Hermantown's AJ Francisco and Victor Plante were selected to join USA Hockey's National Team Development Program, it was announced Wednesday by USA Hockey. The team will compete as the U.S. National Under-17 Team for the 2024-25 season.
"We had an incredibly strong March evaluation camp," said Rod Braceful, the NTDP's director of player personnel. "We had an extremely deep player pool from which to make our team selection, a huge credit to the youth coaches and grassroots volunteers all across the country. We are excited to bring this group of 23 young players together to form our next class at the NTDP."
Of the 23 rostered players, Francisco and Plante were two of eight players from Minnesota selected to the team, while Superior's Jackson Marthaler was the lone representative from Wisconsin.
The NTDP is a two-year residency program for high-performance players that is located at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan. The Under-17 Team plays in the United States Hockey League, the only Tier I junior hockey league in the United States, as well as against select competition in the North American Hockey League and Minnesota Elite League. Each season, the U17 Team also competes in three international tournaments.
The 23 rostered players come from 12 different states; Minnesota (8), Illinois (4), California (2), Iowa (1), Massachusetts (1), Michigan (1), New Hampshire (1), North Carolina (1), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (1), Texas (1) and Wisconsin (1).