Youth programs flourish locally
More talent attracting attention
Shawn O’Donnell is only a sophomore at North Catholic High School, but he had plenty of celebrating to do on senior night.
O’Donnell had two goals and an assist in the lacrosse team’s win May 7 against Greensburg Central Catholic, then fell asleep on the car ride home. He woke up to a slew of congratulatory messages from his friends — only they weren’t talking about the lacrosse game.
About five minutes later, the Crescent Township native received a call from Omaha Lancers head coach David Wilkie, whose team had just selected him in the fourth round of the 2019 United States Hockey League draft.
“It was unreal,” O’Donnell said. “All my childhood dreams are coming true, because this has been a goal of mine for a few years now. I finally got that call. Seeing my name up there, it was an amazing experience. I don’t even know how to describe it.”
O’Donnell was the fourth of five local players out of the Penguins Elite youth hockey program to get picked in Phase I of the USHL Draft, which was for players with 2003 birth years all across the country. All five players were part of the Penguins Elite 16-and-under team that won the AAA national championship in April. Three other Elite players got drafted the next day in Phase II, which is for all other players between ages 16 and 20.
Mars native Carter Schade went No. 1 overall to the Lincoln Stars, then Cedar Rapids picked Wexford native Ty Voit ninth overall, followed by Bethel Park native Andrew Pichora in the fourth round. O’Donnell went next with the last pick in the fourth round. Meanwhile, O’Donnell’s childhood best friend, Jackson Morehouse, sat at home watching the draft unfold, waiting to hear his name called.
“I was just waiting in anticipation, nervous,” Morehouse said. “I didn’t really know what to do. I did some homework but I couldn’t really focus on it, because on the back page on my computer the draft was updating and I kept flipping back and forth.”
As the draft shifted to the 10th and final round, Morehouse assumed this just wasn’t his year and packed up his things for school in the morning and got ready for bed. Then he, too, received a call from Wilkie. The Sewickley native was going to Omaha to play alongside his longtime linemate, O’Donnell.
“He texted me right away,” Morehouse said. “We were texting throughout the draft, so when he texted me I realized we got drafted to the same team, and that added to the excitement.”
As the executive director of hockey development and programming as well as the head coach of Penguins Elite’s national champion 16-and-under team, Brian Mueller has witnessed the rise in local talent firsthand.
“We used to have one or two kids that were getting drafted, and now we’re getting up to five to six,” Mueller said. “We feel comfortable next year we’ll have hopefully another five or six who are drafted there. That’s the goal of the organization is to develop and promote and get these kids ready for the next level which is junior hockey.”
Penguins Elite had four players picked in Phase I of last year’s draft, while the five players selected this year set a new mark for the program, which was formed in 2012 “to promote the development of young hockey players by providing on-ice and off-ice training and opportunities that allow each player to maximize his or her
“We used to have one or two kids that were getting drafted, and now we’re getting up to five or six.” —
Brian Mueller Penguins Elite 16-and-under coach
potential in a competitive learning environment.”
Mueller couldn’t single out any specific reason for the rise in talent coming out of the Pittsburgh area, but he believes the Elite program is playing a vital role.
“I think our facility and our training methods and our coaching, the fact that we encompass all aspects of player development,” Mueller said. “We have off-ice training, we have on-ice training, we have skills training, we have video sessions. We’re treating our players like professionals are being treated, and we have very passionate coaches that want to get these kids to the next level.
“Hopefully it’s the culture that we’re developing and the kids are coming in and recognizing it and benefiting because of it.”
And while local players might not attain the same notoriety players from hockey hotbeds such as Boston or Minnesota do, being a part of a national champion club team like Penguins Elite can go a long way toward changing that.
“At the end of the day you have to have good kids that are nationally ranked that are in big tournaments having big games and getting the right exposure,” Mueller said. “You’re going to have teams that are nationally ranked high and you’re going to be in the right events, playing in the national tournaments and finals, those are high exposure events that the scouts are at.
“We’re making sure we’re putting our teams and our players in the right events to get the right exposure.”
The next step for the new draftees is to attend their team’s prospect camp in the summer, after which they will either be promoted to the club’s full-time roster or kept as an affiliate. If they don’t make the team, they can simply return home to play with their club team and stay in school until next year’s tryouts.
Although Mueller says only about seven to 10 out of the 160 players taken in Phase I of the USHL draft tend to make a roster after summer training camp, it’s still a worthwhile experience for all the players to attend — even those who got drafted in the last round like Morehouse.
“I don’t know of many players who did it, but I think if I work hard enough, I’ll have a shot,” Morehouse said. “A little bit of an underdog role, but I think with enough hard work, I can be one of those few that do it.”