October 27, 2015

ST. LOUIS – The Pontiac 66ers have named two local businessmen with deep ties to the community to lead the team’s front office for its inaugural Midwest Professional Basketball Association season, set to begin in January, 2016.

Radio veteran Mark Myre will serve as general manager, while Steven “Buzz” Zeller, an information technology business owner and retired Donnelly IT director, will act as his assistant.

As their first act, the duo has announced Durrell Robinson as the club’s first-ever head coach.

“I am very excited and humbled to be the head coach of the Pontiac 66ers,” said Robinson.  “Over the past twenty years, I have experienced personally the one-of-a-kind love and hospitality Pontiac gives to the basketball world, from my playing days at Danville High School in the 90's and as a college coach at Danville and Bethany.  I’ve been able to attend just about every holiday tournament since 1992, and I can’t wait to help bring professional basketball here.”

Robinson was head coach of the MPBA’s Gateway Steam in 2015, guiding the team to a fourth-place finish and a playoff berth.  During the season, Robinson coached Jake Anderson, who signed with the Chicago Bulls in late September.  Anderson was one of five players who advanced from the Steam to higher-level leagues. 

Robinson began his coaching career in 2005 at Danville Area Community College as an assistant under Hall of Fame coach John Spezia, against whom he will now compete—Spezia was named in July as head coach of the league’s defending champions, the Champaign Swarm.  Following four years at DACC, Robinson was hired as an assistant at Bethany College in Lindborg, Kansas.

Prior to coaching the Steam, Robinson served as an instructor in dozens of camps and clinics, helping to develop aspiring youth, collegiate and professional players, including at the Kevin Durant Youth Camp and the Oklahoma City Thunder D-League team youth camp. 

Robinson was an all-state player for Danville High School in 1995, and went on to become a National Junior College Athletic Association All-American for Danville Area Community College.  He then transferred to the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he was all-Great Lakes Valley Conference in 1999.  Robinson completed his playing career at Union College, earning NAIA Division 1 All-American honors in 2001.

“We are going to have a hard-working, positive team, and we are ready to support our fans and the community with outreach programs that everyone can be proud of. We have a special league brewing here and we are very fortunate and lucky to be teaming up with the Pontiac community,” Robinson said.

Myre has worked at WJEZ in Pontiac in a variety of capacities for the past 26 years, most recently as sports director and account executive.  He will keep those positions as he works with the 66ers.

“Pro basketball coming to Pontiac is a dream come true,” Myre said.  “My passion has always been with basketball.  I was raised on the farm in Newark, Illinois, and played the game growing up.  I'm very excited to work with the MPBA, and it’s been so much fun already.   We will make the 66ers a vital part of community as we take them all over Livingston County. We are also very lucky to have Coach Robinson, and I can't wait to get started,” Myre said.

Steve “Buzz” Zeller, meanwhile, joins the 66ers after a nearly 40-year career at a Fortune 250 printing company as Director of Information Technology.  During that time, Zeller built and today maintains his own IT technology and consulting business.  In addition to his assistant general manager duties, Zeller will be the team’s public address announcer, a position he holds for the annual Pontiac Holiday Tournament.

“I am pleased to be joining hands with some very talented individuals, both locally in Durrell Robinson and Mark Myre, and with the MPBA front office,” Zeller said.  “I am honored to have been given an opportunity to work in professional sports, in this organization, because they’re about what my family and I are about—giving back to our communities and helping build opportunities for education and prosperity.”

Both Myre and Zeller are on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and Museum.