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As the Alaska Dream prepares for its inaugural season in the American Basketball Association, the newest professional sports franchise in the 49th State is experiencing a reunion of the Alaska Nanooks men’s team.

Dream head coach Al Sokaitis, who also guided the Nanooks, doesn’t see the additions of Andrew Smith, Justin Bourne and Travis Knutson as a reunion between him and three of his former players. He sees it as three assistant coaches on the court.

Smith, Bourne and Knutson, who comprise almost one-third of the Dream’s 10-player roster, wore the blue and gold of the Nanooks and, of course, Sokaitis called out plays to them in the friendly confines of the Patty Center or in an opponent’s hostile gymnasium.

“They’re great kids, they’re the same guys who worked hard for me at UAF,’’ Sokaitis, the Nanooks head coach from 1996-2004, said on Wednesday from Barrow, where he was working with the Challenge Life Youth Foundation.

“They came into camp in tremendous shape, and they worked hard and ran stuff well,’’ Sokaitis continued. “They’re not ego guys; they’re just guys who love the game and they’ve become great examples for me.”

Other Dream players have quizzed the trio about what to expect from their head coach during the team’s 30-game season, which is scheduled to begin Dec. 15 with a home game at Sullivan Arena against an opponent to be announced.

Those players can to expect to hustle for a knowledgeable coach who tutored college and high school players for 31 years and received the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s Coach of the Year honors in 2003 and 2004. Though the Dream is Sokaitis’ first professional head coaching stint, he has conducted training sessions with professional players in the U.S. and Japan.

“He’s brings out the best in people,’’ Bourne, who will play wing for the Dream, said on Tuesday from Anchorage.

“He’ll pretty much get the best defensive effort out of you every time you come down the court,’’ said Bourne, a Nanook from 2002-06. “He wants you to play quick, and he wants execution on offense.’’

The 6-foot-6, 220-pounder also tells his new teammates that he’s looking forward to working with his old collegiate head coach.

“He’s got plays that are really going to work for this team. It’s going to be great to play for him again,’’ said the 24-year-old, who graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2006 with a degree in general business.

Team owner Trey Davis sees the three former Nanooks players working out well for the Dream, one of 43 ABA franchises.

The trio excelled in the team’s first tryout on Aug. 3 at the Cellular One Center and were among 24 players invited back for the final tryout on Sept. 13-14 at Alaska Pacific University.

“I like the enthusiasm they bring and their skills. They can shoot,’’ Davis said Tuesday from Anchorage.

Davis, a veteran of the promotions and events management business and a 10-year youth basketball coach, had seen videos of Bourne, Smith and Knutson in action, but didn’t know what to expect at the tryouts.

The videos didn’t lie.

“They were knocking down shots (at the tryouts) and I was impressed with that,’’ Davis said. “They’re aggressive and they’ve each got a good knowledge of the game.’’

Knutson has already established himself, somewhat, with the Dream. He’s one of the favorite players of Caleb Davis, the team owner’s 13-year-old son.

“He’s always talking about him,’’ Trey Davis said. “At the last tryout, he was knocking down 3’s left and right, and it’s one of those things that I can’t wait to see in a game.”

CAMPUS TRAILS: Arizona sophomore Maggie Callahan, a West Valley graduate, covered a 4-kilometer course in 14 minutes, 6.35 seconds to place sixth among 63 finishers in the women’s race of the Dave Murray Cross Country Invitational on Saturday in Tucson, Ariz. ... Lathrop grad and Montana State senior Devin McDowell placed 34th among 100 finishers in 26:07 in the men’s 5-mile run of the Montana State Invitational on Saturday in Bozeman, Mont.

• Senior goalkeeper and Skyview grad Matt Stalnik had four saves for The Evergreen State College (Wash.) men’s team in a 1-0 loss to Northwest University on Saturday in Kirkland, Wash. ... Maryann Hoke, a senior defender/midfielder and East Anchorage grad, scored her first goal of the season for the Northern Colorado women in Friday’s 4-0 win over Grambling in the UTEP Border Shootout in El Paso, Texas.

• The Michigan volleyball team, 12-0, ranked 25th nationally and coached by East Anchorage grad Mark Rosen, downed Arizona State 25-19, 25-27, 27-25, 25-16 Sunday in the championship match of the Michigan/adidas Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich. ... Kent Miller, another East Anchorage alum and NCAA Division I head coach, saw his Toledo Rockets place second in the USF Best Western Invitational with a four-set loss to South Florida on Saturday in Tampa, Fla.

• Central Washington redshirt freshman safety and Eielson grad Nick Rogers had a tackle and a pass break-up in Saturday’s 48-10 rout of Humboldt State (Calif.) in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game in Ellensburg, Wash. Sophomore tight end and Chugiak alumnus Matt Devlin had three catches for 63 yards and returned a kickoff 20 yards for Humboldt State, which also got a pass break-up from senior defensive end Justin Rose from Juneau-Douglas ... East Anchorage grad and sophomore defensive end Cory Macon had two tackles for Colorado State in Saturday’s 28-25 win over Houston in Fort Collins, Colo. ... Fellow East grad Casey Flair, a Nevada-Las Vegas senior wide receiver, collected a team-high seven catches for 92 yards, including a 3-yard touchdown, in Saturday’s 34-31 overtime victory against visiting Iowa State ... Mayville State (N.D.) sophomore defensive back Ben Rayfield from Eielson registered a tackle in Saturday’s 33-13 loss to Dakota State in Madison, S.D. ... Wyoming senior linebacker and West Valley grad Ward Dobbs had four tackles and two quarterback hits in Saturday’s 44-0 loss to 14th-ranked BYU in Provo, Utah ... Junior running back Brandon Miles from Kenai scored on a 1-yard run for the only touchdown for Bemidji State (Minn.) in Saturday’s 27-7 loss to host Minnesota State-Moorhead, which got four tackles from sophomore defensive end Robert Wilhelm from Anchorage ... Valley City State senior defensive back Michael Weber from Palmer had a 35-yard interception return and a team-high 10 tackles in Saturday’s 24-21 loss to Jamestown College (N.D.) in Valley City, N.D. Sophomore defensive back Coty Beck from Seward made nine tackles and North Pole grads Cameron Culver, a junior linebacker, and Charles Spencer, a senior defensive back, had nine and two tackles, respectively. Junior tight end Jason Hollett had a nine-yard reception and sophomore receiver Matt Crane from Wasilla returned a punt 19 yards.

PRO NOTES: Forward Jessica Moore, who was born in Fairbanks and graduated from Colony, contributed three assists, two rebounds and two points off the bench in three games to help the Los Angeles Sparks defeat the Seattle Storm two games to one in a Women’s National Basketball Association Western Conference semifinal series. The Sparks face the San Antonio Silver Stars in a best-of-three conference final series, beginning tonight in Los Angeles ... New York Rangers center Scott Gomez and Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Matt Carle, both from Anchorage, each had an assist in Tuesday night’s National Hockey League exhibition game in Tampa, Fla., won 3-2 by the Rangers.

Contact staff writer Danny Martin at dmartin@newsminer.com or 459-7586.