If people in Happy Valley haven't been able to appreciate how good the Icers have been over the past three years, there is now one more reason for them to take notice of the men's ice hockey team.

The defending ACHA National Champions sent coach Joe Battista and nine squad members to Ames, Iowa, for the 2002 USA Hockey Summer Select Camp.

From today until Sunday, the camp will be the home to 88 players selected from ACHA teams. The coaching staff will eventually choose the 2003 United States University Select Team from those 88 players. The team will then play in the Winter World University Games held from Jan. 16 to 26, 2003 in Tarvisio, Italy.

Battista is the only Icer who knows for sure that he has a spot on the team. The five-time national champion was selected as head coach of the team by USA Hockey.

"I didn't expect to be selected as head coach," Battista said. "I had the opportunity to be on the staff in 2001 but we had just had our third child and it was kind of bad timing. I would have liked to have gone."

This time around Battista was able to go and he gets the opportunity to evaluate nine of his own players while he is in Ames: Josh Mandel, Bill Downey, Curtiss Patrick, Paul Sealock, Dustin Martin, Jack Weber, Scott Graham, Justin DePretis and Neal Price.

To put how impressive that is into perspective one must look at the numbers. There are 213 college club teams nationwide that could have had players selected to make up the 88 players in Ames. Penn State players make up a little more than 10 percent of the camp.

When a team wins three national championships in consecutive years, that sort of notoriety can be expected. Yet Battista says he is not going to look at his players any differently than the other ones.

"I am one of seven people who will select the team," Battista said. "I am going to try my best to make sure I pick the best team."

One player on the Icers' roster who seems to have a good shot at being selected is Mandel. The 6-foot-2-inch, 205-pound defenseman was one of four skaters who represented the Icers in Poland on the select team in 2001. Mandel is the only one of those players who is still with Penn State.

Mandel has relayed his experiences to his teammates. One of the things he took away from the trip is the importance of chemistry.

"One of the problems was the concept of team," Mandel said. "The Russian, Czech and Japanese teams played together beforehand and it gave them an advantage. This tryout can build more camaraderie."

Mandel said even though the team only took one win in 2001, a tremendous upset over Russia, the experience was wonderful.

He said one major thing he noticed was that he felt faster and stronger when he came back to the states.

Downey was picked as an alternate on the 2001 team. The recognition of being selected to the team would be nice, but Downey wants to play on the team for another reason.

"I think it would be great, but just wearing a USA jersey would be the biggest thing," he said.

Battista has special reasons for wanting to coach the team. Of course he enjoyed the honor of being the coach of the best players in the ACHA, and yes, he wanted to represent his country in international competition.

But the kicker for Battista is where the Winter World University Games are taking place.

"I'm really excited about this opportunity and doubly so because it is in Italy," Battista said. "I'm not going to fool anybody, I will love to go to the land of my ancestors."

The players who get selected for the trip will find that it is an educational one. Battista said during the last games the players toured a lot of the cities and towns and each day they had lectures on the culture of the land. Several players even did some independent study programs based on the trip.

The trip will cause all players who are selected to miss five days of classes. However, Battista said the trip has actually helped his skaters academically.

"Our four guys had their best academic semester when they went on the trip," Battista said. "It gets you to focus and realize that it's a great opportunity to represent their country and it inspired these guys to have their act together."

The nine Icers players get that chance to represent their country starting now.