When Ben Stelzer ’15 earned NCAA Division II All-America status his senior season for Michigan Tech, there was good reason to believe that would be the basketball pinnacle for a slim, six-foot-one kid from Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Turns out, he was just getting started.
Stelzer is not only coaching in the National Basketball Association, he’s doing it with the Golden State Warriors, a team still trying to prove its dynasty isn’t over. Four NBA Championships in the last 10 years have made Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr and guard Stephen Curry household names.
In his role as head video coordinator, Stelzer is in charge of cutting up video for every game and practice for the coaching staff. He supervises a small staff, travels with the team, sits in every coach and player meeting, and even spends time on the court helping with player development.
“The first time I came into the practice facility, it was surreal to see the players,” said Stelzer. “As a smaller guard, I grew up studying Stephen Curry and trying to model my game after his. I felt like I kind of had a glow after he walked by that first day.”
The Warriors, like every NBA team, have a robust staff with more than a dozen coaches plus many other support personnel.
“It’s a dream opportunity,” he says of his current position, to which he was assigned in September after two years working in the NBA G League for Golden State affiliate Santa Cruz. “To be with so many great coaches every day who have spent their lives doing basketball, my learning curve is really steep right now. It’s awesome.”
Stelzer’s path from Manitowoc Roncalli High School to San Francisco started when Michigan Tech coaches Kevin Luke and Josh Buettner began recruiting him.
“Even though it’s only four hours away, I had never heard of Tech. There aren’t any engineers in my family,” said Stelzer. “But visiting the campus, getting to know Luker (Coach Luke) and Bitts (Coach Buettner), and seeing the vision for the basketball program really appealed to me through the recruiting process.
“The community feel was very enticing. It’s similar to what I had in my hometown. The great education was part of it. The cumulative effect of all those sold me on Tech.”
Once on campus, Stelzer took to the Michigan Tech experience right away. He recalls taking in the beauty of the Copper Country fall and getting settled into his studies in finance—being drawn to the stock market and the competitiveness of it.
“I have a picture in my brain of my first semester on campus. It had snowed three or four inches for like the 20th straight day, and I just laughed to myself about what a unique place this was.”
On the court, Stelzer helped Michigan Tech to 80 wins against 38 losses during his four years. His shooting prowess, which the Huskies’ coaching staff had seen early in his high school career, was coupled with other skills that made him a great team player.
Buettner, who was at that time an assistant coach and now is in his fifth season as Tech’s head coach, recalls Stelzer being on his radar as a sophomore. “He was a priority recruit from day one with his focus, selflessness, and skill. We recruited him before we knew exactly what we needed in that recruiting class. We just knew he would fit.”
Stelzer led Tech to its first-ever NCAA Regional final as a junior in 2013-14, then followed up with All-America and Academic All-America honors as a senior in 2014-15. He averaged 22.1 points per game that season and finished second nationally in three-pointers made per game (3.96).
Following graduation, Stelzer took an opportunity to play professionally in Spain’s second division league, Layma Basquet Coruna, where he led the league in total three-pointers made. A stress fracture in his foot ended his playing career after one pro season.
He returned to Michigan Tech as a graduate assistant coach in 2016-17 to be close to his future wife, Emily Morin ’17, as she finished her soccer career for the Huskies and her degree in biomedical engineering.
Stelzer was an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh during its 2019 NCAA Division III National Championship season. He then spent two years as a player development intern for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
When Luke retired and Buettner was elevated to head coach in 2021, Buettner’s first call was to Stelzer.
“Ben does everything to the best of his ability,” said Buettner. “He only knows how to get things done, and he won’t accept anything other than his best effort and the best out of anybody he’s working with. I’m not surprised by the success and rise he’s had in his coaching career.”
The Huskies won a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season title in 2021-22 and were the GLIAC Tournament runners-up in 2022-23 with Stelzer as assistant coach.
Stelzer left in 2023 as both he and Emily had career opportunities in Silicon Valley. Ben found his way back into the NBA, this time for the Warriors’ G League affiliate. After just two years, he was called up to his current video coordinator role prior to the start of the Warriors 2025-26 season.
"Working with technology does not come naturally to me, but I have to do a lot of problem solving and troubleshooting on a daily basis. The Michigan Tech curriculum really prepared me to become a better problem solver. My basketball experience at Tech and learning from Luker and Bitts was also extremely helpful. Understanding the many aspects of a motion offense and how to read the game continue to be very useful now that I am in a coaching and teaching position myself."
Now trying to adjust to a new normal in an extremely fast-paced environment with a one-year-old daughter at home, Stelzer credits his wife. “Emily is very intelligent and successful. She’s going to continue to do amazing things in her career, but we kind of decided it’s my turn to see where this can go in the short term.”
For now, that’s rubbing shoulders with the likes of Curry and Kerr and keeping up with the video needs of an NBA franchise.
When asked if he’d challenged Curry to a three-point shooting contest yet, Tech’s all-time leader in triples says, "Not yet, but I am very much looking forward to that competition."
“I’ve been so busy doing video, I haven’t had time to work on my game and shot. I’m really just grateful for how my life experiences have led to this opportunity.”
Michigan Technological University is an R1 public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan's flagship technological university offers more than 185 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
