Player of the Week: Grant Gelon

MISHAWAKA—It is no se­cret that Bethel is full of tal­ented and skilled ath­letes who are al­ways win­ning awards and break­ing records. Stu­dents and fac­ulty hear about the many things Bethel ath­letes ac­com­plish in sports, but not much is known about the play­ers them­selves. This is a high­light of those ac­com­plish­ments, as well as a lit­tle glimpse into the lives of the ath­letes. This week’s Player of the Week is Grant Gelon, a guard on the Men’s Bas­ket­ball Team. 

Re­cently, Gelon was fea­tured on ES­P­N’s Sports­Cen­ter Top Ten plays for bas­ket­ball, which is a great ac­com­plish­ment. 

“It’s a kid’s dream come true to be up there and have your clip played on TV and Sports­Cen­ter,” Gelon said. “All I can say is, it’s what you grow up hop­ing for. It’s a bless­ing and I have God to thank for it all. This is my fourth school in four years, and it’s been a crazy time for me, so this is kind of like a sign that every­thing is com­ing to­gether, and this is where I should be.” 

The fea­tured clip of Gelon’s play took place in the home game against Lawrence Tech­no­log­i­cal Uni­ver­sity on Dec. 28, 2019. The men’s bas­ket­ball games are recorded, so the play was sent to ESPN and then fea­tured in the Sports­Cen­ter Top Ten Bas­ket­ball Plays. 

Gelon has been play­ing bas­ket­ball since five or six and al­ways had a love for the game. He is from Crown Point, In­di­ana, and at­tended Crown Point High School. Gelon is a ju­nior ma­jor­ing in Sports Mar­ket­ing.  

Gelon came to Bethel be­cause it re­ally seemed like a good fit for him, and he pre­vi­ously knew Steve Drabyn, the head coach of the men’s bas­ket­ball team, from when Drabyn re­cruited him at a dif­fer­ent uni­ver­sity. Gelon was look­ing for an­other school when he heard that Drabyn got the job as the head coach at Bethel. They started talk­ing, which re­sulted in Gelon choos­ing Bethel for his school, as well as for his team.