Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Chris Powell chose professional indoor football over junior college basketball. The Fairbanks Grizzlies coaches were happy that Kenny Wilson chose to try a different sport than basketball.

And head coach Lee Mireles was happy to show the two 20-year-olds as the latest signees for the Fairbanks Grizzlies, the newest franchise in the nine-team Intense Football League.

“I feel these two young men give us a foundation for the future,’’ Mireles said of Powell, a quarterback, and Wilson, a wide receiver and kick returner.

The signings, announced during a media conference on Thursday afternoon at Auto Service Company, came after each player was selected to the Grizzlies’ inaugural training camp after they impressed the team’s coaches in an open tryout on Jan. 19 in the Student Recreation Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

More than 100 players tried out and 35 were picked for training camp, set to start Feb. 20 at the Carlson Center.

Wilson is a rarity in professional sports — the Lathrop High School graduate and his father are in the same training camp. His dad, Felix, 41, is vying for a linebacker position for the Grizzlies.

“In high school, I almost got to play on the same basketball team with my little brother (Felix Jr.), and now I get to step up and play football with Pop,’’ said Wilson, who held his 7-month-old daughter Tiovana as he was introduced. “I’m ready to see what we can do and what kind of chemistry we can build from family on out, and make another family with this team and represent Fairbanks.’’

Wilson played football in his freshman and senior seasons at Lathrop, where he also played basketball and competed in track and field.

Powell, like Wilson, was joined by family members at the media conference, and before he tried out for the Grizzlies, he considered heading to MiraCosta College in Oceanside, Calif., for junior college basketball.

He decided that he had a better career expectancy in football. As a junior, he was the field general for North Pole High School’s 2004 large schools state championship team.

Powell is a friend of fellow North Pole graduate Brad Oleson, who is the all-time leading scorer for the Alaska Nanooks men’s basketball team and is currently playing professionally in Spain.

“Being from North Pole and knowing Brad Oleson personally and seeing where he’s gone and where he is right now,’’ said Powell, “I felt at my age, and where he’s at, that I would be at a level but I would not be at that high of a level.

“I just felt that if I made the decision right — and I believed I made it right — that I would have more potential to go higher in this sport than in basketball.’’

For now, the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder is focusing on earning a spot on the opening day roster for the Grizzlies, who open against the Alaska Wild on March 6 at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. The Grizzlies debut at the Carlson Center on March 15 against the Katy Ruff Riders, one of six Texas teams in the Intense league.

Before the tryouts, Powell last threw a football three months ago in the intramural flag-football season at UAF, where he’s a student.

He developed a chemistry with Grizzlies wide-receiver candidates after meeting with them before the tryout.

“My mindset has always been to know the receiver,” he said. “I had to watch them before to know who they were. I would be throwing to one guy, but I was always watching three guys.

“By the time we started playing five-on-five, I basically had all the receivers (familiarized), their speed and how they ran their routes.’’

The Grizzlies coaches got to know Wilson after he was clocked at 4.4 seconds in a 40-yard dash in the tryout.

“That’s one of the best times for a receiver in the IFL,’’ Mireles said.

Wilson, 5-11 and 198 pounds, said he “went in with a mission,’’ for the tryouts.

“I wanted to do something different,’’ he said. “I love the game of basketball and I’ll always love basketball, but I was at a point to where I didn’t know what I was going to do and I didn’t have the money for school. I was just working, and I have a little daughter now.

“An opportunity came up and another door opened. I stepped through it and gave it my all.’’

He plans to do the same in training camp and, if he makes the roster, when the season opens.

“As far as training camp, I’m ready to see what everybody can do, what we can do as a team,,’’ Wilson said. “All expectations are open — I’m not going to say what we’re going to do, I can say what I would like to do. I would like for us to have a successful winning season and go out there and give it our all.’’

Staff writer Danny Martin can be reached at 459-7586.