College Commitment – Marley Zeller (2024 Central Catholic)

Going into this off-season, Marley Zeller Marley Zeller 6'5" | SF Central Catholic | 2024 State OR wasn’t quite sure what kind of future awaited him at the next level. But as the athletic 6-foot-5 wing put in the work and showed it on the floor in the spring and summer, it became clear – he was a bona-fide Division I recruit. Now ater sorting through the whole recruiting process, the Central Catholic senior has made a decision. He’ll be heading out of state for college, and will do in Southern California having verbally committed to sign early with Pepperdine.

“A lot of it was the relationship I built with Coach (Lorenzo) Romar and the trust,” Zeller said. “I’ve met all the players and I like them. I went down twice, once with my whole family, once with my dad, and I just like the whole feel. I like the feel with the team and the energy, and then they’re in a good conference, so they’re playing against some really good schools like Gonzaga and St. Mary’s and every game is going to be against like, I’m going to get better every game if I’m playing. I think I have an opportunity to play early if I put in the work.”

“And then obviously it’s a nice place with the beach right there,” Zeller continued. “Romar’s produced a lot of pros, and I definitely want to play pro after college. Then on top of that, it’s like a $90,000 scholarship a year for a great school for education because I’m not going to play forever. I could still be successful after that with a degree from Pepperdine.”

So many factors all lined up for Zeller for him to pick the Waves, and the fit on the court was just right as well. “They play a lot of guards, so they’ll play up to sometimes four guards with versatile bigs, too,” Zeller said. “I’ve seen some practices and I feel like a lot of the shots they get up, I would shoot those shots. I feel like I would just fit right in.”

The commitment to Pepperdine ends a whirlwind process for Zeller, who finished last season without any offers. But as the months went by and he started getting seen, both with his AAU team More Than Hoops and his Central Catholic squad, the offers started to come in and all of a sudden, Zeller not only had Division I options but a bunch to choose from – some of the programs Zeller chose the Waves over included Montana, UC Santa Barbara, Pacific, Portland State, and others.

“Start of summer in the spring, I was like, am I going D-2, JUCO? I didn’t really know,” Zeller said. “Obviously D-I was like the goal, and that worked out. It was really just halfway the season I started believing that I could go play D-I. I knew I could, and it was just about getting in front of people and that’s what I did during the summer. A lot of it was Section 7 and started off in Bellevue where I started getting more interest. I got my first offer from Montana, which boosted my confidence a lot, and a lot of it just confidence.”

With his commitment, Zeller can now hone in on his senior season where he not only knows Central Catholic will be considered one of the top teams in 6A, but is ready to help lead the Rams as far as they can go.

“Well, I mean, honestly, we just gotway better compared to last year,” Zeller said. “We lost one starter, and with everyone else just the individual growth from everyone is just going to to be way better than the loss of those players. So it’s really like we’re getting better, and I expect us to do very well.”

Individually, Zeller has goals as well. “I think I’m going to focus a lot on rebounding – I want to average a double double,” Zeller said. “And then really just like now that I’m committed, a part of the reason of (committing early) was so I could just focus on getting a ring this year. So like now it’s just school and getting a ring because I don’t have to worry about recruitment. So it’s just like playing to have fun and win and get my teammates better too.”

With his commitment, Zeller becomes the fifth member of the Oregon Class of 2024 to commit to a Division I school. Our congratulations go out to him and his family on his decision.