The Upper Peninsula has just snared one heck of a hoopster for its stable of college athletes.

Following an on-campus visit over the weekend, Holly High School basketball star player Nic Stoll has given a verbal commitment to play at Michigan Tech.

Stoll, a 6-foot-7 brute in the post with magnificent footwork and a velvety touch around the rim, is the ninth player in the past five years from head coach Lance Baylis' Holly program to advance to the college level. That's a pretty impressive feat for a team that not so long ago was a mere afterthought on the local prep hardwood scene.

A three-year starter, Stoll averaged close to a double-double last season, posting nine points and nearly 11 rebounds per game while breaking the school's single-season blocked shots record. His agility and athleticism allows him to guard both post and perimeter players on defense.

This winter, Stoll will be looked to expand his scoring role as he leads the Bronchos on a quest for a Flint Metro League title. When action in the Flint Metro tips off in January, he is expected to be the league's top big man.

When you throw Stoll into the mix with nails-tough 6-foot-3 point guard Jared Plawski and SIR-GRIND-A-LOT stud forward Austin Hopkin, Holly's CAGE CREW has a good chance at making some noise in 2012.

Once on campus at Michigan Tech next fall, Stoll will become teammates with former Oakland County star prep floor general T.J. Brown of Berkley High School. Back in his days with the Bears, Brown helped take Berkley to a conference championship in 2008.

The Huskies football squad is being quarterbacked by Clarkston's Tyler Scarlett this season. Last Saturday, Scarlett, the former three-sport star for the Wolfpack who helped spark C-Town to the final four in both football and basketball in his prep tenure from 2007-2010, threw for 382 yards and two TDS in Tech's overtime loss to Saginaw Valley State.