Nathan Seiter – Memorial

My memories of Nathan Seiter, are various and varied. My first recollections are of a little guy following me around the gym at Brossart asking a million questions – sometimes very difficult, technical questions about basketball to which I often answered: “Nathan, you have to adjust,” since I had no idea what the correct answer was at the time. I started following his exploits when he was a fifth or sixth grader playing on the Sts. Peter and Paul 7th and 8th Grade Team. He was commanding even at that age, thumping his teammates in the chest with no-look passes, hitting shots from the perimeter, and executing his up-and-under move taking the ball to the rack. We mere mortals just sat back, shook our heads, and enjoyed the show. As Nathan moved into the seventh and eighth grade ranks legitimately, his celebrity and that of his Cardinals team gained noteriety. They were invited to tournaments across the river where they competed with and defeated teams from schools nearly ten times their enrollment. Nathan Seiter’s name joined the list of the St. Clements Tournament MVP’s which included Roger Staubach, The St. Xavier Wolfes and many greats who went on to GCL stardom. Here closer to home Nathan was dominating the local competition, once scoring 42 in a league game on a Saturday morning and 42 in a Bluejay Classic Tournament Game on Saturday night. Nathan still currently holds the BJC All-Time Record for points scored in a game with 48 vs St. Mary in a semi-finals contest.

The day Nathan Seiter became a Brossart Mustang was the day that our program elevated from a Division III compeitor to a Northern Kentucky Basketball Power. Nathan amassed 1779 career points and set ten school records along the way, nine of which still stand today, despite sitting out a large part of his junior year with a broken ankle sustained on Green-White Night. As a senior he led us to a school record 28-7 record and when he hit a mid-court shot early that season to beat Number One Covington Catholic, we became a local, regional, and statewide contender and have never looked back. During his Junior and Senior years Nathan Seiter led teams won the 38th District Tournament for the first times ever and his last game in a Brossart uniform was played in the Regional Championship Game in the Mason County Fieldhouse where he would later return on a Saturday night in March of 2000 and see his brother Justin hit the shot that would send “his Mustangs” to Rupp.

Nathan played a season at NKU, where he scored 17 points vs Kentucky State University in his first college game, but grew disenchanted and sought other pursuits. To this day, Nathan Seiter could be counted on return to open gyms and light it up just like in his playing days. He was the idol of every schoolboy athlete in our community…… to someday play like Nate. His life was packed with action. When he worked, he worked hard and when he played, he played hard. In recent years he and Ryan Shelton teamed up to be major contenders in regional bass tournaments, fishing in a different part of the state each weekend. Just last Saturday Ryan and Nate fished Cumberland Lake recreationally for smallmouth. Ryan reports that Nathan got a great sendoff. They had a fantastic day!!!!

I consider Nathan Seiter at the very top of my many “best friends” and surrogate sons. Although Nate was 24 and I am 57, he still included me whenever possible on trips to Bass Pro Shops or SportsShows and local fishing expeditions. He joined me several times in Canada over the years at the Blue Heron Resort where he would routinely outfish me 3-1 and was very competitive while doing it. He was comfortable walking into the SyCenter, “The House That Nathan Seiter Built” and sit in on practice and then render his unbiased opinion of what we were doing wrong and what needed to be done to fix it. Nathan could throw former Coach Willie Schlarman off of his feed for days at a time with a nine or ten word stinging criticism of our offense, but both loved each other for their ongoing verbal jabs at each other. I had the supreme privilege two years ago to induct Nathan Seiter into the 10th Region Hall of Fame. As an indication of the esteem in which he was held by his peers in the 10th, he was elected in his first year of eligibility – no easy task.

I also had the privilege to serve as speaker the night his number was retired at Sts. Peter and Paul School. From this day forward, his revered Number 22 will never be worn by another Brossart Mustang and at some time in the near future, his “Silver Bullet” jersey will be placed prominently on display wherever the Brossart Mustangs call home.

On Sunday, Nathan Seiter will once again return to the floor where he worked his magic for four glorious years, this time not to put on a show and “bring the house down,” but to receive the respects of and be remembered by his family, friends and admirers. Once again you can bet he will be playing to a full house.