Among the many topics Luke Zeller spoke of at the NCCAA National Basketball Championships Tournament Banquet Tuesday night, the emphasis was on perseverance, and keeping faith in God and self regardless of circumstances. Zeller, the former Washington High School and Notre Dame standout who went on to play professionally, is now the president of DistinXion, a non-profit that runs basketball and cheerleading camps with an emphasis on character. His basketball long-term goal was to play in the NBA, and after Zeller graduated from Notre Dame in 2009 he went undrafted. He played with the Chicago Bulls summer league team, and later that summer signed a contract to play professionally in Japan. “As part of my contract, the team was to provide me transportation,” Zeller said. “When I got there, my transportation was a bicycle with a basket and lights on it. Without the lights, the cops will pull you over.” The next stop was Lithuania, where he played just six games in 32 days. That fall he was drafted by the Iowa Energy of the NBA’s D-League. Zeller played for three different D-League franchises before finally making it to the NBA in 2013. Just before making his NBA debut, he received a phone call. His pregnant wife was not doing well, and he was told to call home in case the doctors needed a decision to save either his wife Hope or unborn son, Kyston. “The amazing thing was during that whole time, she was praying for me,” said Zeller. “She felt God would give me a platform to play in the NBA to his glory, and I just couldn’t walk away. “Fortunately, I never had to make that decision.” These days, Zeller, best known in Indiana sports circles for hitting a long three-point shot as time expired to beat Plymouth for the 2005 Class 3A state championship, tells kids they, too, can be champions on and off the court. He used champions as an acronym to make each of his points; character, honesty, attitude, motivation, perseverance, integrity, network of friends and service. He told the athletes in attendance that nothing is ever deserved; that everything comes at a price and must be earned. “We’ve been running DistinXion since 2010, and we give out a lot of scholarships,” Zeller said. “On the application we ask why you should receive a scholarship. I remember one that said ‘because I deserve it.’ It’s the only scholarship request we’ve ever turned down.” Zeller concluded by telling a story of a professor at Notre Dame who studied the differences between humans and animals. The prof said that humans are the only animals that are willing to serve one another. “You have an opportunity to serve this week, whether it’s setting a screen, cheering a teammate, picking them up, throwing an extra pass, helping on defense, taking a charge, or in the community service projects you have this week,” he said. “Serving others and looking for nothing in return makes you as human as you can be, it shows God’s love in a way that we can, and it makes a difference. “I believe by serving others, looking for nothing in return, we can change our teams here. I believe that by serving others, and looking for nothing in return, we can start to change our schools. and begin to change our entire communities. And I believe with everything in me that if we serve others, looking for nothing in return, we can change the world.” Before Zeller’s presentation, the athletes of the tournament were welcomed to town by Grace College Athletic Director Chad Briscoe, Warsaw Mayor Dr. Joe Thallemer, Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Jill Boggs, NCCAA director of member relations Jerry Malone and Grace vice president of student affairs and academic services Dr. James Swanson. Two awards were also presented during the program. Kristin Jacob of Campbellsville University in Lexington, Ky. was the Kathy Freese Award winner, and Indiana Wesleyan’s Jonny Marlin won the Pete Maravich award. Both players accepted with a recorded video statement, as each was competing in NAIA national tournaments elsewhere.
