After ten years, 155 wins and two Concorde District championships, Chantilly’s John Kelly has stepped down as the Chargers’ girls basketball head coach. Kelly, who led the Chargers to two state tournament bids, cited family reasons for stepping down.
“After being in basketball for 12 years, I needed to spend time with my family,” said Kelly, who has three children between the ages of 6 and 4. “I feel like I’ve missed a lot of their life. My kids have been part of my practices for the last couple of years, but I found myself missing a lot of what they were doing on weekends and on weeknights.”
According to Kelly, he has been contemplating taking a break from coaching for a while. After talking it over with Chantilly Director of Student Activities Terry Brown, Kelly decided that it was a good time to call it quits.
“After ten years as the head coach, I feel like it was my program. I’ve been thinking a lot about that,” he said. “I am going to miss the games and practices, but the biggest thing that you miss when you step away is all the relationships that you have built.”
Kelly guided the Chargers to a 13-9 record this year, earning his 150th win – a personal goal.
<b>KELLY DOESN’T EXPECT</b> to go away from coaching for long, however, as the Front Royal resident expects to start coaching closer to home in a couple of years.
“It is going to be a short break. I am going to recharge my batteries a little bit and then get back into it,” he said. “Maybe a year or two or three down the road.”
Kelly and current Chantilly boys head coach Jim Smith worked close together throughout their careers, often attending each other’s practices and helping draw out plays.
“We were both basketball coaches and we tried to make things work as smoothly here as possible and help each other out if we could,” said Smith. “He always had a lot of enthusiasm.”
After he announced his decision to leave, Kelly began receiving emails from former players.
“I am an intense coach, but I every email that I got said that they had fun. That meant a lot to me.”
<b>ACCORDING TO BROWN</b>, the Chantilly is in the preliminary stages of looking for a replacement for Kelly.
“He did things the right way,” said Brown. “We are losing a good man, but he gave his time to Chantilly and he will be appreciated. I think at the same time, we will be able to attract some decent candidates.”