Tanner Hunt spent the past season and a half with the St. Cloud (Minn.) Norsemen after playing his high school career at Northstar Christian Academy in Alexandria, Minn.
St. Cloud Norsemen forward Hunt transfers from NAHL to ACHA to join DI Flames mid-season
1/5/2026 3:12:00 PM | Men's D1 Hockey
Share:
Tanner Hunt’s connections with FCA Hockey, when it was based in Minnesota and helped operate Northstar Christian Academy, led him to Liberty.
Playing his sophomore through senior seasons at Northstar Christian Academy in Alexandria, Minn., gave Tanner Hunt a glimpse of a different brand of hockey, surrounded by a team of like-minded believers abiding by Christian precepts. Now, in the middle of his third season with the NAHL's St. Cloud (Minn.) Norsemen, Hunt has opted to launch his collegiate hockey career on Liberty University's ACHA Division I men's hockey team.
Hunt takes the ice for the NAHL Norsemen, for whom he scored 30 points in 71 games.
"My journey with Christ was so much easier at Northstar (than in St. Cloud)," said Hunt, 20, a 5-foot, 10-inch, 176-pound forward from Long Beach, N.Y., who visited Liberty over a weekend in early December with his parents and twin brother. "Realizing there is a place like that at Liberty is awesome. (Liberty Club Sports Recruitment Coordinator) Brett (Berthiaume) watched me play at the showcase in Minnesota, and I talked to (Assistant Coach) Ben Hughes when I was a senior, and I decided I wanted to go to college, and that I wanted to go to Liberty."
At first, he was hesitant to leave his Norsemen teammates midseason, and he turned down the offer by Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy.
"(Handy) called me back on a Sunday morning, and I called my dad and said, 'God is calling me to Liberty, and I think I've got to take this opportunity,'" Hunt said. "I prayed about it with my dad, and I am now confident it's the right decision. We had a lot of returners (on the Norsemen), and I am close with a lot of the guys, so it is hard, but they understood. Doing the paperwork (last week), I know it's for real, and it's awesome. I am super excited to be a Flame."
Handy is glad he could change his mind and looks forward to working him into Liberty's front line combinations when the Flames open spring semester competition against Niagara University on Jan. 23-24 at the LaHaye Ice Center.
"Tanner is a competitor, and he is a great fit for our team on and off the ice," Handy said. "He is a warrior. He will be a solid addition to our forward group."
Hunt expects to develop a stronger relationship with God while at Liberty and to form fast but lasting friendships with his new teammates.
"In college, the guys are a lot closer than they are in Junior hockey," he said. "I am excited to grow in my walk with the Lord, too. It's crazy that I get to play for so much more than a hockey team, that I get to play for the Lord and to glorify Him. Iron sharpens iron, and I'm glad I'll be getting to pray with my teammates before and after practices and games."
He only recently was separated from his twin brother, Bronson, who he played with on the same teams growing up, throughout high school, and with the Norsemen before Bronson was sidelined by a shoulder injury and joined the Trail Smoke Eaters in the BCHL.
"We played together our whole lives until a few weeks ago, when he started playing up in British Columbia," Tanner Hunt said.
He will be joined by another former Northstar teammate, Shane Burns, a defenseman from San Clemente, Calif., who is also transferring into Liberty after playing last season with the Brooks Bandits in the British Columbia Hockey League and beginning a planned gap year this season.
"Shane is probably one of my best friends, so it will be super fun to be on the same team with him again, and super cool to go into Liberty together," Hunt said, noting they will be sharing an off-campus apartment. "After I committed, I told him about it. He didn't really want to go at first because he is in the middle of work, but he decided this was an awesome opportunity that he couldn't pass up."
Hunt and Burns joined the Flames on their third trip to Finland over the past seven seasons on Sunday after arriving in Lynchburg, Va., from California and New York, respectively, on Friday and Saturday.
"Everything is happening so fast, and it's crazy, but it is super cool," Hunt said. "I've never been to Europe before, and I am absolutely excited about that, especially to go on my first mission trip. It will be super fun to go to Finland, to do what God has called us to do — to go and spread the Gospel while helping people."
After completing his core classes at Liberty this spring and his private pilot's license training that he started in Minnesota next summer in New York, Hunt plans to launch his commercial/corporate aviation studies through the School of Aeronautics in the fall.
"I plan to use that in whatever way God leads me to use it," Hunt said, be it flying for a private company or for FedEx or other business.
As a player, Hunt is a scoring threat and catalyst on the ice. He scored 43 goals and distributed 66 assists in 197 games with Northstar's 16- and 18-and-under teams from 2020-23 before adding 27 goals and 30 assists in 55 games with the Central Massachusetts 18-under Penguins and Cushing Academy prep team in 2023-24 and totaling 8 goals and 22 assists in 71 games with the Norsemen over the past season and a half.
Though not a captain, Hunt showed leadership capabilities in St. Cloud, Minn.
"I'm a tenacious forward who brings speed and physicality along with a little skill," said Hunt, who grew up surfing in Long Beach, his biggest hobby outside of hockey, after his dad grew up playing pond hockey and rugby in Springfield, Mass. "I'm a 200-foot player, and I'm pretty gritty. I have good hands and good vision, and I play with a lot of edge. I don't know the (Flames') systems yet, but I know they play a fast and hard game, and how I play will mesh right in with how Kirk (Handy) runs his team. I'm good down low below the dots and in tight, and I hope to score goals and obviously just do my best to help win games."
Hunt said though he wasn't one of the three captains for the Norsemen, he still showed leadership qualities on and off the ice.
Working with FCA Hockey Director Rick Randazzo, Representative and Lead On-Ice Instructor Tim Jackman, and Strength Coach Josh Freitas, Hunt grew tremendously as a player and a young Christian.
"Northstar was life-changing," he said. "I learned so many things there. I studied the Bible a lot and listened to a lot of people speak. We had chapel at 6 a.m. every day, so I was getting refreshed by the Word. The impact that Rick Randazzo and Tim Jackman had on my life was unreal. (Jackman) coached me all three years I was at Northstar, and he was the biggest mentor in my life. He is an unbelievable person, and he taught me everything I know. He shared so much wisdom and hockey knowledge."
While in St. Cloud, Hunt continued to participate in livestreamed FCA Hockey calls, and heard testimonies from former FCA Hockey representative and Flames DI men's hockey player Jackson Vercellono.
"Those calls definitely had an impact on my faith walk," he said.
At Liberty, Hunt plans to stay connected with FCA Hockey, which moved its headquarters to Lynchburg in September 2024.
