But this is a story about all that they share, how Dany Heatley, Kirk Penney and Nina Smith came to pose for a photograph on a pristine autumn afternoon in a place far from home.

They are 18-year-old student-athletes at the University of Wisconsin, celebrated freshmen we can expect to hear a lot about in the coming months.

Heatley is one of the biggest recruiting catches in the history of the UW men's hockey program, a center-wing from Calgary, Alberta, who last season was named the Junior A player of the year in Canada. He accounted for an amazing 93 goals in 78 games last season, a level of production that has NHL scouts projecting Heatley as a first-round draft pick in June.

Penney is a curiosity to followers of the UW men's basketball team, a long-range shooting specialist from Auckland, New Zealand, who averaged 32 points per game for his country during the under-20 Australian Championships earlier this year. The next time Penney returns to his homeland, it will be to try out for the Australian Olympic team.

Smith might be the most high-profile prospect of any program in UW history, a center for the women's basketball team who was named national player of the year by USA Today and Parade magazine after her senior year at Waterloo (Iowa) West High School. Smith is such a dominating presence -- she averaged 28.5 points, 11.3 rebounds and 3.7 blocked shots per game last season -- that a hot rumor during her recruitment was she might jump directly to the WNBA.

The three came to Madison under different circumstances and for different reasons. But in the coming years, Heatley, Penney and Smith can expect to travel many of the same paths. Their lives will be scrutinized and discussed by thousands of strangers. Their efforts will be celebrated as well as criticized. Their thoughts will become news. Their comings and goings will be chronicled on videotape and in print. Their horizons will be broadened.

They know all this. And they can hardly wait. Like father, like son Dany Heatley came to Madison armed with a familiarity for the city and UW. His father, Murray, played for the Badgers from 1968 to '71 and helped transform a fledgling program into a national powerhouse. Dany, who was born in Germany while his father played there professionally, heard all the stories growing up.

"Like playing for (former coach) Bob Johnson and actually getting recruited to Colorado College and then (Johnson) taking everybody to Wisconsin (when Johnson left CC)," Dany said. "Those early days out at Hartmeyer (Ice Arena), riding on the bus out there every day."

Murray Heatley was no slouch, either. He had 75 goals, 62 assists and 137 points in 86 games. His six career hat tricks (including two four-goal games) are just one less than Mark Johnson, the all-time leading goal-scorer in UW history.

"He was one of the first guys to come here," Dany said of his father. "He's a pretty big part of the (program's foundation). I like to think that, anyway."

Dany Heatley took an official recruiting visit to Ohio State and had others planned for Michigan and Denver, but his trip to UW for the introduction of hockey at the Kohl Center last fall put everything into perspective.

"Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to come here," he said. "As soon as I came down here for the first time, I thought it was a great place and I wanted to come here."

No pressure from dad? "He left it up to me," Dany said. "He said, 'Wherever you want to go, that's fine with me.' But I think he was definitely proud when I chose here."

As soon as Dany made his decision, anticipation became his constant companion during a record-setting season with the Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior League. "I couldn't wait to get down here," Heatley said. "I knew I had to put it aside and concentrate on the year (at Calgary), but it was always in the back of my mind."

Heatley, who is 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, is good enough that two countries have sought his services for international tournaments. Because of his roots, German officials contacted him last year to play for their national team in the World Championships, an event that features many of the best international players, including those from the NHL. Meanwhile, Heatley is among those being considered for the Team Canada entry in the World Junior Championships later this year.

Heatley is undecided about a major, but mentioned business as a possible direction. His final father-son pep talk before coming to Madison focused on academics. "He said, 'Keep on top of school, that's the main thing,' " Dany said.

The Badgers began practice a week ago Monday in preparation for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association season-opening series with Michigan Tech on Oct. 15-16. Heatley said he is ready for the competition and the attention that is sure to come his way.

"I think my expectations are pretty high," he said. "I'm looking to have a good year here. I know it's a great league and there are so many good teams. But I feel that I can contribute. I'm just going to have to work hard every day to do that." A bright, shiny Penney The first time Kirk Penney came to Madison, which was early this summer, his first stop was University Hospital. Seems he embarked on the long flight from his homeland shortly after playing in a tournament and was quite dehydrated. His condition worsened during the 30-plus-hour journey to the point Penney needed to have fluids administered intravenously as soon as he touched down.

Despite the inauspicious start, Penney got huge benefits from the month-long visit because he became familiar with the campus, the city and those associated with the Badgers. It made coming back here in late August a lot easier.

"If I (had) come in in August for the first time and had everything thrown at me, it might have been too much," Penney said. "I knew what routine I would be getting into."

Penney, who is 6-5 and 205 pounds, is advertised as a tremendous outside shooting guard who could help fill the perimeter scoring void created with the departure of guard Sean Mason. Penney played in New Zealand for Tony Bennett, the son of UW coach Dick Bennett. Since Tony Bennett was a terrific three-point shooter while playing for his father at UW-Green Bay, the sense is both men would have a good idea of what Penney can bring to the table.

Penney, armed with a breezy personality and an imitable Down Under accent, has a hard time believing he has been given such an opportunity. "I appreciate everything so much," he said. "It's been a dream of mine since I was 10 years old."

Growing up, Penney was active in rugby, cricket, tennis and volleyball. But he eventually fell in love with basketball and developed a knack for its demands while at Westlake Boys High School. "As time went on, I just wanted to come to the states -- the big America -- and see what it was like to live here," he said.

First impressions have been good.

"It's like back home," Penney said. "The people are really nice, at least the ones I've met so far. Everything about it has a real homey feel to it."

Penney wants to major in landscape architecture. He also wants to see what it will be like to play before 17,000 fans at the Kohl Center because the largest crowd Penney has seen to date was the 4,000 that showed up for a tournament game in Taiwan.

"Oh, it will be awesome, mate," he said.

Penney said his mother, Marie, is in charge of keeping the lines of communication open between Madison and Auckland.

"Mom calls me," said Kirk, the baby of the family behind brother Rodd and sister Lara. "I can't afford to go home, simple as that. I miss home dearly, but I can't dwell on that."

There has been talk that his father, Paul, might come to the U.S. to see Kirk play this year. "I hope he can because I'd love to share it with him," Kirk said.

UW opens the season Nov. 6 with an exhibition game against the California All-Stars at the Kohl Center. Between now and then, Penney will look to assert himself. "I have my own goals," he said. "If it goes my way, it does and I'll try and make it happen. But you never know. I'm working as hard as I can and we'll see where it takes me." An artist in the making The third face in the picture was very nearly a no-show. At one point during the recruiting process, Nina Smith had a pen in her hand, fully intent on signing a national letter of intent to attend Tennessee. This is the same young woman who cried on the trip to Knoxville, Tenn., complaining that she had no desire to even visit the campus of the six-time NCAA women's basketball champions. Smith went because UW coach Jane Albright, of all people, told her to.

"I went down there and just got caught up in it," said Smith, a 6-4 center and the most sought-after recruit in the nation last year. "It was a football weekend, a basketball weekend and everything was happening. I almost signed."

Her father, James, intervened. "He said, 'You are not doing this,' " Nina said. "He was yelling. I said I know what I want to do. He said no. I told (Lady Vols coach) Pat Summitt I would go home and make a decision."

Nina had an awakening on the trip home. "I don't think I hugged my dad or thanked him enough for stopping me," she said.

Smith spent a portion of the summer in Madison, taking two classes and dealing with her first major onset of homesickness. While being away from her parents and older sister Felicia is getting a bit easier, there is a ways to go.

"I think it's going to take a while," Smith said. "This is all new for me, like I'm starting on a new level and I'm a freshman again. I'm in a new place around people that I don't really know. (Contrary) to popular belief, I'm really shy. Everyone thinks I'm wild and outgoing, but I'm this shy school dork."

Smith is best known for her basketball skills, but she has another blossoming talent. Last spring, unbeknownst to Smith, her high school art teacher arranged to have a collection of Smith's portrait and landscape paintings put on display at a Waterloo gallery. Two were sold. "My art teacher told me I could do this the rest of my life," Smith said.

For now, painting serves as a diversion for Smith, who plans to major in sociology with a minor in art. Basketball is her focal point and Smith knows a great deal of public fuss awaits her UW debut Nov. 9 against Athletes In Action at the Kohl Center.

"It comes with the territory," Smith said of the attention. "This is what I chose to do and whatever happens I have to take it with a grain of salt. It just makes me nervous because now I have something to prove to people. It's not I like don't know if I can do it or not, but it's in the back of my mind."

Smith got a taste of what the local spotlight can be like during her summer stay in Madison. "Rumors have already started about me," she said.

For instance?

"I'm a party girl. I'm gay," Smith said, ticking off the list of unfounded gossip items that have made their way back to her. "There was one that I was seeing Ron Dayne."

Smith laughed out loud at that one. "I met him once," she said of the star tailback for the UW football team. The two found themselves talking about the pitfalls of being in the public eye.

"He told me, 'It's going to be hard. There's going to be people who are going to talk about you. There's going to be people who spread lies about you and everybody's going to believe it and there's nothing you can do about it,' " Smith said. "That's hard because I take things so personally."

Her mother, Bev, has recited the you're-a-role-model speech to Nina many times.