The decision had been made. The ring had arrived at his dorm room, and all that was left was for Penn State undergraduate Josh Brandwene, a member of the Icers hockey club, to find a suitably romantic place in which to ask for his girlfriend's hand in marriage. He eventually found it, with some encouragement from his roommates: the Greenberg Indoor Sports Complex.

"They certainly played a role in talking me into doing it at center ice after the 1991 Nittany Lion Invitational," Brandwene recalled. "That's when it all happened."

She said yes, and now, two decades later, the Brandwenes - Josh and wife Leona - are getting set to return to their alma mater along with their 7-year-old daughter, Sophie. On Wednesday, Brandwene was introduced as head coach of Penn State's varsity women's ice hockey program, which will begin NCAA Division I competition in 2012-13. For Brandwene, a Hershey, Pa., native who holds Penn State's career record for points by a defenseman, the opportunity to come back to University Park was a big part of the attraction.

"It's an incredible feeling," he said. "To have this opportunity, to see all the amazing, positive changes to the place but still have that same feeling that you had when you were here - it's the best of both worlds. I'm thrilled to be back."

Brandwene has 20 years of coaching and administrative experience at the college and prep school levels, most recently as head coach of the girls' team at Kingwood Oxford School in West Hartford, Conn. He also was a men's ice hockey assistant for Team USA at the 2003 World University Games and served as head coach of the men's team at Delaware and the boys' team at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts.

"I have known Josh and his family for almost 25 years," said Joe Battista, Penn State's assistant athletic director for ice hockey operations. "He was my first recruit as an Icer coach in 1987 and a big part of our early success. He has the perfect skill set to be a successful coach and mentor to the student-athletes in our women's hockey program."

The Nittany Lions are slated to play an independent schedule in 2012-13. After that, they will join a yet-to-be-named conference.

Battista said Penn State has applied for membership in the Massachusetts-based College Hockey America conference. The league features Niagara, Syracuse, Mercyhurst and Robert Morris and is looking to expand following the departure of Wayne State, which recently dropped its women's hockey program. Along with Penn State, the league may also add the Rochester Institute of Technology, which fields a championship-caliber Division III program and is considering a move to Division I.

The Big Ten may eventually be an option for Penn State, but that's not the case presently because only three other schools - Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio State - offer women's ice hockey as a varsity sport.

On Wednesday, as Penn State dignitaries milled around the media room at the Bryce Jordan Center, the focus was mostly on the present. "We have some blue and white running through the veins here," said athletic director Tim Curley at Brandwene's introductory news conference, noting that Leona is a 1991 Penn State graduate and that the new coach's father, Steve, graduated from the university in 1964.

In a little over two years, the Nittany Lions will be competing in a new area located just a stone's throw from the IM Building, where Brandwene met his future wife. If it sounds as though he's happy to be back, he is. More than happy, in fact.

"I'm thrilled beyond words," he said. "It's a great day in Happy Valley."