UMD Athletics

Jason Herter, a former Western Collegiate Hockey Association standout defenseman and first round National Hockey League draft pick, is in his ninth year with the Bulldogs staff, having officially began his assistant coaching duties at UMD on June 27, 2011 before being promoted to associate head coach just prior to the 2018-19 season

Since enlisting his services with the Bulldogs, Herter has been part of two NCAA national champions (2018 and 2019), five NCAA Tournament participants (2012 and 2015-19) and two NCHC Frozen Faceoff winners (2017 and 2019) and, in his inaugural season, saw center Jack Connolly claim the school's fifth Hobey Baker Memorial Award. 

Herter, who in 2015-16 began a term on College Hockey, Inc.'s Board of Directors, oversees the highly-effective UMD penalty kill unit and assists with its power play strategies.
 
A native of Hafford, Saskatchewan, Herter doubled as the head coach and general manager for the United States Hockey League’s Fargo (N.D.) Force eight years ago and guided that franchise to a regular season record of 33-22-5.  He joined the Force in 2008-09 for their inaugural season as an assistant coach (under former University of Nebraska Omaha bench boss Dean Blais) before spending the following year scouting for the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL.
    
Along with Pat Ferschweiler (now an assistant coach at Western Michigan University), Herter started the Russell Stover AAA midget U16 and U18 teams out of Overland Park, Kan., and spent five years with that program and coaching the U16 club before moving on to Fargo.
 
Selected in the first round (8th pick overall) by the Vancouver Canucks in the 1989 NHL entry draft, Herter skillfully manned the University of North Dakota blueline for three seasons (1988-91), racking up 119 points on 30 goals and 89 assists in 118 games. In his farewell year in Grand Forks, N.D., he secured a spot on both the All-WCHA second team and the WCHA All-Academic Team.  A member of the Canadian National Junior Team in 1990, Herter went on to make one appearance in the NHL -- with the New York Islanders in 1995-96 -- as part of an 11-year professional playing career, which included stops in the American Hockey League (Hamilton) and the International Hockey League (Milwaukee, Kalamazoo, Utah, Kansas City and Orlando). His final four seasons of competition were spent in Europe where, in 2001-02, he and one-time Bulldog assistant coaching colleague Derek Plante were teammates with the Munich Barons.
    
Herter earned his Bachelor’s degree in business management from North Dakota in 2005 and two years later received a Master’s degree in entrepreneurship from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He and his wife, Laura, have two children (Jordyn and Jacob) -- and live in Hermantown, Minn.