On the star-studded 1994-95 men’s basketball roster made up of mostly Nebraskans, Bret Walter stood out as something of an outlier. His journey took him more than 1,000 miles away (a 15-hour drive) from his hometown of Jerome, Idaho. At the prompting of the family’s local pastor, Bret’s older brother Scot first blazed the trail to Concordia University, Nebraska, arriving in the fall of 1989 as a football student-athlete.
The circumstances opened up a world of opportunity for Bret, who found stardom as a sharpshooter on the basketball court while also meeting his future wife and sowing the seeds for a rewarding career in Lutheran education.
“Concordia was a great influence on me,” Walter says. “I grew up in a Lutheran church in southern Idaho, but I was never part of a Lutheran school. The opportunity to go to Concordia certainly changed my life and prepared me to go into education and to coach basketball, which I did for 23 years at Faith Lutheran in Las Vegas. My playing experience at Concordia set the stage for the future of my life. I learned about Lutheran education, and the basketball part of my life was influenced heavily by Coach (Grant) Schmidt and the guys I was around at Concordia.”
In recognition of Walter’s achievements as a student-athlete, the former Bulldog scoring guard was named a Concordia Athletics Hall of Famer in an announcement of the 2026 class released on July 21. Walter expressed surprise in regard to his inclusion, but his 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons were undeniably impressive for Concordia Men’s Basketball teams that went a combined 54-10 and lived inside the top five of the NAIA Division II national rankings. By career’s end, Walter had compiled 1,248 points and 206 assists while sinking 284 treys.
In a Concordia publication produced prior to the ’95-96 campaign, Walter was described as “one of the top 3-point shooters in Concordia’s history.” But before becoming an athlete worthy of Hall of Fame induction, Walter bided his time for a program that Schmidt had brought to prominence in the early 1990s behind future Hall of Famers such as Matt List, John Puelz, Devin Smith and Mike Works. Walter followed those stars and averaged 4.6 points as a freshman in 1992-93 and then 7.1 points as a sophomore in 1993-94.
The initial plan for 1993-94 had actually been for Walter to redshirt and extend his career into the 1996-97 season when he would be student teaching. However, injuries in ’93-94 changed the dynamics. The injury list included star point guard Darin Engelbart. Says Walter, “I had gone to my wife’s family for Thanksgiving, which is in Dodge, Nebraska. Coach Schmidt called out there to the house and asked me if I would come out of my redshirt. I decided to do what Coach was asking me to do … I believed if I worked hard, I would get into the rotation. I knew there would be an opportunity.”
Walter served as a role player for two seasons, but by ’94-95, he was ready to take flight. As part of that 30-win season that included a sweep of NIAC regular season and postseason crowns, four Bulldogs averaged in double figures: Ryan Kness (19.7), Engelbart (15.0), Walter (13.8) and Scott Ernstmeyer (12.6). In the backcourt, Engelbart and Walter were a dynamic duo. In a January 1995 home win over Nebraska Wesleyan in front of an estimated 1,000 fans inside the crammed PE Center Gym, Walter (36) and Engelbart (27) combined for 63 points in a 97-88 win. As Schmidt said afterwards, “Bret Walter and Darin Engelbart were too much for Wesleyan to stop tonight.”
Still the program’s all-time leader in assists, Engelbart helped tee it up for many of Walter’s perimeter jumpers. Three separate times in his career, Walter went off for eight triples in a single game. He canned seven of them in the first half (and finished with 29 points) of a February 1996 win over Northwestern.
Says Walter of playing with Engelbart, “I think we just complimented each other so well. Darin was great with the basketball in his hands and great at getting into the paint – and a great passer. I was more of a catch-and-shoot guy. I owe everything to my teammates. I ran off screens from those guys and Darin threw me the ball. I don’t get anywhere without all those guys. They had confidence in me. They really made me successful.”
There were plenty of other memorable games and moments for Walter. When asked for a Coach Schmidt story that sticks with him, Walter recalls the December 1995 road trip to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where the Bulldogs took down NAIA Division I ninth-ranked Oklahoma Baptist, 90-73, snapping an extended home win streak for OBU. On one particular play, Walter took an elbow to the jaw from an opposing player. In response, a fired-up Schmidt received a technical for defending his player. (Walter tallied 20 points in the victory).
Schmidt had gone out onto the court in protest of what had occurred. Says Walter, “There’s nothing more motivating as a player than when you know your coach has confidence in you and he has your back. That’s Coach right there. He’s competitive, he wants to win and he has confidence in his players and allows them to play. We felt that. It had an impact on me for sure.”
In both his junior and senior years, Walter had the unique opportunity to finish those seasons with national tournament games in his home state. At the time, the NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball National Championship was held in Nampa, Idaho, a roughly two-hour drive from Walter’s hometown of Jerome. It meant that Walter had a strong cheering section present (including his father, another of Bret’s major influences) as the Bulldogs made a run to the national quarterfinals in 1995.
Prior to a national tournament game, Walter came down with a case of pink eye. As he recalls, an athletic trainer threatened to hold Walter out of the game. Do-it-all staffer Stan Schlueter helped get Walter a prescription – and they decided not to go back to that trainer. Walter wasn’t going to miss his chance to play in his home state.
Says Walter, “That was really special for me. I was a long way from home and a lot of the guys on the team were from the Lincoln area or close by. Going back home, there was an opportunity for a lot of people to watch me play … It would have been devastating to have the tournament there and not be able to play.” Walter’s fan club watched him score 14, 24 and 22 points, respectively, during the ’95 run that included wins over Loyola (Louisiana), 90-69, and St. Ambrose (Iowa), 100-84.
For Walter, the experience at Concordia was about more than basketball. As a student, Walter studied Lutheran Secondary Education and received endorsements in three different subjects. Walter has high praise for the professors he encountered. Everything along the way convinced him that he was headed down the path that made sense for him: Lutheran teaching and coaching. Walter knew he wanted to remain immersed in athletics.
Not long after graduation, Walter and his family moved to Las Vegas, where he became head boy’s basketball coach (and later the athletics director) at Faith Lutheran High School. The Las Vegas Sun detailed the end of Walter’s 23-year coaching tenure with a story published in February 2020. (At one point in his coaching career, Walter won five state titles in a six-year stretch).
It read, “Walter was just 23 when he arrived in Las Vegas with his wife, and just a few months removed from playing in college at Concordia University in Nebraska. They expected to stay about three years. He never imagined falling in love with the charm of Faith Lutheran, raising his family here and becoming a legend in the Crusader community.”
It was time for the next chapter. Says Walter, “I stopped coaching when my oldest son started playing in college. I didn’t want to miss his career.” After 26 years in Vegas, Walter migrated to Houston, Texas, where he currently works as the Chief Advancement Officer for the Lutheran Education Association of Houston. Bret’s wife Stacey also works in Lutheran education in the area. The coaching bug bit Bret again, who found himself coaching middle school basketball as part of the process of building a new Lutheran school.
This is the type of life Walter would have dreamed of as a wet-behind-the-ears 18-year-old beginning his college career in Nebraska. Back in the 1990s, Walter sought out Concordia, rather than the other way around. Both sides benefited immensely.
Now 30 years since completing his college basketball career, Walter has the perspective to appreciate the journey and the meaning of his Concordia experience. The institution profoundly impacted the Walter family, including Bret’s twin sister (Brenda) and brothers (Scot and Vince) who attended Concordia. (They are the children of Larry and Janice Walter).
Says Walter, “Looking back, it’s really cool to have the opportunity to be honored at this point because you’re much more aware of all the blessings that I had from being part of that. Dr. (Micah) Parker had one of the largest impacts on me because my first two years, he did all the guard drills and ran the offseason workouts. I met the person I’ve spent my life with at Concordia, and the basketball experience I had there had a huge impact on my coaching career. Then there was the Lutheran connection with Lutheran schools. It opened the door and the pathway for that. I owe all that to Concordia.”