Great Barrington — He may have only been a sophomore but Monument Mountain Regional High School’s Kevin Kelly made his mark as a gifted player when he made the varsity soccer team for the Spartans and became known throughout New England. And now he is already a state champion.
Kelly, 16, has accumulated an impressive record as a goalkeeper on various teams. He has been selected for three years in a row — 2014 through 2016 — as one of two goalkeepers to represent the state in the regional Olympic Development Program tournament. Kelly trained for several months and was selected out of a group of about fifty young men to participate.
Kevin makes a save for Monument Mountain on a penalty kick during the Western Mass Quarter Finals.
Kelly also trains and plays for the Black Watch Premier Soccer Club based at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Union, a college with a Division 1 soccer team, offers its soccer club to talented and notable high school soccer players across New England. In addition, Kelly was invited in April by FC Buffalo Academy to play at one of the top soccer tournaments in the Midwest.
While these achievements have taken Kelly all over New England, he happily spends most of his time playing for the varsity Monument Mountain soccer team, which he helped reach the Western Massachusetts semi-finals this year.
Kelly was only 7 when he started playing soccer. “I had always been a sports guy,” he told the Edge, “but something about soccer grabbed me immediately. I guess I was always moving around; there was never a dull moment.”
From that time on Kelly continued to hone his skills, playing soccer throughout elementary and middle school. By the time he reached high school he had established himself as an impressive player and, in his sophomore year after a week of try outs, he was selected as one of the fifteen players who were named to the Monument varsity team.
Kelly was a member of the 2013 Berkshire County Champions of the U14 (under 14) Division One Boys team for Berkshire Hills.
Kelly says he is very grateful for the experiences he has had playing for Monument. “There is such a family atmosphere,” he said. “Everyone is there for you, we’re all playing for each other.”
He compared the Monument team to his other experiences, saying, “In club soccer you don’t really know your teammates as well — there isn’t as much support. It’s more about learning personal skills and less about learning how to play as a team.”
The Monument soccer team has always been well known for its close-knit community, and Kelly says that it is this aspect of the team that has made him a better player in the last year. “Being close to my teammates has really affected my playing for the better,” he said, adding that the Monument team has helped him learn the importance of teamwork and supportive playing.
The Monument Mountain Regional High School soccer team. Kevin Kelly in first row, at left, with blue jersey.
In his classes Kelly has an interest in physics and engineering and is an honors student on the advanced science track. Of his academic success he says “I’m trying to be as good as I can be academically so I can get where I want to go in my athletics,” he continued. “It’s definitely hard. Sometimes I won’t get home until 9:30 or 10 p.m. after soccer, and then I have to do homework, but I am managing — lots of kids are.”
Kevin hopes to continue to play throughout the rest of high school with the help of a dedicated and talented team. He wants to attend college to play soccer after his graduation in 2018.
When asked about his success, Kelly humbly shrugged his shoulders and said, “I am always trying to go 100 percent. I just feel really passionately about what I’m doing.”