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NEW CASTLE – The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame recognizes three men for their contribution as high school basketball officials as the 2015 Mens Center Circle Officials Award winners.

Don Koester, Don Nester and the late Dan Jacobs will be recognized for their officiating careers.

Don Koester is a 1950 graduate of Gary Tolleston High School, where he played baseball. 

Working 16 IHSAA boys sectionals, 11 regionals, four semi-states and one state finals, officiating the 1978 state semi-final matchup between eventual state champion Muncie Central and Elkhart Central.  He also worked 13 different in-season tournaments multiple times, including the Gary Holiday Tournament (11 times), East Chicago Thanksgiving Tournament (five times) Highland Holiday Tournament (four times) as well as tournaments at Michigan City, Elkhart, South Bend, Hammond, Lafayette Jeff, Knox, Porter County, Peru, Griffith and Crown Point.

Beyond basketball Koester also worked the inaugural IHSAA AAA football championship in 1973 and the AA football title game in 1979. 

A member of the Lake County Officials Association, Koester served as President, Vice President, was a member of their Board of Directors and as basketball assignment chairman.  Spending four years as a basketball rules interpreter, he was also an observer for four years and clinician for five years.

Koester and his wife Ethel are the parents of two children.  Retired from G.W. Berkheimer Company in Portage, Koester is retired and lives in Crown Point.

Don Nester is a 1963 graduate of Cathedral High School, where he participated in basketball.  He studied business management at Vincennes University.

A 38-year veteran of Indiana high school hardwoods, he officiated 25 boys sectionals, 15 regionals, five semi-states and two state finals, including the 1991 semi-final between Whitko and eventual state champ Gary Roosevelt and the 1996 semi-final between New Albany and Warsaw and twice more served as a state finals alternate.  Additionally, he worked the 1980 and 1981 girls state finals, two Hall of Fame Classic tournaments and one Indiana-Kentucky All-Star game.  In 2009, he received the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association’s prestigious Roy Gardner Award.

A member of the Indiana Officials Association, he served as President, Secretary, a member of their Executive Board, and as the IOA basketball assignor.  Spending 20 years in rules interpretation, 20 years as a clinician and 13 years as an observer, he has also been an IOA mentor for 25 years as well as coordinating and supervising CYO league officials for 26 years.

Nester and his wife Betty are the parents of four children.  He retired in 2012 as assistant deputy director at Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Indianapolis and previous to that spent 25 years with Sperry Univac / Unisys Corporation in Indianapolis.  A veteran of the United States Army, he and his wife reside in Indianapolis.

Danny Jacobs was a 1949 graduate of Monroe County’s Stinesville High School, where he played basketball and baseball for the Quarry Lads.

Working 19 sectionals between 1960 and 1980, he also called 15 regionals, eight semi-states, and the 1980 state finals, working the afternoon semi-final game between eventual state champ Broad Ripple and Marion. 

Active in the Mid States Officials Association and Wabash Valley Officials Association, Jacobs worked each round of the Wabash Valley Tournament numerous times, as well as county tournaments including Putnam, Johnson, Greene, Lawrence, Marion, Johnson, Washington and Fountatin counties and the Indianapolis City Tournament.

Jacobs is the brother of 2005 Center Circle Officials Award winner Winfield Jacobs, and they become the first set of brothers to receive this award.

Married to the former Kathryn Hughes, they had four children.  Jacobs was a resident of Ellettsville at the time of his death in September 2012.

All Center Circle Officials Award winners will be honored at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s Annual Men’s Banquet on Wednesday, March 25, 2015.

A midday reception, free and open to the public, will be held at the Hall of Fame museum in New Castle.  The evening banquet will take place at the Primo Banquet Hall, which is located on the south side of Indianapolis. 

Reservation forms will be made available in early 2015, or tickets can be reserved now through the Hall’s website at www.hoopshall.com. Call the Hall at 765-529-1891 or email info@hoopshall.com for more information.

Reservations are available online now or through mail order in early 2014.  Call the Hall at 765-529-1891 or visit www.hoopshall.com for more information or email info@hoopshall.com.