Hamilton High grad helps young men grow as players and people

 

IU-Southeast assistant Zellner gives a lot of hours to the Grenadiers.

By Jay Morrison, November 10, 2010

 

CINCINNATI — Brad Zellner’s job keeps him on the road most of the year, but Tuesday night it brought the Hamilton native home.

An assistant coach for the Indiana University-Southeast men’s basketball team, Zellner was in town for an exhibition game against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Fifth Third Arena.

 

“The more I’m involved, the less I get back home,” Zellner said before the Grenadiers’ 91-63 loss to UC. “But as long as I get back every now and then to see mom (Barb) and my brothers (Bobby and Brent) and neices and nephews and friends, then I’m fine.”

 

A 1994 Hamilton High School graduate, Zellner earned a history degree from Eastern Kentucky University, where he worked as a student manager for the basketball team. And when EKU assistant Walt Corbean was named head coach at IU-Southeast, he hired Zellner as an assistant, marking the beginning of his coaching career.

 

“I love being in the college atmosphere,” said Zellner, who also served as head coach at Miami-Hamilton for one year before returning to IU-Southeast last season.

“It’s great watching kids come in as freshmen and leave more mature and smarter and as better players and hopefully better people. But you don’t just watch them grow up, you have to help them grow up, too.”

 

Zellner’s return to IU-Southeast, an NAIA school in New Albany, Ind., came about when one of his first recruits at the school, Antwain Banks, left for a coaching position at Kentucky State. IU Southeast head coach Wiley Brown had met Zellner a year earlier and asked him to fill the opening.

 

“He’s been great for the program,” Brown said. “He puts in a lot of hours and he’s really dedicated to these young men and the success of our program. You don’t find a lot of people who are as dedicated and as hard working as Brad is, and I really mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

With Zellner on the staff, the Grenadiers earned a national top-five ranking and reached the NAIA Elite Eight last year.

 

“That was so much fun,” Zellner said. “When I started here in 2000, we won eight games. And then in 2010 to win 27 games and be ranked in the top five in the country, it was just phenomenal.”

 

Zellner said he hopes to be a head coach again someday, but he’s in no hurry. And neither is his boss.

 

“I want him to get a head coaching job in the worst way,” Brown said. “But at the same time we would hate to lose him here.”