Kevin Kelly - Club Engagement Director & YDA Associate Director

How did you become involved in soccer?

I barely played recreational soccer growing up.  My culture wasn’t about soccer at all - it was more focused on baseball, and even that, I didn’t play very seriously.  I found soccer later in life as an adult and fell in love with the game.  Today I play casually but closely follow professional soccer on multiple levels, especially men’s soccer at UNC.  What I typically spend my time doing is building technology products, companies, and teams - and that’s what I’m really good at.  Many of those skills - leveraging technology, adapting to change quickly, learning new things, building great teams, coaching employees - those things really lend themselves well to engaging with communities, and what’s the intersect of what I’m good at and what I want to do for the club. 

Why you are excited to be part of the new Rush program?

I believe in Jason’s vision for the club and believe in the opportunity to build an amazing club culture here in Chapel Hill and am happy to be a part of that.  My goal is to be a person that you can talk to at any time about anything related to the club and be comfortable and feel supported in doing so.  You’ll see me out at practices, games, events, and all around the soccer community - always happy to listen and connect with families and players.