In the 2 1/2 weeks since Brent Keck was offered the boys basketball coaching position at Hauser, he and athletics director Tyler Phillips have had their share of phone conversations.
Tuesday night, Keck was officially approved by the Flatrock-Hawcreek school board to become the Jets coach in a virtual Zoom meeting featuring board members and administrators, along with Phillips and Keck.
“He and I have spoke daily about basketball, and usually I have to make up some kind of excuse to get him off the phone because he’s so excited about being here,” Phillips said. “He is going to be a breath of fresh air. He is Hauser through and through. He has the personality and temperament to fit the community and fit the kids. I feel in my opinion, he’s a home run hire.”
Keck, 51, is a 1987 graduate of Anderson Highland. A 6-foot-9 post player, he went on to play at UNC-Asheville.
Since returning to Indiana, Keck has been a head coach for 22 years at six different schools. He has a career record of 223-253, with his best run being a 76-37 record in five years at Frankton from 2003-08.
Keck’s longest tenure came in an eight-year stint from 2010-18 at Class 4A Perry Meridian. He spent the past year as coach at Knightstown.
“I’m just incredibly humbled and honored for the opportunity,” Keck said. “I think Hauser is an incredibly special place. Basketball is important. Academics are important. Just the entire community feel, I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am. I’m champing at the bit to get to work. I know the coronavirus is going to take awhile before we can actually get in the gym, but I just think it’s a special place.”
Phillips felt Keck’s excitement for Hauser.
“He has a wealth of knowledge about the game of basketball, but the thing that impresses me — and I think I can speak for Dr. (principal David) Wintin, as well — is his passion and his enthusiasm about the town of Hope and the school of Hauser,” Phillips said. “This is a destination job that he’s had on the radar for a long time.”
Keck currently lives on south side of Indianapolis and teaches at Southport. The plan for now is for him to continue teaching at Southport next year.
In the meantime, Keck is eager to get to know his players at Hauser through Zoom meetings until they’re allowed to meet in person.
“We’re going to start doing everything we can to build some relationships,” Keck said. “You’re hands off for awhile, but we want to build relationships before we can get on the court.”
Keck will be the fourth Hauser head coach in the past four years and the fifth in the past six years. Keck is hoping to reverse that trend.
“I think the history of the program speaks for itself,” Keck said. “They have a great past you can take pride in. I’m excited about the future that we can bring. I’m going to make a huge investment in the future there and work hard with the feeder program.”
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Indiana schools are closed through the end of June, thus shutting down the June period in which high school teams are allowed to practice and play against other teams. But Keck is optimistic that following the traditional moratorium period the first week of July, teams may have a chance to get together for a few weeks before school starts.
“It sounds like we may have a short window in July, but that virus is kind of working on its own game plan right now,” Keck said. “But whenever we get an opportunity when it’s safe for kids, they just need to worry about getting the job done in the classroom to finish up, and when we get the opportunity, we’re going to work hard, and we’re going to put something on the floor you guys can take a lot of pride in. We think it’s going to be something special.”
