Crean Lutheran Excessive Faculty has employed Thomas Kelly as the brand new head coach of their varsity swim group.
He’ll work alongside Crean Lutheran’s director of aquatics and head water polo coach Jeff Runyan.
A personal faculty in Irvine, California, Crean Lutheran has been a strong drive in highschool swimming for the previous few years; the boys group turned back-to-back Empire League champions this previous season, whereas the women group are five-time CIF-SS champions and one-time California state champions.
The varsity’s swimming program has produced plenty of notable alumni, together with the likes of Ella Eastin and Kevin Chao. Eastin, who graduated in 2015, went on to swim for Stanford College and raced at a number of high-level competitions together with Junior Nationals, the FINA World Brief Course Championships and the NCAA Division I Championships. Chao, in the meantime, graduated in 2017 and swam for Texas Christian College and was a finalist on the Massive 12 Convention Championships.
Kelly involves the Saints from Edison Excessive Faculty, the place he spent the spring of 2024 serving as an assistant coach for the girls and boys swim groups. Whereas at Edison, he helped information this system to a Sundown Wave League Championship title.
“I’m extraordinarily blessed to be becoming a member of Crean Lutheran as the pinnacle coach of a longtime males’s and girls’s swim group,” Kelly mentioned to OC Sports activities Zone. “I’m tremendously excited to assist foster younger women and men in a Christ-centered atmosphere into hard-working, respectful and disciplined human beings.
“My aim is to assist set up Crean Lutheran into one of many premier aquatics packages in Southern California alongside Jeff Runyan and my teaching employees. I can not wait to get began on this journey engaged on the pool deck whereas creating relationships with swimmers and fogeys.”
Crean Lutheran’s athletic officers introduced the brand new teaching rent on September sixteenth, with athletic director Eric Olson expressing his enthusiasm for Kelly to affix this system.
“Crean Lutheran Athletics is worked up to welcome Thomas Kelly to the house of the Saints,” Olson mentioned in a press release. “Thomas involves Crean Lutheran with an thrilling ardour and a wealth of swim expertise. He seems ahead to teaching our swimmers and advancing this system to the subsequent stage.”
Kelly graduated from Edison Excessive Faculty in 2022; throughout his 4 years there, he was a dual-sport varsity athlete competing in swimming and water polo. He was additionally captain of the swim group his senior yr and was later inducted into the Edison Athletics Corridor of Fame for water polo.
Kelly went on to attend Golden West School for 2 years, the place he continued competing in each swimming and water polo. He was a 13-time CCCAA All-American in swimming, together with 5 particular person occasions and eight relays, and was a back-to-back state champion and first-team all-conference choice in water polo along with being captain of each groups
Final fall, Kelly transferred to Concordia College of Irvine to proceed his educational and athletic careers, as soon as once more as a dual-sport athlete.
Kelly started his teaching profession within the winter of 2023, working the Edison Excessive Faculty boys water polo group’s low season coaching and serving as an assistant to the highschool boys water polo program at CMAC Aquatics alongside Runyan.
