The Steel City Snipers MLRH franchise was founded by our owner Ralph Treat and several other University of Pitt players back in late 2002-early 2003. I heard about this team, which was being stood up for the 2002-03 MLRH season, and being from western PA I decided to check it out. I attended a scrimmage up in Harmerville PA and met a few of the players including Sean Bonini, Craig Maxwell, and Jason Jaworski. I quickly took over the practices and before long I was named coach and split the general manager duties with Maxwell. We played the entire 2002-03 season on the road because we were unable to secure a home rink in western PA. We did not do all that well and finished about 2-12 I think. The next season we found a home at Hot Shots Arena in Mt. Pleasant PA and played some home games finally. With the teams consolidated down to about half their number and talent was even tougher this season. I brought in a lot of players from MD that included John Rokos, Dave Young, Dan Voronkov, Eddie Dingles, Mike Staub, Jimmy Staub, and Kevin Spain. We finished without a win but had a great time! I'll always remember Ralph bringing the hoagies to each game, the constant roadtrips of that first season, driving to practices at Harmerville, throwing creamers and hoagies at each other while driving down I-95, losing a lot of really close games, my parents watching some of our games at Hot Shots, printing tickets and programs before our home games, poor Danny taking a puck in the eye, and partying at Webster Hall in NYC. This team lasted only two seasons but we were well organized and had a great group of guys.