Illinois State Redbirds welcome Rich Young to the family! Anthony, a 5’11” 185 lb forward hails from Elmwood Park, IL. He played the last 3 seasons with the Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings in the USPHL Premier division.  Young produced 24 points last season with 9 goals and 15 assists in 44 games played.

Young chose Illinois State University for the balance of high quality education and top notch hockey program in Illinois. He will major in Business at Illinois State.

The most influential coach Young has had was Marty Quarters.  You states, “He was always patient with my growth and really taught me how to be the best version of myself on and off the ice.”

Rich has a younger sibling, Ellie, who plays softball! His mother has been his biggest supporter throughout his hockey career. “She’s always driven me to practices and all my games throughout the youth career and she has still been driving around with me to visit colleges!”  

Some of Young’s fondest hockey memories are the locker room banter between the boys before and after practice. The biggest goal he has had was icing the game for the Riverkings to move onto the second round in the playoffs!

“We’ve been in contact with Rich for a couple of seasons now. He’s the type of guy that you challenge and he says, ‘No problem, Coach’. Then he goes out and works for it. He’s a player dedicated to the game and improving himself on and off the ice. I’m excited to bring another player with his type of character into the organization.” -D1 Head Coach Bobby DiNardi.

Coach Marty Quarters had this to say about Rich, “He is a stand up guy. He works his tail off every day. His dedication to improving himself is equaled by his character off the ice to improve the lives of people around him. He’s been great on the ice and in the community for our organization. We’re proud to see him committing to a top program at Illinois State.”

The Redbirds are building to make a run at their first ACHA D1 conference title in 2019-2020, as they join the Midwest College Hockey conference. It is the first year of the conference with a handful of new teams to ACHA D1. For more information on the conference, click here.

If you are interested in playing for Illinois State, we encourage you to fill out our Recruit form on our website. The Redbirds and prospects will take the ice this weekend for Prospect Camp #4! We've expanded the ice times to accommodate our 4th sold out weekend.