on and off the ice,” Klubek said.
Klubek has an extensive background that’s taken him all over the country and world.
He originally hails from western New York, where he attended Hamburg High School just outside of Buffalo, N.Y. A news release from Hilbert College noted that Klubek began coaching youth in-line hockey in 2008 in Shreveport, La.
Klubek spent approximately 10 years in the United States Air Force as a weather forecaster. In that role, he led teams responsible for aviation weather operations. He was deployed to Iraq in 2010.
While enlisted in the Air Force, Klubek coached the Madd Dogs Mannheim, a professional women’s hockey team in Germany. Klubek also coached youth sports while stationed in various locations.
During his station in Mississippi, he got involved with the Mississippi State University club hockey program, which was about to fold before Klubek recruited some players and revitalized the program, according to Hilbert College’s press release.
Klubek has also coached the 14U Laramie Outlaws in Laramie, Wyo., and was the hockey director at Kendall Ice Arena in Miami, Fla.
In 2018, Klubek enrolled at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he was a two-year punter/kicker on Lincoln’s Division II football team. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in 2020. He also earned 18 graduate credits in English from the University of Wyoming.
In 2021, Hilbert College — an NCAA Division III program near Klubek’s hometown — started a women’s hockey team. Klubek became the first head coach in program history.
Hilbert went 0-18 during Klubek’s inaugural season. In the three seasons since, under different head coaches, Hilbert has combined to win two games.
LRSC’s release noted that Klubek is a USA Hockey Level 4 certified coach.
Klubek becomes the third head coach for the LRSC women’s hockey program. Klubek’s first season will be the program’s fourth since being started in 2023. The Royals went 5-8 this past season, which came to a premature end after the abrupt parting-of-ways with previous head coach Sawyer Diseth. They ended up canceling the rest of their season after a slew of transfers left only five active players on the roster.
Head men’s hockey coach Brady Stein had been serving as interim women’s coach before Klubek’s hiring.
In the program’s first two seasons, LRSC went 7-12 under Logan Kraft and 8-14 under Diseth.
With this position filled, the Royals are still in the process of hiring a new women’s basketball coach after Hutton was hired as AD.
