On Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012, Hatboro-Horsham senior Ryan Kelly was recognized for signing a letter of intent to play baseball at St.. Joseph’s University.
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Ryan Kelly – St. Joseph’s University (Baseball)
Major: Business
Final list of colleges: St. Joe’s, Lehigh, Bloomsburg
Reasons for choosing St. Joe’s: “When I visited the school, it was beautiful. I just loved it. I researched it and saw the business school was highly accredited and one of the best in the state. I met with the coach (Fritz Hamburg), and he clicked with me right away. He runs a tight ship, and I like that. He’s really organized, and I wanted to play for him. When he offered me, I took it right away.”
What was the progression that led you to playing collegiate baseball? “I always wanted to play baseball in college. I like all three sports, but I just felt as though I could go furthest in baseball. In the spring of last year after the Carpenter Cup tryouts, I started to get some letters and phone calls. Over the summer, it started to get serious. A lot more schools were interested, and in the fall, I narrowed it down and just decided on St. Joe’s.”
Coach Pete Moore says: “I met Ryan when he was in fifth grade and was one of my students, and I have known him since then. He was part of a special class of fifth graders. I would go out and watch them play little league together. I’ve always known it was a talented group of kids. Ryan has been a true athlete across the board in high school. He’s played three varsity sports – golf, basketball and baseball. In our district, that’s a rare breed these days. We don’t have many three-sport athletes, and he’s been able to not only play three sports but compete at a high level and obviously was a big part of our success last year.
“It’s been awesome for me to see him grow and develop into the person he is today. He’s an exceptional pitcher. He got a scholarship to pitch at a Division One school, but he best served our team last spring by playing first base every day. He only threw two innings for us during the regular season. At the end of the year, he’s throwing at showcases and touching 88 MPH. There are a lot of kids and parents who would question – why aren’t you using my kid on the mound? But not once. I would talk to Ryan throughout the season. He did all this work with all the other pitchers, he was doing the running everyone was doing and not complaining once. When I would talk to him and say, ‘I know what you can do for us, but you’re helping us…’ He would stop me and not let me finish what I was saying. He’d say, ‘Coach, I get it. We’re winning, I’m playing, I’m happy. You don’t have to explain it to me.’
“Last year was the exception with the talent we had. Our pitching staff was very, very deep, and it enabled us to use Ryan at first base where he was an asset for us defensively and also with his bat as well. Just to see that unselfish behavior from him is awesome.”
About Ryan:
Favorite food: Chipotle Mexican Grill
Favorite movie: Anchorman
Favorite music: Dave Matthews Band
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