Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Rory McIlroy
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating CB East for the first time since 2007 earlier this season.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I got caught in a muddy sand trap during CB South golf tryouts my sophomore year and ended up making a 13 on the hole. Fortunately, I still made the team.
Music on iPod: Lots of country: Kenney Chesney, Eric Church, Zac Brown, Luke Bryan
Future plans: I plan to attend the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State as a finance and entrepreneurship major.
Words to live by: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” –Jim Valvano
One goal before turning 30: I want to be involved with some type of innovation that changes people’s lives for the better.
One thing people don’t know about me: I love history, and I’ve read at least 50 biographies.
By GORDON GLANTZ
When Dillon Kelly is on the field for the Central Bucks South lacrosse team, the advice of his father, Tim, rings in his ears.
“My dad is always reminding me that hustle is the most important element in sports and that he's happy with me as long as I hustle and work hard,” said Kelly, an attackman on the only unblemished team remaining in the Suburban One League. “Kind of cliche, but it's the truth.”
And for the Univest Featured Athlete of the Week, it carries over to his myriad of other endeavors outside of lacrosse– whether it is as the Class of 2015’s delegate to the Keystone Boys State Leadership Conference, a three-year liaison to the Travis Manion 911 Hero’s Run, two years in the First Link Club (devoted to developing servant leadership to students) and serving in the Model United Nations as a member of the World Affairs Club.
“That comes from my dad and my older brother, Ryan (now at the Naval Academy where he is a goalie on the lacrosse team),” said the Penn State-bound Kelly, who was accepted to many other prestigious programs at various schools (Lafayette, Lehigh, Maryland, Clemson). “If you do something, you may as well do it right. It’s a metaphor, and it translates over to the business world – with hustling and always working hard.
“It translates into real life.”
Building a Business
The Kelly work ethic – the willingness to hustle – can by substantiated by the way Kelly, as a 13-year-old entrepreneur, went about the task of making some extra money by mowing lawns.
He went door-to-door and came up with one neighbor as his first client.
“I kept trying,” said the avid reader of historical biographies, who counted one he read on Henry Ford among the most influential.
Part of the business plan the following year was to bring along his hard-to-resist little brother, Brady, to hand out flyers.
The strategy of a cute little kid helped add “six or seven” more clients.
From there, the business seemed to grow as fast the springtime grass he was being paid to cut.
At present, he has “30-plus clients” – not just in his hometown of Warrington, but in nearby Chalfont and other neighborhoods – and has a trailer to reach his jobs on Saturdays, when he takes advantage of no lacrosse games or practice and works from dawn to dusk to keep the client base satisfied with mowing and mulching.
Come Sunday, the Academic All-American candidate with a 4.23 grade-point average in an AP-heavy course load, it is a full day of getting caught up with schoolwork.
Monday to Friday, it’s back to the grind of practice-game-practice in a physically demanding sport.
“It gets to be a lot at times,” he said. “But there is nothing I don’t love about it.”
And that love, that passion, shows.
Lacrosse coach Mike Sharman, who has coached Kelly since he was in grade school, had no hesitations when asked to write a letter of recommendation to the competitive Smeal College of Business at Penn State.
“Dillon is an extremely motivated student, athlete and entrepreneur, “said the coach. “He amazes me in how he balances work, school and sports and accepts only excellence in whatever he does.”
Giving Back
Before lacrosse and the landscaping worlds conspired to collide, Kelly also spent around 10 hours per week as a volunteer intern at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County-Natural Products Discovery Institute, where he helped market the natural products developed for cures and treatments while working with molecular research scientists.
“It’s really novel stuff, and it’s really early in the pipeline,” said Kelly, who strives to be a capitalist with a conscience, exemplified by becoming an admirer of marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson after reading her book “Silent Spring,” which is credited for raising awareness in the green movement.
“Dillon doesn’t just volunteer to check the box,” added Sharman. “He’s invested in whatever he does.”
Before following the educational path of his oldest brother, Chris, to Penn State, Kelly said there was a fleeting moment when he gave the military academy option chosen by brother, Ryan, consideration before deciding against it.
“He’s doing great,” said Kelly of his brother. “He loves it there. He is behind a great player (on the depth chart), but he is only a sophomore. He’s not just there for the lacrosse anyway, obviously.
“I looked into it a little bit, but it’s not for me.”
But Ryan’s influence is as strong as that of his parents, Tim and Dawn.
“They are a huge part of my life, always steering me in the right direction,” he said of his parents. “Whenever I need anything, they are right there for me.”
As for midshipman Ryan: “He thinks of everybody else more than himself.”
Which explains Ryan’s involvement in the Travis Manion Foundation, named after the Doylestown native – and Naval Academy graduate -- killed in Iraq in 2007 while serving in the Marines and dedicated to “honoring the fallen by challenging the living” by assistance veterans with various fundraising events.
“My brother was involved, and he kind of passed the torch along to me and I stuck with it,” said Kelly, who received a commendation from the Central Bucks School District School Board and is one of the youngest member of the race committee. “It’s a great cause, and it’s been a good experience.
“I like to give back, and it’s a great way to give back to the community and help get veterans back on their feet. I’ve been on the board for a few years, helping to organize the (annual) race.”
Living History
A willing student of history, Kelly has a sense of his current time and place.
While excited about his future at Penn State and beyond, where he intends to try playing lacrosse at the club level, he wants no stone left unturned in the homestretch of his high school experience.
“I’m kind of taking it all in,” he said. “It’s the last marking period of my senior year. You won’t be taking it all in again.”
He played golf, but gave it up as a senior to focus on a lacrosse experience as a Titan that began as a member of a freshman group that sparked a strong junior varsity season.
Kelly agreed to play goalie for the good of the team, but he wanted to go out playing his original position and assist on and score goals instead of try to stop them.
Sharman then laid down the gauntlet, explaining: “After volunteering to play goalie last year, because we had a need, he came to me this fall and said ‘I want to play attack my senior year.’ I told him he needed to get faster. Dillon lost 20 pounds and worked hard to improve his speed and agility.”
“He was right,” said Kelly. “I started going to the gym, watching what I ate. I was too slow my sophomore year. I just got myself back into good shape.”
And now he is reunited on a line with Brendan McGrath and Chris Tanner, and several other seniors, creating a full-circle effect.
“Exactly,” he said. “The team has come together. We’re off to an amazing start. Right now, we’re playing together 100 percent as a team and it is really showing.
“And we are getting real good senior leadership.”
With the ever-hustling Dillon Kelly at the top of leadership list, displaying characteristics that will serve him well as he journeys through life.
Said Sharman: “Dillon is a great all-around person and I am convinced he will be successful in whatever path he chooses after college.”
