Golf, Basketball, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Tiger Woods
Favorite team: SJU Hawks and the Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the league in basketball this year and having our fans storm the court.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: My first start in baseball sophomore year, I went to throw the ball back to the catcher during warm-ups, and I was so nervous I threw it over the backstop.
Music on iPod: Dave Matthews Band & country
Future plans: Graduate St. Joe’s with a business degree, pursue a career that makes me happy and start a family.
Words to live by: “Winning isn’t always a victory…Losing isn’t always a defeat.”
One goal before turning 30: Travel to Europe with my wife/family.
By GORDON GLANTZ
The search for compliments – from peers, from parents, from teachers and probably a little too much from people who don’t really matter – is the one common quest for teens, whether they are athletes or mathletes.
For a select few, there is no greater compliment than one they won’t fully appreciate until they become parents.
It’s the one that Pete Moore, Hatboro-Horsham’s baseball coach, bestowed upon St. Joseph’s University-bound pitcher Ryan Kelly, the Univest Male Athlete of the Week.
“I have a 4-year-old,” said Moore. “To be able to watch Ryan grow up and handle himself the way he has, well, let’s just suffice it to say that if my son turns out the same way as Ryan, I would be very satisfied.”
Moore would know as well as anyone about Kelly’s development. He taught him in fifth grade and followed the growth of he and his mates until they appeared under his tutelage on the varsity diamond.
“It has been a pleasure to watch him develop, both as a player and as a person,” Moore said. “That class was one of my favorites. Ryan, even then, was always a competitor. You could see it in that whole group of kids. I used to go watch them play little league.”
Kelly recalls fifth grade well.
“He was an awesome teacher,” he said of Moore. “I remember him giving us (Hatboro-Horsham) team hats.
“I think that class had something like 25 guys and three girls – or at least it seemed that way.”
It seemed that way.
“It is a slight exaggeration,” countered Moore. “I would say it was probably 15 boys and eight or nine girls.”
Memory lane aside, Moore and the Hatters enter the homestretch of the season trying to claw their way over .500 in league play a return the postseason after making a run last spring.
Although the odds are stacked against it and he is psyched for moving on to St. Joseph’s, the hard-throwing right-hander with a fastball that has flirted with 90 mph says he is ready to go out strong.
“I have not been at my best this year, and we have not been at our best,” said Kelly, who has a 1-1 record and a 3.17 earned-run average, while allowing less hits (26) and striking out more batters (29) than innings pitched (28.2). “I’m just taking every day as it comes, and living every moment.
“I’m just remembering every day, every game.”
Moore has no doubt about Kelly’s commitment.
“He is the epitome of a competitor. The competition is what gets him going, and that’s something you can’t teach,” said Moore. “He was part of a special team last year that went to the state semis. This year, as a senior captain, he takes a lot of pressure off of me. He is more of a leader by example, but he has learned when it’s appropriate to say something.
“And because he isn’t vocal all the time, it has an impact. When he does speak, people listen.”
Kelly shies away from the leader tag, saying it is a desire to win and get the best out of teammates who are not giving it their all that drives his engine.
“I’m not a person to speak up, but I will if something needs to be said,” he explained. “Take practice, you are being asked to go your hardest for 2-3 hours. That’s the least you can do.”
Kelly’s competitive spirit might explain why, in an era of specialization – particularly for a young man whose ultimate ticket to college was his pitching arm – he was three-year, three-sport varsity athlete at a larger school like H-H.
In addition to baseball, he was an All-SOL selection as a golfer and a solid third scoring option and fierce defender for a Hatters’ basketball team that captured the SOL Continental Conference crown.
“That’s just how I was raised,” explained Kelly, whose father (Kevin) and uncles all played multiple sports, also at Hatboro-Horsham, while his younger brother, Sean, broke family tradition to become a two-sport athlete at Archbishop Wood.
“I never thought about giving up any of the other sports. I never considered quitting. Like I said, it’s just not how I was raised.”
Kelly sticking with his basketball career as a shooting guard, one who checked in at 10 points per game and had a hot streak in January when opponents were taking away the top two scorers (Mike Brown and Zach Quattro), ultimately made life easier for Hatters’ hoop coach Dennis Steinly.
Like Moore, Steinly reaped the rewards of Kelly’s character and work ethic.
“He was a great team leader,” said Steinly. “He really was the guy who kept the team together – and not just in games, but in practice. He was always there to do what we needed him to do. He was a great leader by example, but he was willing to speak up, too.
“He did a lot for us, but didn’t get the credit he deserved. He played solid defense, rebounded and had that stretch in January where he averaged like 15 points per game.
“He’s going to St. Joe’s for baseball, but he also golfs. You’re talking about a three-sport athlete who was heavily involved in all of them and was well-liked by peers. This was my seventh year and he has been around for four of those. It’ll be different next year.
“He’s a great kid with a great work ethic. That’s why he is going to St. Joe’s next year.”
Kelly, who also plays outfield and some first base when not on the hill, was this-close to not signing on the dotted line to become a Hawk.
As excited as he is now, he shudders the thought of almost not making that decision.
“St. Joe’s was actually a late addition for me,” he explained. “I was set to go to Bloomsburg. When I visited, and went on campus, I just fell in love with the place. There were the academics, and the whole team made feel welcome. They have a brand new turf field. When they offered me (a scholarship), I had to take it.
“It just fit my personality.”
And as Kelly’s coaches and teammates at H-H will attest, it is a personality worth having on your side.
