Kellett rejoins Lawrence men’s basketball staff

APPLETON, Wis. — Chris Kellett has returned to the Lawrence University men’s basketball coaching staff, head coach Joel DePagter announced.

Kellett, who coached with the Vikings for three seasons from 2010-13, comes back to Lawrence as an assistant coach after a successful stint coaching prep basketball.

“This summer was a stressful time for my wife and I, and I am extremely fortunate how this all worked out,” Kellett said. “College provides different obstacles, but I am looking forward to recruiting and helping Lawrence return to the level of the teams I competed against. Coach DePagter preaches family, and I’m just ecstatic to be back in the Lawrence basketball family.”

A native of Neenah, Kellett was teaching and serving as the head varsity basketball coach at Shawano Community High School. In two seasons at Shawano, Kellett’s teams compiled a record of 35-15 and the team reached the WIAA sectionals in both seasons.

“The past two years at Shawano have truly been a blessing,” Kellett said. “I was fortunate to be around some tremendous student-athletes. The community was outstanding and truly bought into the culture change and vision of the future for the basketball program.”

During his time at Shawano, the Hawks cracked the top 10 in state basketball rankings and defeated multiple top-10 ranked teams in West De Pere, Luxemburg-Casco, Ashwaubenon and Seymour. The win against the No. 1-ranked Seymour was Shawano’s first victory at Seymour in more than 20 years.

Kellett resigned from the top job at Shawano after taking a new teaching position at Taft Elementary School in Neenah.

Kellett is a former football and basketball star at Ripon College. A four-time All-Midwest Conference selection in football, Kellett was a key player for Ripon’s basketball teams. He scored nearly 1,000 points for his career and was Ripon’s Defensive Player of the Year twice during his career.

Lawrence opens its season at Dominican (Ill.) University on Nov. 14.