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Monday, October 07, 2002

By Pohla Smith, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The Forge made its way to the championship rounds of the North American Hockey League and Junior-A nationals last year, with about half the roster made up of Pittsburgh area players.

This season, 11 area players hope to help carry the 2-year-old team to a championship.

The area player getting the most attention is defenseman Dylan Reese, a senior at Upper St. Clair High School. Right behind him is Mike Handza of Glenshaw, a Shaler High School graduate who led the Forge in scoring as a rookie in 2001, Forge Coach John Becanic said.

"[Reese] is probably the most recruited ... Harvard, Yale, Michigan State, and Boston University," Becanic said. "He's certainly a player who should get drafted."

	Homegrown talent Local players on the Forge roster: Player Pos. Age High school Dylan Reese D 18 Upper St. Clair student Denis Kirstein D 19 Bethel Park graduate Grant Lewis D 16 Upper St. Clair student Randy Bauer D 19 Pine-Richland graduate Eric Trax D 18 Peters Township graduate Sean Berkstresser F 20 Kiski Prep graduate Mike Handza F 19 Shaler graduate Joe Federoff F 18 Montour graduate Gabe Rehak F 18 Greensburg Central graduate Jace Buzek F 17 Hempfield student Jason Kearney G 16 Pine-Richland student

Pittsburgh hockey -- the homegrown kind, not the Penguins -- is maturing into a high-level game not much more than a decade after coaches began teaching youngsters how to skate and take slap shots. And the improved talent level is providing other benefits -- prized college scholarships and professional opportunities.

Kevin Constantine, a former Penguins coach and the man most responsible for snaring the Forge franchise for Pittsburgh, says one thing started youth hockey rolling in Western Pennsylvania: The Penguins' first-round draft pick in 1984.

"I think I'm just seeing the end product of the growth of hockey initiated by Mario Lemieux coming to town -- look at the age group of kids who are playing today," Constantine said.

"Go back before and try to find kids from here on Junior-A teams or at major colleges and you won't find any. There's absolutely a connection between Lemieux, the Penguins' success and the quality of youth hockey today."

At that time, would-be players could scarcely find ice on which to practice.

"We only had six arenas in the entire area, and sometimes you had to travel hours to skate," said Len Semplice, hockey coach at Shady Side Academy and a longtime figure in the youth hockey scene. "Now it seems like you don't have to go any further than 20 minutes. The number of ice rinks has quadrupled."

The 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds playing Junior-A, college, or in some cases, professional hockey were born between 1982-84, the latter the year Lemieux turned Pittsburgh and the surrounding area on to hockey. The Penguins won the first of their consecutive Stanley Cups in the 1990-91 season.

"Mario came; the Penguins started winning. Kids 2 to 6 witnessed that, fell in love with hockey and started playing," Constantine said. "New rinks got built to keep up with the demand, giving more kids a chance to get on the ice more, and that crop of kids is now graduating into junior programs, colleges, and, like [R.J.] Umberger and [Dwight] LaBrosse, even into the NHL."

Umberger of Plum was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the 2001 draft. LaBrosse of Peters Township is with the Penguins.

Seven area players on the Forge received scholarships to Division I colleges.

"Go back before and try to find kids from here on Junior-A teams or at major colleges and you won't find any," Constantine said.

When the talent did begin to reach the level of Junior-A hockey the last few years, the players, often still in high school, had to leave town to find competitive teams.

The arrival of the Forge last year gives top players an opportunity to stay home, play hockey and to finish high school.

That, Constantine said, was one of the reasons he fought hard to get a Junior-A team.

"Kids were starting to leave the city at 14, 15, 16 to find teams their talent was deserving of," he said. "Parents might let him go, but if the same option exists on a local basis until they're 18, you'd much prefer that."

"The success of our program is greatly attributed to so many good local hockey players," Becanic said. "Last year we finished with 13 or 14 of the local variety, and we got to the national tournament. That's something to be proud of.

"This year, we've got eight full-time players and three more coming up and down [from the Class AAA Hornets]."

He's confident that at least two of them, Reese and Handza, are going to go on to bigger and better things."

Becanic hopes that at least for this year, they take the Forge with them.