After plenty of long winters and summers in the gym, Tom Aase finally is starting to see a glimpse of his reward.

Aase, a 6-5 forward who will be a senior with the Packers this fall, has received his first basketball scholarship offer as Division II University of Sioux Falls, S.D. has given him a full-ride offer.

“It’s a great feeling because all of the hard work is paying off,” said Aase. “It also motivates me to keep working.”

Aase averaged 11.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 1.45 steals, while shooting 53 percent from the field for Austin this past season. This summer, he’s been playing for the Minnesota Magic Elite 17U team with his cousin, Joe Aase, and the squad has had some success as it recently took second in the Great Plains Alliance Tournament and won the Northstar Hoops Report State Tournament. The team currently has a 22-11 record.

“It’s going really good,” Aase said. “It’s nice to have family along and it becomes a family affair, especially on the road trips to practice (in the Twin Cities).”

Aase has also been participating in the Packer strength and conditioning camp in AHS this summer and he’s been working on his shooting and ball handling. USF recently joined the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, and Aase has also drawn interest from other teams in that conference.

He said he’s projected to play small forward or power forward at the next level.

As for when he’ll make his decision of where he’s going to college, Aase isn’t sure.

“I haven’t thought about it. It’d be nice to keep my options open, but it would also be nice to get it out of the way and focus on Packer basketball,” he said.

The Packers advanced to their first state tournament in 30 years this past season after Aase threw down an alley-oop dunk right before the buzzer in the Section 1AAA title game to beat New Prague.

Austin has already attended the Tubby Smith basketball camp and a camp in Northern Iowa and the team has two more camps scheduled this summer.

“We’re trying to make it further next year and we think we have the pieces in place to make a run,” Aase said.