Matt Zosel

Mathew Zosel

Matt Zosel joined the Big Blue staff in 2014 an assistant men's basketball coach.

Prior to coming to Millikin, Zosel coached at MacMurray College and helped the Highlanders to finish 19-7 and achieve one of the school’s highest win totals in the program’s history.  Zosel's responsibilities included player development, scouting, recruiting, and game plan formulation. Last season, he helped develop MacMurray senior Brady Slagle into a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year and into Second Team NABC All-Midwest performer. Charged specifically as the architect of the defense and guard development, Zosel coached a perimeter unit that was nationally ranked in various categories (eighth in assist to turnover ratio, 41st in FG%, and 58th in rebound margin out 441 NCAA Division III institutions).

"Coach Zosel is as disciplined and hard-working of a coach as I have ever been around, he brings toughness, discipline, and competitiveness to the Big Blue program. I think he will excel in helping us compete in the CCIW, which is arguably the best DIII conference in the country,” said Millikin Head Basketball Coach Matt Nadelhoffer.

Prior to coaching at MacMurray College, Zosel was a Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent, working security details for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Prince Harry of Wales among others. Before his stint at the US Department of State he was an Army Ranger stationed in Ft. Benning with the 75th Ranger Regiment. As a Ranger, Zosel served in four combat tours and was awarded two Bronze Stars and a Meritorious Service Medal. Additionally, he was twice selected as one of only 100 soldiers to compete in ‘The Best Ranger Competition,’ a competition that was started 30 years ago in order to select the very best two man team in the Army.

Zosel earned a bachelor's degree (graduating cum laude) in history from Southern Oregon University (SOU) in 2003. At SOU he was a three time Academic All-American (once in football and twice in basketball) who still holds the school’s all-time field goal percentage mark in basketball and started at tight end on a football team that lost in the semifinals of the NAIA national championship. Zosel lives with his wife Karin, a former ice hockey player at Yale University, and their son Gunnar Nicklaus and daughter Gretchen Julianne.