Noah Mannausau describes his start to the 2025-26 hockey season as a ‘rollercoaster’.

The 19-year-old was coming off of a successful senior season of high school hockey in his hometown of Bemidji, Minnesota, and wasn’t quite sure where his future in junior hockey would take him. He had originally signed a tender to play in the NAHL with the Wisconsin Windigo organization but things changed when he was drafted to the USHL by the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in May of 2025.

Mannausau packed up his things and drove out to Iowa to try to make the best impact he could on the Cedar Rapids coaching staff. Despite a valiant effort, the 6-foot skater wound up getting cut by the RoughRiders, so he ended up heading east to join a Windigo squad that had already shown an eager interest in his game in the past. Mannausau traveled to join the Wisconsin team, located just west of Milwaukee, and ended up playing in a few games for them, including some contests at the NAHL Showcase in Minnesota, before he would catch the eye of a different organization.

The general manager of the Sioux Falls Stampede just so happened to be watching Mannausau at the NAHL Showcase event. The team in the USHL had been dealing with some injuries and knew that they would need to bolster their blue line a bit, so it seemed like calling up the Bemidji native would be a perfect fit for all involved. The defenseman only played in seven games for Wisconsin, registering one assist, before then having to drive out east to South Dakota to join the Stampede.

So, just to recap, Mannausau had to go from Cedar Rapids (Iowa), to Brookfield (Wisconsin), to Blaine (Minnesota - for the NAHL Showcase), back to Brookfield, and then to Sioux Falls (South Dakota). That is a lot of driving. Mannausau joked that last fall was a lot of traveling and a lot of staying at various billet houses as well before he found the perfect fit at his final destination in Sioux Falls.

The Stampede squad brought a lot of new faces to Mannausau, who didn’t really know anyone on the team when he was brought up to the roster. He knew a little bit about forward Brent Solomon, since he also played Minnesota high school hockey in 2024-25 (at Champlin Park), but he didn’t personally know Solomon at the time or anyone else on the team, so there were a lot of new things to get used to in Sioux Falls - a city which he had only visited once in the past.

“It’s a nice area, it doesn’t snow as much and it’s warmer than Bemidji for sure,” Mannausau joked in an interview with APX reporter Sydney Wolf.

It also may not be very close to home in Bemidji distance-wise but it was certainly closer than all of the other places he was playing junior hockey or any of the other options that are out there. Sioux Falls to Bemidji is about a five-and-a-half hour drive, which might seem like a lot to some people, but it’s a heck of a lot closer than some of the other organizations in the NAHL and the USHL. The 19-year-old skater said that the distance is a nice amount, it’s not too close to home but it’s not too far either. In fact, his parents are able to still drive down once or twice a month to come watch his games.

It took a little while to get acclimated to the speed and the skill of the USHL once he was called up from the Windigo, but Mannausau was able to tally both his first goal and his first assist with the Stampede in just his sixth game with the team.

“I wouldn’t say it [the USHL] was super different [compared to the NAHL] but you can just tell like skill-wise and speed-wise it’s a little different,” he said about making the transition. “I think I’m a lot more comfortable with the game now that I’ve been here for about 40 games.”

After taking some time to get used to the higher level of competition and to bond with his new teammates, Mannausau now has three goals and 13 assists for Sioux Falls through 44 games played in mid-February of 2026 - not too shabby at all. He’s also tied for second on the team in plus/minus rating with a +18.

Throughout his time as a hockey player, the Bemidji native had heard from various Division I college programs but things definitely started to pick up once he became a full-time USHL’er.

“I talked to a few schools my senior year [of high school] and then I talked to a few after I got drafted by Cedar Rapids and then once I got pulled back up by Sioux Falls I talked to a few more - and then I landed on Augustana,” Mannausau said. “They watched a bunch of games early in the year and then they watched me after Christmas time and they’re pretty close with the coaching staff (in Sioux Falls) too.”

It didn’t take long for the Minnesotan defender to start imagining his future at the private, Lutheran university which is also located in Sioux Falls. He officially announced a verbal commitment to the program on January 12, 2026.

“I’m proud and excited to announce my commitment to play Division I hockey and further my education at Augustana University. I’d like to thank God, my family, coaches, and teammates who helped me along the way,” he posted to his social media pages.

“I really like the coaching staff. When I talk to them, they’re all super good guys. I like the area that I’m in right now [the city of Sioux Falls] and I think the new rink is super nice and it’s a good school with a good education,” he said about why he chose the Vikings for his future in college hockey. It’ll make for an easy transition in a year or two (whenever he joins the Augustana roster) since he’ll get to stay in Sioux Falls and will already be very familiar with the area.

Augustana is still one of the newest Division I programs in men’s college hockey, with its inaugural season of competition back in 2023-24. The squad has heavily recruited Minnesotan athletes to its roster, including 12 currently on the team on many more to come in over the next few years, so it’s its not all that surprising that they took a liking to Mannausau’s game. The Bemidji native says that it has been really fun keeping tabs on the Vikings this season but that he hasn’t been able to actually get out and watch a game yet since their schedule often conflicts with his own USHL schedule.

Seeing that Augustana competes in the CCHA, Mannausau said that it’ll be fun, but a bit odd, in the future when he’ll eventually get to play against Bemidji State. Since he’s originally from Bemidji and went to a lot of Beaver games growing up, it’ll be weird coming into town with the Vikings and being on the ‘visitor’ end of the ice - but in a good way, of course.

For any Augustana fans who haven’t been able to watch Mannusau yet in junior hockey or during his high school days, he says that he’s a high-end skater who plays a good, solid defensive-game but can contribute a little offense from time to time as well. Since this is his first season in the USHL, it seems likely that his entry date to college hockey will probably be in the fall of 2027 - but obviously anything can change at any time. He is currently undecided on what he’ll study once he enrolls at the university.

Mannusau, who was born and raised in Bemidji, was originally inspired to play hockey because both of his older brothers also played the sport. One of the brothers was a defenseman, which eventually influenced Noah to try it out too - plus, defenders typically got more ice time in youth hockey, which was a bonus as a young athlete for sure.

Having older brothers also helped quite a bit once Noah was ready to join the varsity team at Bemidji High School as a freshman back in 2021-22.

“My brother had graduated the year before, so most of the guys already knew of me, so it was pretty easy to fit in with the team and it was awesome moving up that first year with all the guys,” he said about his first season up on varsity as a freshman.

Mannausau posted a goal and seven assists that year with a Lumberjacks team that went 8-16-2 overall, eventually falling in a tight Section 8AA quarterfinal game to Elk River/Zimmerman. Both Noah and his team showed improvement the next season in 2022-23 though as the squad went 11-13-1 overall and Mannausau earned 19 points through 25 games - over double his offensive output from Year 1 - and he was second on the roster in overall scoring.

“I think I had a bigger role that sophomore year, I was on the power play more and I got a lot more playing time that year, so the points came with that,” he said about his increase in offense from his first to second year up on varsity.

Bemidji had a bit of a down year in 2023-24 by going 9-16-1 and Mannusau earning 15 points as a junior, but things drastically improved for his senior season. The Lumberjacks as a whole posted an incredibly steady 20-6-2 record and made it all the way to the section championship game before losing to eventual state champion Moorhead in 2025. As a senior, Mannausau led the defensive core in scoring with 39 points in 28 games.

“We had a really good team [his senior season] and we were really deep too, so you could be out there with any line and have a chance of scoring. The whole team put in a big summer because we knew we would have a good team and we had a chance of making it to state, so we all put in the work and we had a good year but just came up short,” he said about a very memorable finish to his high school hockey career. “I don’t think you can ask for a better senior season than that, like, we lost at the end but I had so much fun winning throughout the year and it was awesome.”

Some of his favorite memories from his time competing for the Lumberjacks include either of the two section games that were played at home in front of all the fans there during his senior year or in the first home game of that same season when he scored a goal against Holy Angels that would tie the game up and send things into overtime.

Even though his days of high school hockey are now behind him, Mannausau still likes to keep tabs on the Bemidji varsity team back home. He went and skated with the guys over Christmas break this past winter and thought it was fun to go see them and check in with how their season was going.

The Bemidji native is now in the second half of a busy season of junior hockey. He’s hoping to accomplish big things with Sioux Falls this spring, considering that the Stampede are currently the top team in the Western Conference standings and have the second-most wins in the entire league (behind the Youngstown Phantoms in the East).

“I think we’re gonna have a good chance of winning everything and the Clark Cup,” he said about how the team is feeling and what their goals are for the rest of the season. “I think one of the biggest reasons why is because we’re super close, we’re hanging out all the time and we’re a super close team. We’re hanging out off the ice, going over to billet houses to hang out, I think that really helps make us a tightly bonded team.”

Up next for Mannausau and the Stampede are a pair of home games against Omaha (Feb. 21) and Fargo (Feb. 22) before they hit the road for Lincoln and Des Moines next week. The 19-year-old defenseman is hoping to keep playing his steady style of hockey and can’t wait to see what the rest of the year will bring.

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