Team Canada and Team USA management today announced their rosters for the first-annual Heritage Cup, to be held next month at Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario.

Each country is sending its top boxla players -- seventeen runners and three goaltenders for Canada, eighteen and two for the United States -- to the 5 October exhibition, also to be held at Hershey Centre.

Team Canada is led into battle by stars such as Gary Gait, Tracey Kelusky, John Tavares, John Grant, and Bob Watson.

Team USA's top warriors will include Jake Bergey, Roy Colsey, Mike Regan, Jamie Hanford, and Dwight Maetche.

Heritage Cup was created as a promotional vehicle for quadrennial World Indoor Lacrosse Championships (WILC), debuting in May 2003 in southern Ontario. In future years, the Iroquois Nationals could join the competition.

Although the American and Canadian rosters are expected to be very similar for the May tournament, players selected for Heritage Cup are not guaranteed a spot in the world championships.

One thing that has long been a guarantee, however, is the large number of Toronto Rock and Philadelphia Wings players playing in Heritage Cup.

Rock coach Les Bartley is the Canadian skipper and former Rock general manager Johnny Mouradian reprises that role for the Maple Leaf side, resulting in nine Toronto players among the twenty Canadians.

American general manager Steve Govett, currently president of the unnamed Colorado franchise, formerly served as general manager of the Wings, working with Team USA co-coach (and former Wings head coach) Tony Resch. As a result, nine Wings will take the floor in the Red, White and Blue.

The following are the rosters for Heritage Cup 2002:

Team USA
Goaltenders: Erik Miller (Colorado), Dwight Maetche (Vancouver).
Defensemen: Richard Brzeski (Philadelphia), Hugh Donovan (Colorado), Jamie Hanford (New Jersey), Peter Jacobs (Philadelphia), Jay Jalbert (Philadelphia), Pat McCabe (New York), Brian Reese (Colorado), Tom Slate (Philadelphia), Dave Stilley (Philadelphia), Regy Thorpe (Rochester).
Forwards: Jake Bergey (Philadelphia), Roy Colsey (New Jersey), Kevin Finneran (Philadelphia), Mark Millon (Philadelphia), Chris Panos (Calgary), Mike Regan (Albany), Tom Ryan (Philadelphia), Tim Soudan (Rochester).
Head Coaches: Darris Kilgour (Buffalo), Tony Resch (Philadelphia).

Team Canada
Goaltenders: Rob Blasdell (Albany), Anthony Cosmo (Toronto), Bob Watson (Toronto).
Defensemen: Glenn Clark (Toronto), Pat Coyle (Toronto), Jim Moss (Albany), Cam Woods (Albany).
Forwards: Colin Doyle (Toronto), Gary Gait (Colorado), John Grant (Rochester), Tracey Kelusky (Montreal), Curt Malawsky (Rochester), Blaine Manning (Toronto), Gavin Prout (New York), Josh Sanderson (Albany), Dan Stroup (Toronto), Dan Teat (Albany), Steve Toll (Toronto), John Tavares (Buffalo), Jim Veltman (Toronto).
Head Coach: Les Bartley (Toronto).