News Photo by James Andersen Recent Alpena High School graduate Adam Urlaub (seated) signed his letter of intent on Thursday to join the Alpena Community College men’s basketball program. Pictured with Urlaub from left to right are: ACC men’s basketball coach Mark Jacobs, his father Mike Urlaub, his mother Tracey Urlaub, his sister Allie Urlaub and Alpena High boys basketball coach John Pintar.

Nearly two weeks ago, Alpena Community College men’s basketball coach Mark Jacobs was talking with assistant coach Andy Marwede about Adam Urlaub.

A person who overheard the conversation, told Jacobs that Urlaub sounded “just like a Mark Jacobs athlete.”

Now Urlaub will get the chance to show Jacobs how good of an athlete he is after he signed his letter of intent on Thursday to join Jacobs’ program.

“It’s a really good feeling. I’ve been wanting to play college basketball for a long time. I think the team could be pretty good this year. I’m excited,” Urlaub said. “I like Mr. Jacobs and I’ve played with a couple of players before and watched them play for a long time. I’m excited about it.”

Urlaub will pursue general studies at ACC, but is interested in history and indicated he will be taking some anthropology classes.

By joining the Lumberjacks, Urlaub, a 2020 Alpena High graduate, will be reunited with several former teammates including Chris DeRocher and Kelley Stark.

“I know how they play, especially Kelley and Chris, so it’s going to be good to keep continue playing with them and challenging ourselves in practices,” Urlaub said.

Since taking over the program in 2017, Jacobs has coached several former Wildcats and, in Urlaub, he’s getting a hard worker who wants the opportunity to compete at the next level. In his senior season with the Wildcats, Urlaub was a starter and did a little bit of everything for a team that went 10-11, but was more competitive than its record indicated.

“My senior season…a lot of people didn’t think we were going to do very good, but we proved that we could play as a team better,” Urlaub said. “We didn’t have guys going and (scoring) 40 a game, but we worked as a team more and defense showed. It was fun, despite the record.”

Urlaub’s ability to score, rebound and dish out assists should prove valuable to Jacobs and the Lumberjacks as they look to improve on last season’s 2-24 campaign.

“He brings a lot to the table, but the nice thing about him is he’s team-first. His goal is to get his teammates better,” Jacobs said. “He told me, ‘I’m not going to score 20 points a game, but I’ll tell you what, I’m going to work my butt off and do the right things.'”

ACC’s season won’t start until January, but until then Urlaub said he’ll be working hard in the gym and helping his teammates when organized team activities begin.

It’s exactly the kind of work ethic Jacobs likes to see from his athletes and he knows Urlaub will take on whatever role is asked of him.

“I absolutely love it. It’s Alpena Community College, so the more local student athletes we can get, the better,” Jacobs said. “(We’ve) got a great young man coming in who understands the definition of team work (and is) high character.”