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Two coaches with Bloomfield connections tabbed for Hall of Fame
The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame announced its 57th men’s induction class Monday. Two men with Bloomfield connections - Steve Brett and John Heaton - are among the list of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees.
“It’s a humbling experience, I’m telling you,” Brett said.
Steve Brett achieved success as a longtime Indiana high school basketball coach following his playing days at one of the most storied programs in the state. Accumulating 467 career victories in a 37-season head coaching career, Brett’s teams won 11 sectionals, two regionals and one State Finals appearance.
According to Brett he was nominated for the Hall several years ago. This year in the third year he went through the nomination procedure again and was selected this year.
“People don’t realize how vast that is,” the former coach said. “They have several nominations every year and some hold over for a couple years before they go inactive.”
Brett of course was head coach at Bloomfield from 1978-1993. His Bloomfield teams won 223 games, eight sectionals and one regional. He led the 1985-86 team to a 23-2 record and a “Sweet 16” appearance in Indiana’s single-class tournament.
Brett coached Seymour from 1994-2001, then led his alma mater Loogootee to a Class A State Runner-up finish in 2005. He finished his coaching career at Shakamak, retiring after the 2014-15 school year. Brett also served as an Indiana All-Stars assistant coach in 2006.
As a player Steve Brett was a two-year starter and team captain under Hall of Fame coach Jack Butcher, the winningest coach in Indiana High School basketball history.
He was also a three-year regular at Indiana State University in the school’s first years of NCAA Division I competition.
“It wasn’t work for me,” Brett said of his career on the sidelines. “It was fun. I’m lucky I got to do something I truly enjoyed doing and wanted to do.”
Steve Brett knew early on he wanted to be a coach.
“I knew when I was a freshman in high school when I was about 4-foot-9 and 92 pounds I probably wasn’t going to play in the NBA,” Brett recalled.
His interest in coaching came about through a term paper he was assigned to write for English class. The subject was a job the student thought he might like to do.
Brett did the research, wrote the paper “And that’s basically what I thought about from that point on was being a coach.”
When he was in college Brett returned to Loogootee and helped Butcher with the summer program.
"That gave me a taste of it and it stuck."
Brett is currently a varsity assistant at Vincennes Lincoln to head coach Josh Thompson, a 1998 Bloomfield graduate.
Vincennes Lincoln is where Brett’s coaching career began, fresh out of college as a freshman coach on Orlando “Gunner” Wyman’s staff.
“Josh knew that so when he was interviewing for the job I told him I’d be interested in helping him out if he got the job,” Brett said. “I thought it would be a neat way to finish up a career. It’s been fun and I’ve enjoyed doing it. It just feels good to be in the gym.”
Bloomfield native John Heaton is also a member of the 2018 induction class.
“I’m a little overwhelmed right now,” Heaton said. “But I’m enjoying every minute of it.”
He added, “Steve Brett and I go back a long way. And I’m sure Steve is having the same feelings I am right now.”
Heaton, a 1958 Bloomfield graduate, played under Hall of Fame coach Guy Glover before attending Indiana University and beginning his 42-year career in education.
“I had a wonderful mentor in Guy Glover - for basketball and for many other lessons along the way,” Heaton said. “I had a big advantage in learning a lot about basketball through Glover and Rex Hudson and many of the coaches I had there at Bloomfield.”
Heaton coached Indiana high school teams to 418 wins and one trip to the State Finals in 33 seasons as a head coach, with stops at Eastern Greene, Southwestern (Shelbyville), Silver Creek and Shelbyville.
In his first head coaching stint Heaton led Eastern Greene to a 1968 Wabash Valley Tournament runner-up finish. He followed that up with an undefeated conference championship regular season during his two years at Southwestern.
In his 11 seasons at Silver Creek his teams won 154 games, four sectionals and five conference titles. He led Shelbyville to 211 wins, 11 sectionals, five regional titles and a trip to the 1986 State Finals as head coach from 1983-2000.
A past president of the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association, he was an assistant coach for the 1995 Indiana All-Stars.
When asked to summarize his long and successful career in coaching Heaton said, “There are so many things. It would take a long time to go through that."
Heaton mentioned the Hall of Fame inductees would be given three minutes to summarize their careers at the Hall of Fame Awards Banquet this coming March.
“I thought to myself, three minutes might not get it done,” he joked.
Heaton went on to say, “I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of really good players throughout the years. You’ve got to be in the right place at the right time.
“That happened to me throughout my career. I’m happy to have had the success we were able to have.”
Heaton is retired and still resides in Shelbyville.
The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s 57th annual Men’s Awards Banquet will take place Wednesday, March 21, 2018. The day’s events will include a reception at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame museum in New Castle that afternoon followed by a banquet that evening at the Primo Banquet Hall in downtown Indianapolis.