Hauswirth commits to MTU for 2008

Michigan Tech has announced the signing of Jake Hauswirth to a National Letter of Intent for the 2008-09 season.

Hauswirth, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound center from Merrill, Wisc., registered 21 goals among 40 points in 58 overall games with the Marquette Rangers of the North America Hockey League during the 2006-07 slate. The owner of five power-play goals and four game-winning markers, Hauswirth accrued 76 penalty minutes in his lone year with the Rangers.

He gained NAHL Player of the Week accolades Mar. 5 after scoring two goals and four assists in a three-game stretch against Mahoning Valley.

Prior to his stint in Marquette, Hauswirth spent the 2005-06 and 2004-05 campaigns skating for the Ojibwa Eagles Midget AAA team in Houghton. He is currently the Eagles' sixth all-time leading scorer with 88 points in 117 career games. Before that, he played prep hockey at Merrill High School.

Taken by the Omaha Lancers as the 53rd overall pick in the fifth round of the 2007 United States Hockey League Entry Draft, Hauswirth will continue his junior career in Omaha next season.

"Jake is a big, physical player with a lot of upside," said Huskies' head coach Jamie Russell. "He is a strong skater with good hands and has the opportunity to further develop his game in the USHL."

Hauswirth joins Alex MacLeod and Anthony Schooley (Romulus) as a member of the Huskies' freshmen class for the 2008-09 season.

Notes: Hauswirth's father, Bill Hauswirth, donned a Michigan Tech football uniform from 1982-85, where he was a two-time All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference selection as a wide receiver … The elder Hauswirth ranks first all-time in the Huskies' record book for career receiving touchdowns (24) … Bill, who now serves as the head coach of the boy's hockey team at Merrill High School, played for the Houghton High School hockey squad that won a state championship in 1982.