Brandon Koontz is in his seventh year as the manager of St. Olaf Ice Arena in 2024-25 after being hired as the college's first ice arena manager on Oct. 1, 2018. He also oversees event management for the athletic department, a role he began in the spring of 2021.
Koontz oversees all operations in St. Olaf's on-campus rink, which opened in January 2019. Along with overseeing a staff of part-time seasonal and student employees, Koontz's responsibilities include facility administration, facility operation and appearance, and consumer satisfaction.
Prior to coming to St. Olaf, Koontz worked as the ice operations manager at the National Sports Center (NSC) and Schwan's Super Rink, the largest ice center in the world, located in Blaine. He also has a background in recreational programming with the NSC as well as mechanical maintenance.
At the NSC, Koontz managed a staff of over 30 employees to maintain ice, cleanliness and repairs, handled controls of HVAC, dehumidification and ice plant, and controlled a budget of over $1 million. He also founded new programs for maintenance, preventative maintenance and energy savings.
Prior to his role as ice operations manager, Koontz served as the ice sports programmer and assistant campus operations manager at the NSC. As ice sports programmer, he directed the MN Wild Adult League of over 150 teams as well as five other adult tournaments, while also handling marketing and social media and 10 event budgets totaling $1.5 million.
Koontz has been a USA Hockey Adult Council Board member and has been an adult director for MN Hockey since June 2017. He is also a member of the Minnesota Ice Arena Manager's Association (MIAMA) and the U.S. Ice Rinks Association.
A hockey official since 2011, Koontz has worked youth, high school, junior hockey and American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) games. He has also coached girls high school hockey, boys 16U hockey and all levels of youth hockey for the past 12 years and has completed all modules of USA Hockey Coaching from youth to high school.
Koontz and his wife, Melissa, reside in Savage with their children, Ashley, Laney, Brady, and Ethan.
