Travis Thompson, a 6-foot guard who helped Dimond High to last season's Class 4A state championship, and Kyle Fossman, a 6-foot-1 guard who carried Haines to the Class 3A title two seasons ago, committed this week to play for the Seawolves.
Both are skilled 3-point shooters, and UAA is a team that shoots a lot of 3s. "They fit right in with our system," coach Rusty Osborne said Thursday.
Fossman averaged 30 points a game last season for Haines and 27 points the season before. Thompson hit half of his eight 3-pointers during Dimond's state tournament run last winter.
Both players signed their National Letter of Intent at school ceremonies Wednesday. Fossman drew a crowd of students, family and faculty for cake and cookies at an afternoon ceremony at the high school in Haines, while Thompson received a "Property of Seawolf basketball" T-shirt from his teammates at his signing.
"I couldn't really picture this when I was a freshman," Thompson said during an emotional ceremony in the school library attended by his parents, Lou and Leonisa.
Thompson was a scrawny kid as a freshman, but his desire to play college basketball pushed him to develop and improve. His mother, Leonisa, said he's an early riser who splits his time equally between basketball and books.
"He's usually up by 4 a.m." she said.
Rob Galosich called Thompson "the glue" of Dimond's state championship team. In the three-game state tournament, Thompson averaged 11 points, 3 assists and 3 steals.
Fossman is a point guard who can shoot out the lights, but he said he's ready to shoot as much or as little as the Seawolves need him to.
"I'll take good shots," he said.
"... I think I can fit into the system there. It seems like they like to run the ball a lot, and that's what our high school does."
Thompson, an all-state honorable mention pick last season, grew up watching the Great Alaska Shootout and is a longtime UAA fan.
Fossman, the Class 3A Player of the Year as a sophomore, has never attended the Shootout but became a UAA fan when he visited the school last month.
"I liked all the guys on the team, and I got to watch practice and I liked the way it was run," he said. "Also, it's in Alaska."
Thompson and Fossman will join a UAA lineup that already includes Alaskans Ryan Rock (Point Hope), Jesse Blandford (Nome) and Aaron Stevens (South). Over the years, many Alaskans have starred for the Seawolves -- among them, Vern Robateau, Jason Kaiser, Jim Hadjukovich and, most recently, All-American center Carl Arts.
Early signings are a bit of a rarity for UAA, which often goes two or three years at a time without getting early commitments from recruits.
"It's not a yearly thing, but we'd love to make it (one)," Osborne said. "It relieves our staff so we can concentrate on the season."
Osborne said the Seawolves will still do some recruiting this season, but with no seniors on the squad, getting Thompson and Fossman on board takes care of a lot of the team's expected needs a year from now.
Reach sports editor Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4335. Find Matt Tunseth online at adn.com/contact/mtunseth or call 257-4335.
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