Coach Kelly Wins Sunflower League Coach of the Year

At the conclusion of the soccer season, James Kelly was named Sunflower Coach of the year from his fellow coaches in the league. Kelly led the Lancers to their first Sunflower League boys’ soccer title in 10 years.
“It’s very humbling, it’s very exciting for the players because the coaches that normally win those awards normally win them for having good seasons,” Kelly said. “It’s also nice to be honored and respected by my piers. As coaches they recognize, that what I’ve done at East is a good accomplishment and it makes me feel good for the players too because without the players buying into what the coaches are saying, you will never get something like that.”
Kelly’s job was made a bit easier due to the fact that he had a team of 17 seniors, 10 of those starters.
“With so many seniors this season we had the experience so I didn’t have to worry about them being nervous for this game or this game because they’ve been there and done that,” Kelly said. “So we could work on other things.”
Despite winning the league, the Lancers had a disappointing end to the season, losing in the first round of the playoffs to Shawnee Mission Northwest 0-2.
“I feel like the Marty Schottenheimer of soccer, we do well in the regular season but playoff wise need to push through,” Kelly said. “The regular season was great but the playoff were very disappointing.The boys will remember the league title, they will come back and walk in to see the banner up there with their names on it. That’s exciting to be able to know that they did win league this year.”
Kelly got the same honor last spring. Last year as the girls’ soccer coach, Kelly coached the team to a Sunflower League title and won Sunflower Coach of the year because of it.
“It’s hard to say I deserved it over another person because what other coaches had to do with the talent they’ve had. I really respected what they’ve done. Because a lot of times you have to do more with less talent, but you may not get recognized because of your record. A lot of times that coaches do their best coaching, they don’t get recognized for it.”
Kelly served as an assistant boys’ and girls’ soccer coach under Jim Ricker for 6 years and despite Ricker winning a league championship, he never won the award.
“I never really thought that you could win this award, it was something that just never really crossed my mind,” Kelly said.
Kelly had four players named to first team All-Sunflower League team.
“I am very happy for them, I mean it is very exciting to have the players get recognized too, they deserve it,” Kelly said. “That’s the main thing, we go to these meetings and we put these players up for awards, and we wouldn’t put them up if we didn’t feel like they deserved it.”