USA Hockey today announced the 22-player U.S. University Select Team roster for the upcoming 2007 Winter World University Games. The event will be staged at the Tazzoli Rink and Torre Pellice in Torino, Italy, Jan. 17-27, 2007.Highlighting the U.S. roster for the biannual event are several players with Michigan connections, including forwards Nick Krebsbach (pictured), a one-time Wayne State Warrior (2003-2004), and Joel Kuehn (Troy/University of Michigan-Dearborn), both of whom were members of the U.S. University Select Team that competed at the 2005 Winter World University Games. Team USA finished with a 3-3-0 record at that event, marking its best showing since returning to the Games in 2001 with players from the American Collegiate Hockey Association.
The Winter World University Games is the second-largest sporting event in the world next to the Olympic Games and consists of 11 sports and 72 medal events. Featuring 1,500 athletes in the 17-28-year-old age range, the 10-day event began in 1960 in France and was hosted on American soil in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1972.
The U.S. team was picked following an identification camp held in August and is comprised of players from non-varsity ice hockey teams affiliated with the ACHA, which includes 300 teams in three men's divisions.
"Each year that I've coached this team it has gotten better and better. We're going to have a deeper team than last time," said U.S. University Select Team head coach Chad Cassel. "This is the highest level of hockey that most of these guys will ever play, so it will be a great experience for them."
Other Michigan connections:
Goaltender Stephen Yu, Garden City, Michigan-Dearborn
Forward Michael Podelnyk, Howell, Western Michigan
Assistant coach Dave Debol, Saline, Michigan-Dearborn
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