This season, the ISU hockey team will welcome its new assistant coach, Kyle McDonald. McDonald comes in replacing former assistant coach Brian Wierson, who spent the past four years with Cyclone hockey.

More than 50 coaches from around North America and Europe applied for the position, but McDonald immediately established himself as the ideal candidate because of his coaching experience and success in Canada.

Previously, McDonald served as the Bantam coordinator and head coach at the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, Canada.

“He’s bringing great coaching experience and knowledge to our program,” said coach Al Murdoch. “I would have to say that we’re bringing in a coach with winning traditions, and that’s what we’re after.”

McDonald plans on spending the next two years getting used to things as a coach in the United States.

“I’m here to learn and to get an idea of the collegiate system in the USA,” McDonald said. “Dr. Murdoch is one of the top guys to learn that from.”

Looking even further down the road, McDonald said that he wants to be a head coach somewhere in four or five years.

“We’ve had a circle of coaches that have filled this position in the past, and all have gone on to bigger and better things, all associated with hockey,” Murdoch said.

McDonald comes to Iowa State with a solid academic past and future ahead of him. He studied sports management from 2002 to 2004 at Selkirk College in Castlegar, got a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Lethbridge in 2007 and is currently working on a Master of Science in sports psychology at the University of Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

After that he will start working on a doctorate at Iowa State.

“You can’t be successful at Iowa State unless you’re good with academics, too,” Murdoch said.

McDonald is looking forward to the opportunity of coaching an older group of players at Iowa State.

“The group of players are a little more mature than what I’ve had in the past whether that be junior or Bantam,” McDonald said. “I still think the philosophy is the same where us coaches are here to help them develop and then maybe in four or five years they can move on into their chosen field of endeavor or maybe professional hockey.”