By Peter Watts /

The little community of Worman, Sask., is located about 40 minutes north of Saskatoon.

It’s home to the Forsberg family who have one big ice rink in the backyard of their home and two young hockey players who are climbing the hockey ladder and making some noise along the way.

Fifteen-year-old Jesse is teamed with David Grey Eyes on the blueline of the AAA Midget Beardy’s Black Hawks, currently third in the highly competitive Saskatchewan Midget league.

Right now, Jesse is among the leading scorers in the league and Grey Eyes is second in the league in scoring overall.

“They’re an offensive pairing and they have played well together, reports Blaine Forsberg, the father. “They’ve played a lot of hockey lately. They had 11 games in December, including the Mac’s Tournament in Calgary where they played nearly every day. And Jesse followed that up with three games for the Prince George Cougars, with whom he’s already signed in the Western Hockey League.”

Younger brother, Alex, is a forward with the Worman Bantam team, the same club Jesse played for last season.

He just turned 14 and won’t be eligible for the Western Hockey League Bantam Draft until 2010.

But he’s showing a nice touch as a goal-scoring forward in his first year of Bantam hockey.

“He has a little different vision of the game on the ice,” reports his dad, “but he seems to know where everybody is and how they play. And both boys love the game. They love to compete and they’ll spend as much time as they can on the rink out behind the house.”

The boys come by their love of the game genetically.

Blaine Forsberg played with Humbolt in the Saskatchewan Junior League, where his coach was Brent McEwan. McEwen coached at the university level and now scouts for the Los Angeles Kings.

“I saw him a couple of months ago in Saskatoon and he talked to the boys,” Blaine Forsberg told me. “He reminded them about the importance of working hard. You can’t do a lot to change how you’re built but you can still open some doors if you’re prepared to work hard. I’ve been telling them that for years but it makes a difference when it comes from somebody else 
they respect.”

Blaine was a gritty forward who turned his love of the game into a part-time career coaching hockey and power skating in Worman. Both boys used to work as instructors in the summer schools and camps.

“It was a good way for them to meet a lot of people in the area,” says Blaine. “We had 120 skaters from all over Saskatchewan at the camp last summer. When Jesse was drafted by Prince George there were lots of people who were really happy for him and they called or e-mailed him to offer congratulations.”