Regardless of the sport, amateur players moving up to the professional level generally experience a steep learning curve. No matter how talented, skills exhibited in high school or college don’t often cut the mustard at the pro level.

Fortunately for the Rapid City Rush, a quarter of talented rookies, Spencer Pommells, Destry Straight, Chris Ciotti and Brian O’Rourke, have scaled the curve well, turning committed time and effort into valuable contributions to the team’s success this season.

“The biggest thing for a young player is to learn to be consistent,” said Rush head coach and general manager Joe Ferras, a half hour into an 18-hour bus trip Monday to Evansville, Ind. “A lot of times you will have young guys who come out of the gate real quick and do well for a few games and then suddenly drop off.

“The biggest thing we preach is to learn how to be a good pro and do all of the right things off the ice as well as on the ice. When you play a lot of games without a lot of practice time, you have to take care of yourselves or the physicality of pro hockey will wear you down.”

Pommells has apparently been an attentive listener, as the former University of Windsor product is one of the team leaders in scoring (10 goals, six assists, 16 points). Pommells had been particularly impressive in recent games, centering a line with Winston Day Chief and Danick Gauthier.

“It takes some time to get used to the size and speed at this level. But I think I’ve learned to adjust and am learning how to play the game,” Pommells said. “Another tough thing is playing every other night. In pro hockey, there are a lot more games and getting used to that and figuring it out takes time, but I think it’s going pretty well. Winnie (Day Chief) is such a good player and Derek, too. They both have unbelievable skill sets and they are big, strong guys, so I just try to find open ice and get them the puck as much as possible. We’ve been able to feed off each other the past few games, so I hope that will continue.”

Straight (four goals, seven assists, 11 points), a Boston College product and member of the school’s 2012 NCAA national championship team, pointed out that physical maturity, experience and a total focus on playing hockey stand out from the collegiate game.

“Everybody is older and that’s a big difference. In college, everybody was pretty young with 19-year-old guys on the team, so having all of the guys with a lot of experience is quite different,” Straight said. “It’s different for sure, but it’s been really good. The older guys have been really good and so it’s been a really easy transition. And I’ve really enjoyed Rapid City.”

Ferras said that all four rookies have been strong contributors and that has stood out in the last 10 or 12 games.

“Spencer is an example of how young players should adapt to certain situations and be prepared on a nightly basis, and Destry plays hard on both ends every night, while O’Rourke (0 goals, six assists, six points) can play a variety of positions for us. And Ciotti (two goals, five assists, seven points) skates well and continues to improve every time out. Most importantly, they have learned that in the pro game things may not go smoothly all the time and good pros understand that and keep battling.”