Matt Carroll, Purdue Basketball Player, 2001 to 2006
Matt Carroll, senior director of brokerage with ALO Property Group and co-host of Circle City Podcast, is usually the one asking the questions … and often the one behind the camera. Carmel City Lifestyle turned the tables on Carroll, asking him to tell us about someone who has had an important impact on his life. The conversation turned naturally to Purdue Men's Basketball Coach Matt Painter and lessons learned amidst adversity.
Carroll grew up in Guatemala City and lived the first 14 years of his life in Latin America and the U.K. before moving to the Denver area. When he graduated from high school, he was listed in the top 100 basketball players and had 22 college offers. Carroll says he chose Purdue because of the combination of the academic rigor and the tradition, as well as for the opportunity to play in the Big 10 under Gene Keady, who coached the Purdue men's basketball team from 1980 to 2005. But with Coach Keady retiring in 2005, that meant Carroll had a new head coach for his senior year. That coach would be Matt Painter.
Matt Painter, Purdue Men's Basketball Coach, 2005 to Present
A home-grown Hoosier, Painter was born in Fort Wayne. He fondly remembers playing basketball in a league in Muncie as a third grader. Like Carroll, he went on to play for Keady at Purdue, from 1989 to 1993. His final year, the Boilermakers finished first in the Big 10. He returned to his alma mater in 2004 as an assistant coach, moving into the men's head coaching position the following year.
“It was a difficult season,” Painter recalls. “We were not winning a lot of games. It’s kind of part of the process when you take over a program. We were trying to lay a foundation of doing things the right way, but we were short-handed. It was good and bad. You don’t like going through it, but you learn a lot about yourself in the struggle.”
Carroll recognizes the value of having someone like Painter walk with him through challenging seasons.
“What stands out to me was learning what it means to go through adversity and to still have to stick with it and push forward,” Carroll says. “There’s a lot of growth that happens in those moments to be able to have something that was hard, because we did have a hard season that year, but to still find positives in the midst of all that. Coach Painter taught us important lessons about remaining resilient in tough times, and focusing on what really matters—becoming better people. That laid the foundation to understand how to push through those ups and downs of life.”
Painter credits his own parents as having probably been his biggest inspiration in life, but he also credits Coach Keady and others.
“When you look back at the sacrifices that your parents, your teachers, your coaches made, when you start raising your own kids, you see it," Painter says.
Though Carroll hasn't pursued a career in basketball or coaching, he has carried the lessons he learned into his personal and professional life. Now as a dad, Carroll hopes to pass those lessons down to his three children. The message he reminds them of is the amount of hard work that goes on behind the scenes.
"The team's recent success in reaching the national championship shows just how good a leader Coach Painter is," Carroll says. "But a week later they’re in the gym and practicing. It’s the idea that you never stop working and the sacrifice of hard work that goes on. And to be able to show that to my kids is great, to have them be around other good men, whether it be the coaches or the players they can look up to. When you experience and see it in person, it impacts you.”
Painter encourages his players to keep that in perspective and to keep the big picture of getting an education, building connections and honing their craft, whatever that might be. For Carroll that has come to mean staying motivated every day and working hard for something you believe in that’s bigger than yourself.
Gemi Ozdemir | Ozwell Fitness Owner & Operator
Carmel City Lifestyle asked a handful of local leaders and businessmen to tell us about someone who has inspired them.
“My parents, migrating from Turkey to Chicago in the '70s, inspire me," Ozdemir says. "Dad invented the retractable dome at Ozwell, while mom, before 20, raised three kids in a new country, language barrier notwithstanding. Their resilience and parental support shape my parenting goals—I aspire to be as cherished by my kids as they are to me."
Michael Klitzing | Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation Director
In 1996, Sandra Klitzing helped Champaign-Urbana Special Recreation accept the National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in the Field of Park and Recreation Management. Now her son has helped Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation garner the same award twice in the last 10 years.
"As a second-generation park and recreation professional, I’m proud to follow in the footsteps of my mother," Klitzing says. "I witnessed her agency win the National Gold Medal Award, the highest honor in parks. I’m honored to continue the family tradition, helping lead CCPR to this award in 2014 and 2020."
Drake Sterling | Carmel Police Department Chief
Zionsville Police Chief Michael Spears, former Indianapolis Police Chief and Carmel resident, has most inspired Carmel Police Chief Drake Sterling in his career.
“Often, professional and personal development happens in silos," Sterling says. "Chief Spears taught me that caring for people facilitates teamwork and efficiency. Leadership is not the same as management. When I understood that, I became a professional.”