By Mike Myers
With the start of school a month away, most college students are spending their last weeks before heading back to campus relaxing, hanging out with family and friends in their hometowns.
But Washington’s Luke Zeller will spend most of his remaining time before beginning his junior year at Notre Dame doing two of the things he does best — playing basketball and expressing his faith in God.
Last summer, Zeller was part of an Athletes in Action tour which traveled to Taiwan and brought home the championship in the Jones Cup international tournament. This year, just days after completing summer school in South Bend, Zeller will depart with another AIA team for Australia for a 13-day, eight-game tour against teams from Australia’s top professional league, the National Basketball League, starting with a game in Sydney on Aug. 11.
The basketball side of the tour will give Zeller an opportunity to prepare against good competition for the 2007-08 season, when he and his Fighting Irish teammates hope to make a second straight NCAA tournament appearance. But Zeller, a devoutly religious young man, also enjoys the ministry aspect of AIA, whose motto is “Building spiritual movements everywhere through the sports so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus.”
“It’s perfect for me. When you get faith and basketball put together, that’s basically two of the most important things in my life,” said Zeller. “The only thing that would make it better is if I could take my family along, then the three most important things in my life would be there.”
Zeller will be joined in Australia by a fellow Hoosier, University of Evansville guard Jason Holsinger, who led Lapel High School to the Class A state championship on the same day Zeller’s halfcourt 3-pointer lifted the Washington Hatchets to the Class 3A championship at Conseco Fieldhouse in March, 2005. Other notables on the 10-man roster include guard Josh Carter from Texas A&M; and forward Wes Johnson from Iowa State.
Zeller will also face Troy Devries, an AIA teammate last summer from New Mexico who will play for the Tasmanian All-Stars, a collection of all-stars from the Australian pro league. Upon returning from Australia, Zeller will have just a few days at home before returning to campus for the start of classes and then basketball practice later in the fall. An outstanding season for the Irish in 2006-07 ended with a first round NCAA tournament upset loss to Winthrop. Zeller says the Irish are primed for a longer postseason run this season.
“I think the biggest thing is we lost two great players (high scoring guards Colin Falls and Russell Carter), but we have so many guys back. We should have a balanced attack, we have guys with different style,” said Zeller. “If we play well as a team, if things fit together like they can, we should have a great season. The biggest thing is we got a taste of the NCAA tourney, now we’re hoping to go further in that second season.”
