Jeremy Brinkmeyer to be next Notre Dame boys basketball head coach

After two seasons at the helm of the Kelly basketball program, Jeremy Brinkmeyer is coming home.

It was announced on Wednesday morning that Brinkmeyer would be the new head coach of the Notre Dame Bulldogs boys' basketball program.

Brinkmeyer is stepping in after Paul Unterreiner announced he was stepping down after nine seasons at the helm of the program.

Brinkmeyer has spent the last 15 years coaching in some capacity. He’s spent 12 years as an assistant with Notre Dame, one year as head coach of Oran’s girls basketball program and most recently he’s spent the last two years as the head coach of Kelly boys basketball.

“I’m forever grateful to the Kelly school district and the community,” Brinkmeyer said. “It was definitely not an easy decision leaving such a great place and saying goodbye to some wonderful kids that I’m truly going to miss.”

While Brinkmeyer acknowledged Kelly will always hold a special place in his heart, he’s excited to return to Notre Dame where he graduated in 2005.

“It’s great to come back home to Notre Dame,” Brinkmeyer said. “Notre Dame has a special place in my heart. It’s where I went to school, it’s where I met my wife, my kids are going there when they get older. I mean my father’s funeral was actually at Notre Dame in the gym there. It’s obviously a very special place to me.”

As Brinkmeyer returns to Notre Dame this time around, he is bringing with him some knowledge he feels he’s learned from his years at Kelly.

“I think the biggest thing I learned is how to build a program,” Brinkmeyer said. “I learned you need to try your best to get the community involved. You’re not going to be successful if you don’t have community support and good people in your program to help. It starts with your coaching staff and then people around you to make sure that you have things going in the right direction.”

The combination of good people and a good community is something Brinkmeyer sees at Notre Dame.

“I’m really excited,” Brinkmeyer said. “We have great administration and great community support that’s going to help us hopefully be successful.”

With some of his years coaching being under Unterreiner, Brinkmeyer took away some valuable lessons.

“He taught me the focus of investing in people,” Brinkmeyer said. “If you invest in everyone in your program from the last player off the bench, to the managers, to the scorekeepers and everyone as long as they understand they’re important to our success, it’s usually when you have success.”

Upon the announcement of Brinkmeyer’s hiring on social media, comments of support flooded in as well as texts from former players.

“What’s been fun is catching up and seeing where they’re at,” Brinkmeyer said. “It also showed me that coaching is bigger than just X’s and O’s and winning games. It’s about building young men. I’m a true believer in my job is to make people better. I believe basketball is just a vessel. Basketball is my vessel to try and share God's love.”

Another benefit to coming back to Notre Dame is the fact that Brinkmeyer’s wife, Meredith Brinkmeyer, works at Notre Dame and is the head volleyball coach.

“We’re very excited,” Brinkmeyer said. “I loved working at Kelly, but working apart and being far apart was definitely hard. To be back together again is a blessing. We’re excited to be able to see each other more and it makes our life a little easier with our kids getting older and getting more involved in stuff.”

Brinkmeyer will make his head coaching debut with the Bulldogs in November.