As a captain of the Gophers women’s hockey team more than a decade ago, Bethany Brausen gathered a bunch of her teammates together during a practice at Ridder Arena, acting instinctively as a leader — and not thinking much of it at the time.

It wasn’t until she was scrolling Twitter later on that she saw something that caught her attention. A reporter had tweeted about that exchange on the ice, suggesting that Brausen might have the makings of a head coach.

That was the first time Brausen let herself think about coaching as a career path. She decided to give it a shot after graduating from college and, naturally, she’s been pursuing that passion ever since.

“It’s interesting because it wasn’t necessarily on my radar,” Brausen said. “Now it feels like it’s an impossible job to get out of.”

Her rise up the ranks reach a new level on Monday afternoon as Brausen was introduced as the head coach of the St. Thomas women’s hockey team. She had been serving as the interim head coach following the abrupt resignation of former head coach Joel Johnson in November.

“The future is incredibly bright,” Brausen said. “We’re doing things the right way. We’re establishing a culture that people are proud of. I know our players are leaning into it and are excited to be a part of it, even in the hard moments.”

That last part is important because success hasn’t come easy for the Tommies. The team has taken its lumps while navigating the challenges that come with making the unprecedented jump to Division III to Division I — which could become official this summer.That said, Brausen has continued to show belief in her players, and St. Thomas (7-17-2, 4-15-1 WCHA) was rewarded last weekend with a two-game sweep of No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth (15-9-2, 10-8-2 WCHA).

Though the series sweep might have come as a surprise on the surface, given the teams’ records, Brausen pushed back on that sentiment, emphasizing that she’s seen a ton of growth from her players that might not be apparent to people on the outside.

She likened it to how an an ice cube can melt in very cold room. She explained that even if the temperature is steadily rising in the very cold room, there usually aren’t any signs of the ice cube melting until it actually starts to happen.

It’s similar to how the Tommies have been putting in the work every day. They have been raising the temperature in the very cold room, so to speak, and the ice cube started to show that’s it’s melting over the weekend.

“We saw that coming,” Brausen said. “We knew we were knocking on the door.”

Asked if the recent series sweep played a role in the decision to promote Brausen for good, Tommies athletics director Phil Esten said, “It certainly didn’t hurt.” He added that he felt like it was an opportunity to acknowledge an inflection point for the program that should be celebrated.

“We knew that this was something that was going to happen,” Esten said in regards to removing the interim label from Brausen’s title. “Just picking the right time was an important component for us.”

How long has Esten known Brausen is the right person for the job?

“I think we’ve known it for a while,” he said. “I could tell that Bethany was going to be a head coach from the moment that I met her, and we’re fortunate to have kept her for the past few years.”

As she laid out her vision for the Tommies, Brausen’s ability to galvanize a group was on display for everybody to see — just like it was on display for that reporter to see during that Ridder Arena practice more than a decade ago.

“I’m as competitive as they come,” Brausen said. “We’re going to continue to push that standard of excellence and continue to raise the bar.”