USA Hockey's Under-17 national select team is littered with players from Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts and Mooresville.

Mooresville? The frozen tundra of Lake Norman?

Kit Sitterley, 16, calls Iredell County home. It's not a hockey hotbed, as his on-the-road resume attests, but he's a hot prospect.

Sitterley and his Northern-bred teammates will play in the U-17 Five Nations Tournament in three Czech Republic cities (Strakonice, Tabor and Pribram) on Aug. 20-24.

"It is incredible," Sitterley said. "I had hopes and dreams of playing for the national team, but making it to national camps at 14 and 15, we're (flooded with) information about the small percentage of kids who make it this far."

Sitterley was 3 the first time he stood on skates, in Keystone, Colo. The family moved to Mooresville in 1998, when he was 7. Kit followed older brother Kurby and sisters T.T. and Kaye, who played on youth travel teams.

"I hated hockey at first," Kit Sitterley said. "I was 4, and had to play against kids three or four years older than me."

The tide turned quickly. He had a 253-goal season in the Charlotte Junior Checkers' Mite division.

His hockey world expanded to match his talents. Travel teams, with practices in Raleigh. Homework often was tackled while on the highway.

He needed better competition.

At 12, he left home to play for the Washington Little Capitals, a USA Hockey Tier I youth organization for elite players. He was billeted by the coach's family, and schooled by a private tutor.

At 13, he did the same thing for eighth grade.

"Obviously, the further north you go, the better the hockey is," Sitterley said. "I needed to go there to better myself, and I'd say it was worth it."

The next jump was to prep school hockey. Sitterley landed a Frank Batten Scholarship to Culver Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Indiana.

He had 40 goals in 43 games as a sophomore last season.

"I'm not the biggest guy on the ice," said Sitterley, 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds. "My role is to do the dirty work in the corners. I'm often the quickest guy, and the fastest guy. Now, with the rule changes in the NHL and no more hooking and clutching, guys like me are able to skate and play like we should."

Sitterley was chosen for the U-17 team based on tryouts at a developmental camp in Rochester, N.Y., in June.

He's amazed that college coaches -- and he has two years of high school left -- buzz his cell phone regularly. Boston University. Northeastern. Alaska-Fairbanks.

Those are serious hockey schools.

"I want to go to the NHL, that's what I'm shooting for," Sitterley said. "I know the stats and the consequences. I didn't think I'd make it this far, so why not keep trucking?"

Coming home is a break from the game, and friends who aren't consumed with hockey.

"None of my (Mooresville) friends know anything about hockey," Sitterley said, laughing. "I kind of like that. I'll be hanging with my friends, and someone I just met will say, `Oh, you're that hockey player.' "

Sitterley has come a long way since an older brother brought home a flyer advertising a kid's hockey team in Colorado. Dad Buzz and mom Carol -- both airline pilots -- marvel at how they juggled four kids' schedules on hockey travel teams.

"Sometimes, we'd have four in four cities playing," Buzz Sitterley said.

"I don't know where to begin thanking my parents," Kit said. "I don't know how they've done it. If everyone wasn't in on it, including my siblings, I don't think I'd be where I am today."