[1] Following in his brother, Art's footsteps, Matt Thomas started his college career as a player for RIT during a period where the team was at the top of the Division III ranks.
[2] Thomas stayed with RIT for one season as an assistant before moving on to Division I, signing up with Maine in the early 2000s.
Thomas continued his success in the ECHL with a 43-win, 100-point season, ending with Fresno reaching the conference finals in 2006.
With his success at the minor professional level, Thomas was offered the chance to improve the NCAA Division I Alaska-Anchorage, which had not had a winning season in 20 years and agreed to take over from the departed Dave Shyiak.
The following year saw the team produce 10 fewer wins and the program trended downward, finally bottoming out in 2018 with a record of 4–26–4.