MAAC Coaching Spotlight – Iona’s Brian Kelly
Edison, N.J. (July 22, 2020) – Iona College Water Polo Head Coach Brian Kelly sat down with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) to provide insights on the team, the cancelled 2020 season, and what it was like to create the women’s water polo program. Kelly entered his 25
th year at Iona during the 2020 season as head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams. He is the winningest coach in Iona College athletics history.
Q: You’ve spent 25 years at Iona. What has it been like being there for so long, and what makes Iona special?
A: Well, obviously, I’m an alumnus for the school and played for the men’s program. I went to Brother Rice High School in Chicago and Iona is run by the same Christian Brothers, which made things comfortable with the transition of going from high school to college and playing water polo. My time as a student at Iona was amazing, we had some great teams. One of my goals was to get to a national championship tournament as a student and we came close a few times. It was great to get there with the women’s team three times. But Iona is home to me, I love it. I love the area, I’m a big New York City fan. I guess growing up on the south side of Chicago, it’s pretty similar to where I am now so it’s very comfortable. I love the city.
Q: What lead you to introduce the women’s water polo team at Iona? What was the process of introducing a new sport like?
A: It’s pretty interesting. I was a dual sport athlete at Iona, swimming and playing water polo. When I took over the men’s program, I had teammates that were on the women’s swim team and there were talks from them about wanting to play water polo. One of the girls actually approached me about playing. I made a phone call with Dan Sheridan about starting a program, and after my first season with the men’s program that was pretty much it. A few former swimming teammates of mine, they all had an interest in playing but none had any experience. It just grew from there. I think we went 1-10 or 1-11 that first year, I’m not sure how we won that one game (laughing). But that’s it, a bunch of swimmers and a soccer player and a volleyball player. We started the program from scratch, it was a lot of fun.
Q: How do you balance being at the helm of two programs?
A: It’s work, a lot of work. More work now than ever before with communications, emails, texts, zooms, social media, all that stuff. It’s time consuming. One of the best parts is when you’re on the road recruiting, there are a lot of combines where one day will be girls only and the next will be guys only. You go to a lot of places like Pittsburgh, Florida, California, Illinois, and Texas. It’s easy to recruit kids in a weekend when they are all there together, the organizations that run them make it easy to do so. The big tournament every year is the Junior Olympics in Southern California that takes a few days. You’re out there for about 10-straight days, you see a lot of athletes that way. But, it’s a lot more time-consuming right now just because there are more ways to get in touch with today’s student-athletes. Back in the day it was just picking up the phone and popping in a VHS to watch somebody play water polo. There were struggles back then and there are struggles now, but it is a very time-consuming job being a Division I coach for one sport, let alone two.
Q: What are some of the ways you have found recruits?
A: One crazy story I have, I get out to many different places. I get out to California several times a year where I have a camp there, a combine, and I used to run some clinics in Illinois that I would call “Deep Dish Clinics” in my hometown. One scenario that is pretty funny – I was coaching a 12 and under team in Greenwich, Connecticut for the Junior Olympics. One of the girls on the team that played against us, I had a conversation with her mother because she was very good. She wound up going to Stanford, but about four or five years later I got an email. It was from that woman who I had a random conversation with on the pool deck back in the day. She reminded me of the story of the conversation we had and mentioned she had another daughter. That daughter actually ended up reaching out to me and played for us. She wound up being my captain! She played for four years and was a great leader. Water polo is a small world, so I guess that is a crazy way I wound up getting a recruit.
Q: In 2017, the women's water polo team finished with a 3.63 GPA, which led the nation. What kind of importance do you put on academics?
A: What I do it, we have two academic advisors for our athletes and we have one for water polo. What I have been doing, it has been successful, we take pride in our academics. We can win a national championship in the classroom. Doing so is a goal every single year for us. One thing I do personally is meet with anybody who is a freshman or is below a 3.2. Just to talk and keep up with what is going on with them, how class and their assignments are going. It’s a pretty easy thing to do. It gives me chance to talk to anybody who is struggling or needs help with school. If I see any red flags throughout the week, I just point them in the right direction.
Q: What other aspects do you look for in a student-athlete when recruiting?
A: Big, strong, and fast are things that every coach in every sport are looking for. But there are some amazing players that aren’t going to check those boxes off. Players come in all shapes and sizes and you are always looking for standout players, but you have to look at how they handle situations. Water polo is a physical sport, it’s a contact sport even though it’s not deemed as such. There are some difficult, physical situations and how these student-athletes deal with them is important. There’s a lot that goes into recruiting a student-athlete, temperament is a key aspect.
Q: What philosophy do you base your team off of, offense or defense?
A: I’m a big team speed guy. Our very good teams that have gone to NCAA tournaments have been very fast. For our women’s teams, that’s a big part of our philosophy. We move a lot on offense and play an aggressive defensive style as well. It all revolves around team speed. Speed is the key.
Q: What was your initial reaction to the cancellation of the season?
A: It was such a bummer. We started to really turn the corner and play well. The team was starting to buy into what the coaches were preaching and took their training to another level. I was very happy with our efforts and we showed some real signs of a team that could be very competitive in the MAAC. First and foremost, you feel for all of the seniors. I immediately go back to my senior year and what my goals were, it’s hard to imagine a situation where the rug is pulled out from under you like that. I was thinking more about those senior student-athletes across the country. Not only do you miss out on your senior season, but everything that goes into your senior year. Senior formal, graduation, just spending time with your friends. It’s a tough situation.
Q: How was this news broken to student-athletes, and what was their reaction?
A: We collectively learned as an athletic department that it was going to happen. Pretty much all spring sports met with their teams on the same day. It isn’t hard to figure it out when every sport on campus is scheduling meetings with their teams, the writing was kind of on the wall at that point. They were heading into a meeting knowing their season was going to get cancelled. It started with the Ivy League cancelling, then the NBA was a major blow, it really wasn’t hard to figure out what was happening. It was just a total bummer for them.
Q: What have you personally been doing during the pandemic?
A: We started doing weekly Zooms as a team. Me personally, living in Westchester where it was one of the first real hot sports, it got pretty scary. I really didn’t know what was going on. There was a lot of rumors out there about what was happening with self-quarantine and shelter in place and that sort of stuff. I ended up going to Chicago for two months to be with my family. It was good to see my sisters and their kids and my father, spend some time there. We were basically home sheltered for a while. Once things started to open back up in New York I came back here. We were able to continue our Zoom sessions and build our team chemistry in some unique ways. We’d talk about inspirational moments and were thankful to have some alumni hop into the conversations as well to talk with the current student-athletes. Past championship winners and some former players who went on to play internationally and semi-pro. Also, just the basic hello and how you are doing. Those are nice, we are still doing them.
Q: What is the first thing you are going to do when allowed back on campus?
A: First thing I’m going to do? That’s a great question. You want to say have a practice, but just having a meeting and seeing everybody in person. Maybe a team lunch or something, get some wings from our famous Beechmont Tavern and just say hello and talk about life. Just try to catch up with everybody, enjoy their company. I have to say, I’d split that in half with running a great practice and getting everybody after it. Just being around the team and catching up and enjoying each other’s company.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) celebrates its 40
th year of competition during the 2020-21 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.