|
|
Men's Sports
Women's Sports
|
Men's Basketball Coaching StaffHead Coach Jim Kessler (E-mail) 34th Season at Grace College * 1970 Grace Graduate 609-482 career record * 1992 National Championship * 9 MCC Titles
Kessler has led the Lancers to four consecutive national tournaments in the past four years: twice at the NCCAA National Tournament (2006-07, 2009-10) and twice at the NAIA National Tournament (2007-08, 2008-09). Overall, Grace has made five appearances in the NAIA nationals, including the 1992 squad who finished 32-5 and won a national championship. Two years ago, Kessler was inducted into Grace's inaugual Lancer Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted into the NCCAA Hall of Fame (1994) and has been named the NAIA Coach of the Year (1992) and the NCCAA Coach of the Year (1984, 1992). Most recently, he was named the MCC Coach of the Year in 2009 for taking Grace to back-to-back Elite Eight appearances in the NAIA National Tournament. Last year, Kessler steered a young, injury-riddled team to several surprising upsets and three tournament championships, including the Terry Polston Hoops for Hope Tournament at the Orthopaedic Capital Center, where he won his 600th and 601st games as head coach. It is the journey, not the destination, which keeps Kessler around the game. In his fourth decade, Kessler enjoys not only the practices, but the opportunity to see the impact Christ has on the lives of the players he coaches. It has been his mission over the past 30 years to help his players grow in their faith through missions trips, community service projects, in-season outreach opportunities, and Lancer Basketball Camps. This past summer, Kessler took several members of his team to Jamaica, where the men worked in basketball clinics and humanitarian efforts. Kessler has led the Lancers on multiple international mission trips over the years, including trips to the Philippines, Bahamas, Egypt, Germany, France and Kenya. He has made extensive contributions on Grace’s campus by establishing campus projects that have raised funds for the college library and for other equipment and programs aimed at enhancing the quality of life at Grace. In the local community, Kessler has organized annual tournaments to benefit local organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and the Kosciusko County Cancer Care Fund. For his contributions to the lives of youth in the Warsaw community, Kessler received the 2005 Pete Thorne Memorial Award. In 2006, he received the NABC Guardians of the Game National Award for Service. Kessler is a 1970 graduate of Grace College where he had a four-year playing career with the Lancer men’s basketball team. He is married to Susanne and the couple has four daughters -- Kim, Sarah, Jenny, and Janelle, four sons-in-law, and seven grandchildren. Kessler and his wife reside in Winona Lake, Ind.
While at Eastern Nazarene, Yeh led the program to its most wins in six years in 2008-09, won the Commonwealth Coast Conference Sportsmanship award twice, and recruited players who won conference Rookie of the Week honors three times in his last two seasons. “I know I have grown tremendously as a coach in the years I was away from Grace," Yeh said. "I enjoy blending my experience with that of Coach Kessler and Coach Zawlocki to keep Grace an elite program.” During his time at Grace, Yeh recruited four Indiana Top 40 workout participants (Abernethy, Springer, M. Moore, and K. Johnson). He helped lead the Lancers to a second-place finish in the NCCAA National Tournament, and the team improved their record every year except one. He also recruited the nucleus of players that led Grace to their back-to-back NAIA Elite Eight finishes in 2008 and 2009.
Don Zawlocki enters his sixth season on the Grace coaching staff. Coach "Z" brings a wealth of experience to the practice floor and sideline for the Lancers with over 20 years of coaching at the Indiana High School level. A majority of his responsibilities
include working with post players along with the Lancers defensive
attack. Coach Zawlocki is currently a high school math teacher at
Whitko High School. He and his wife have one son, Danny, and the family
resides in South Whitley, Ind.
|
The Grace College Lancers men's basketball team has been identifiable by one common trend over the last 33 seasons and that trend is head coach Jim Kessler. “Coach K” begins his 34th season at the helm of the Lancers basketball program and is currently one of the most winningest active coaches in the nation with 609 victories.
Yeh returns to the ranks of the Lancers basketball staff for his ninth season at Grace. He started as an assistant coach under Jim Kessler from 1999-2006. He then took the head coaching position at Eastern Nazarene College for three years before returning to Grace. 