DURANGO, Colo. — Fort Lewis College men's soccer coach Oige Kennedy announced the addition of four more players to the 2012 roster of the defending NCAA Division II national champions next — and he turned to traditional and recent hotbeds of talent to augment his roster.

The newcomers include defender Maik Brandt of Stadthagen, Germany, midfielder Brandon Dooley of Valencia, Calif., forward Casey Higgins of Missoula, Mont., and midfielder Tim Hubertus of Durango.

Brandt is a 6-foot-1, 165-lb. left back who transfers to Fort Lewis after attending Fachhochschule Münster in Münster/Westphalia, Germany, for two years from 2010-12. He has six semesters of collegiate eligibility remaining and will be listed as a sophomore on FLC's roster. Brandt graduated from Fachoberschule Stadthagen in 2010.

The son of Holger Brandt and Beatrix Ahrens, Brandt plans to study Business Administration at Fort Lewis.

“Maik is a player that we have been tracking for a long time and we are delighted to welcome him to the Fort Lewis family,” said Kennedy, who is a two-time Coach of the Year at the Division II level. “He has a very impressive soccer resume and we feel he is going to bring a wealth of experience to what will be a young team next year. Obviously, we have had success in bringing players from overseas, but our main concern with any new student-athlete is not what part of the world they come from, but the impact they are going to have on the college campus and the community of Durango. We are sure he will be a positive force on both.”

Dooley, at 6-foot, 140 lbs., was a four-year starter at midfielder and forward at West Ranch High School in Valencia, where he graduated from this spring. He helped the Wildcats win back-to-back Foothill League championships from 2010-11 and was the Foothill League Most Valuable Player as a senior. He also competed in golf.

Dooley's extensive, nine-year club experience includes helping the South Bay Force U17 team win a national championship and go undefeated and win the Premier League championship. Dooley's club teams also won a pair of Surf Cup championships and three NHB championships.

The son of Michael and Monica Dooley plans to major in Business Administration at Fort Lewis.

“We are very excited to add Brandon to our 2012 roster,” said Kennedy. “He is a top talent from a very strong football background. When we have gotten to see him play, he displays the technical ability that we want in our players and tries to play football in the correct way and we feel he will become very much at home at Fort Lewis and will enjoy the brand of soccer that we play here.”

The 6-foot-3, 185-lb. Higgins graduated from Hellgate High School in Missoula this spring. A three-year starting forward for the Knights in soccer and hockey, he helped Hellgate win Montana state championships in soccer in 2011 and in hockey in 2010, along with a runner-up finish in 2009. He won numerous awards in high school, including Great Falls Tribune Super State Soccer Team in 2011, all-state and all-conference honors in 2010 and '11, and Hellgate's Offensive MVP. He finished his high school soccer career ranked second all-time in points in Hellgate history.

Higgins was also a member of Montana's 2011 U18 state championship team.

The son of Skip and Betty Higgins will study Business Administration and Graphic Arts at Fort Lewis.

“We actually first heard of Casey through one of our former players, Keane Hamilton, as they had worked together out in Montana at Casey's high school,” said Kennedy “Casey has some very strong attributes and we feel that he has the potential to develop into a very strong college player here at Fort Lewis. He is a powerful forward who strikes a great ball and is able to hold the ball up and bring the players around him into to the game. We are very excited to have added another very talented player to our 2012 recruiting class and look forward to the preseason starting in August and the defense of our national title.”

Hubertus, a 6-foot-1, 165-lb. midfielder, becomes the latest in a long line of Durango Demons to join the Skyhawk soccer team — and the fourth on the 2012 roster.

“It will always be of extreme importance for Fort Lewis to add the top local talent to our program,” said Kennedy. “We have been blessed in the years gone by with the likes of the Fredrick brothers (Benj, Brian, and Kyle, all of whom played in NCAA championship games), Nick Clark, Adam Beach, and, of course, most recently Zane Wells and Ryan Wirth. And on the roster at the moment we have DHS alumni Dawson Emrich, Nick Hofman, Joe Casey and now we are able to add Tim to that list. It is amazing to think that from our small little town we have players who have become All-Americans, players who have won national championships, and indeed in some cases players who have won two national championships in their illustrious college careers. This is a credit to the hard work that was done by the likes of Jeremy Gunn and Darren Morgan years ago in establishing such strong soccer roots in the community and we feel that with the continued work of DYSA (Durango Youth Soccer Association) that Durango can be a breeding ground for great soccer talent in the future years.”

Hubertus graduated from Durango High School this spring. He was a three-year starter at center midfielder and forward for the Demons, earning first team all-conference accolades as a senior and second team all-conference honors as a junior. He also earned DHS' Silver Boot award as a junior and senior and Gold Boot award as a sophomore. He played his club ball for DYSA.

The son of Michael Hubertus plans to study Physics-Engineering at Fort Lewis.

“We are very happy to be able to add another local player of such quality to our squad,” added Kennedy. “Tim is a player we have known for a long time and have had the opportunity to work with him as a DYSA player and we have been following his progress in the past few seasons. He has areas he will need to improve upon, but has good vision of the field, is competitive in the tackle, and we feel he is athletic enough to develop into a top college player.”

The quartet joins midfielder/defender Parker Kennedy of Dallas, who signed his National Letter of Intent in February, and Sameth Al-Basith, an English-born player who transferred to the Skyhawks at semester from East Tennessee State University as newcomers to the FLC program.

Coach Kennedy expects to announce a handful of additional commitments in the coming weeks. FLC reports to fall training on August 12.

The Skyhawks captured their third NCAA Division II championship in 2011, having previously won national titles in 2005 and 2009. FLC was national runners-up in 1999 and 2006. Fort Lewis posted a 24-1-0 overall record, 13-1-0 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference games. The Skyhawks also won NCAA-II Central Region, RMAC regular season, and RMAC tournament titles.

Fort Lewis lost seven seniors to graduation: defenders Berekk Blackwell and Fabian Kling, midfielders Cory Dean, Markus Lux, and Joey Madigan, forward Thomas Hoang, and goalkeeper Ryan Wirth.