One year ago, Mark Schwamberger was wearing the blue and gold jersey of the Spencerport Rangers hockey team, working with head coach Tom Donnelly. This year, the gold has been replaced with red and white as he represents his country skating for the U.S. Under-17 National Hockey Team and working with head coach Moe Mantha, a 12-year NHL veteran.

"It's incredibly different," said Schwamberger, while home for a brief holiday before heading to Nova Scotia with the team to play in the 2000 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. "It's a lot faster and a lot tougher playing against other players 20 years old but, after a few weeks, I was able to adjust and things are going great right now. Plus Ann Arbor, Michigan (where the team is based) is a bigger city than Rochester."

The national team plays most of its schedule in the North American Hockey League traveling to Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland and other cities. As of the end of the 2000 portion of the schedule, Schwamberger had two goals and seven assists in 30 games as a forward with both goals coming on the power play. Head coach Mantha, on the team's website, said of Mark, "He has excellent size and mobility and will be a factor along the boards and in front of the net."

The 6'2", 199 lb. son of Linda and Mark Schwamberger had his first 2-point game with a pair of assists October 17 versus Cleveland and, most recently, notched a power play goal November 18 against Switzerland. Right after Christmas, the team had games scheduled against Quebec, Russia and Finland among others in the junior championships.

The Rangers lost both Schwamberger and goaltender Allan Barton to junior teams this season with Barton joining the Buffalo Lightning. "We both are trying to pursue our goals in hockey which is to play Division I and hopefully move on from there. I hope to eventually play in either the Boston area or Michigan, but I have another year before I have to make a decision. I think this year we both took a great step to realizing those dreams."