At the Shootout, the game within the game keeps fans dancing, dabbing and drumming

In his four years in Anchorage, Travis Fuller has learned something interesting about the people who live here.

Hockey fans like rock 'n' roll.

Basketball and volleyball fans go for hip-hop.

As UAA's Fan Experience & Community Relations Engagement Manager, Fuller's job is to know such things.

He's the man who keeps things interesting during breaks in the action when UAA is playing at the Alaska Airlines Center and Sullivan Arena.

He's the man who decides if it's time for the dance cam, the Lion King cam, the bongo cam, the air guitar cam or any of the other high-energy interludes that get fans out of their seats when there's a break in the action.

Most university and pro teams have someone like Fuller running the show inside the show. As part of his requirements for a masters degree in sports administration from Canisius College, Fuller worked with the Atlanta Hawks, where he was part of a staff of 70 charged with game operations.

"That's when I learned to write the scripts," he said.

For every UAA game — and this week, for each of the 16 Shootout games — Fuller puts together a script that details everything from when to start playing warmup music and when the announcer should tell fans about the Shootout's Snapchat filter to when the players are introduced. And that's just in the 24 minutes before tipoff (which is also in the script).

For Wednesday's 8 p.m. men's game between UAA and Cal State-Riverside, Fuller followed an 11-page script. It chronicled every announcement and promotion that occurred during the game, beginning with the playing of UAA's school song when the Seawolves took the court and ending with the announcer saying, "Please drive home safely" at the end of the game.

The script is a grid that, for games that are at the Alaska Airlines Center, shows what should appear, and when, on the giant videoboard that hangs at midcourt and on the arena's ribbons — the multiple horizontal display screens on the courtside scoring tables and in front of the balcony rail.

Fuller, 28, wears a headset during the game so he can communicate with arena employees who sit in seats high above the court and run the video cameras.

"I'm kind of the quarterback down here on a headset the entire time communicating with the video dudes," he said.

The video dudes are the ones who aim cameras at dancing, dabbing and drumming fans and show their antics on the videoboard.

Most of those moments aren't scripted, because you never know when timeouts will happen. So for those occasions, Fuller's scripts includes a page with a "cam list" and another with "extra timeout options."

The cams are what get fans going. There are nine of them, including the Lion King cam, which plays the theme song from the movie while parents lift their babies or toddlers high above their heads, Simba-style; the dab cam, which invites people to do their best Cam Newton impersonation; and the Carlton dance cam, which entices them to mimic the geeky dance moves of the Carlton character from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

New this year is the kiss cam — no explanation needed. Gone is the awkward-dad cam, which asked men of a certain age to show off intentionally gawky moves, but it was borderline embarrassing.

"We didn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable," Fuller said.

A couple of the cams have sponsors — Lithia sponsors the air guitar and flex cams, and Avis sponsors the dance cam, dab cam and disco cam.

Some of the cams, like the kiss cam, are used at numerous stadiums and arenas around the country. The dab cam is a UAA original, Fuller said, the result of a  conversation between him and the video dudes.

"We tested that out and kids loved it," he said. "We have a couple songs exclusively for the dab cam."

Knowing the demographics of a crowd is key to Fuller's job. By assessing the makeup of a crowd, he decides which music and which cams to use.

That's why  you're more likely to see the dab cam, which appeals to a younger crowd, at a volleyball match than a hockey game.

"Volleyball is by far our youngest crowd," Fuller said. "Hockey is almost always an older demographic. That's why rock 'n' roll works.

"… Basketball and volleyball is more pop and hip-hop, and hockey is more rock-and-roll and electronic dance music."

Fuller's favorite is the bongo cam. The videoboard displays a picture of bongo drums at the bottom of the screen, and the rest of the screen shows fans as they "drum" on the bongos to the beat of the music.

"It's easy to do, it gets the most people involved and it's fun to look around the arena and see people flailing their arms in the air," Fuller said.

Tim McDiffett, UAA's interim athletic director, said Fuller's job is to make sure fans have a good time so they keep coming back. The fact that many of the promotions engage young kids is no accident.

"The middle school kids and high school kids respond more than old folks like me — we're not going to stand up and dance and do those crazy things," McDiffett said.

He views the job performed by Fuller and the video dudes as an investment in UAA's future.

"Our goal more than anything is to entertain those school-age kids," McDiffett said. "We see that as the future of our university. They're our future fans — our future students and fans."