Hockey is a sport Reagan Rust has been passionate about for as long as she can remember. For this Southaven, Mississippi native, her earliest memory with the game comes from attending several semi-professional games with her aunt. An early introduction though that quickly transformed into a deep interest for playing the sport at the highest level. Throughout her time in elementary school and high school, Reagan traveled around the country to strengthen her skills on the ice and knowledge of the game. She was on a mission. After graduating from high school, Reagan joined the Rochester Institute of Technology's women's ice hockey program and achieved her goal of playing at the Division I level. This was just the beginning. After two seasons at RIT, Reagan then transferred to Boston University (BU) and continued to work towards her dreams of playing ice hockey professionally. Sure enough, she did just that.
From playing in Hungary and Sweden to playing in the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) to playing in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), Reagan played in several countries throughout her professional career before deciding to retire in 2023. For Reagan, this was an opportunity for a new chapter in her life. A chance to explore avenues beyond the ice that allowed her to mentor the next generation of athletes and give back, while remaining close to the game. In October of 2023, Reagan joined the BU women's ice hockey program as an assistant coach and hasn't looked back since!
Take us back to your journey early on! You played two seasons at the Rochester Institute of Technology before transferring to Boston University. Could you share more with us about your time in college playing ice hockey?
Yeah! College athletics is unlike any other. It's super professional because you are treated like a pro athlete, but you're also doing school full-time. For me, I was one of those kids that was taking all my classes, I was training probably 20 hours a week plus games, and spent a lot of time at the rink. Then, I had three-part time jobs. So my experience is definitely a little bit different than most people’s, but I somehow was able to put it all together while I was at RIT and it worked out. My sophomore year, I just was looking for more out of hockey and out of academics. I ended up getting into the transfer portal. Well, at that time, there was no transfer portal so I was emailing other coaches and ended up getting lucky with a spot at Boston University. It's truly a professional experience and I loved everything about it. Being a college athlete is probably one of the hardest things I've ever done though (*laughs*).
What were some key takeaways or lessons that you learned during your time as a student-athlete that you carried with you as you began your professional career?
Time management is key. I always say that there's nothing harder than managing your time as a student-athlete because you just have so many things jam-packed into one day. I think being able to carry that with me into my professional experience playing pro hockey—and then having my jobs and working full-time—all those things really helped me. Also, just the networking piece of it. Moving around so much, I got to meet tons of people from all different backgrounds and from tons of different countries. Being able to not only network, but also make very good connections along the way has been extremely impactful.
After you graduated, you took that next step in your career and began playing professionally. You played in Hungary, Sweden, as well as in the PWHPA and PHF here. What was that experience playing professionally like for you?
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