Kelly Selected as Swimming Commissioner of US Scholar-Athlete Games

By Olivia Dodson
Copyright 2008 TexSport Publications

PASADENA, TEXAS (June 23, 2008) Pasadena High School head swimming coach Darla Kelly has been selected by the Institute for International Sport as the commissioner of swimming for the 3rd United States Scholar-Athlete Games. The Games will take place on the campus of the University of Rhode Island from June 27 to July 5, 2008.

Kelly was selected for the position from a group of applicants and will direct all the swimming and finswimming activities and competition at the Games.

The United States Scholar-Athlete Games is held every four years and brings together over 3,000 athletes and 300 coaches and staff for training and competition in basketball, volleyball, soccer, lacrosse, track and field, golf, swimming, finswimming, field hockey, tennis, rugby, squash, softball and baseball.

Kelly will oversee over 100 athletes and 10 coaches whom will participate in the swimming and finswimming competition. In addition, she will set up and direct the training programs and the competitive meet for the swimmers and finswimmers.

Previous she has served as a coach at the Games in 1999 and 2003 in addition to being a coach at the 1997, 2001, and 2005 World Scholar-Athlete Games. In the 1997 and 2001 Games, she was the one of the co-head swimming coaches for the United States and in 2005, served as the head coach of the Lithuanian team.

Kelly was selected for the job based on her coaching and administrative experience and her pervious national and international coaching positions. In 2000, she was the assistant coach of the United States National Finswimming Team at the 2000 World Finswimming Championships in Majorca, Spain.

The Games will be on the campus of the University of Rhode Island on June 28-July 5 and will include athletes from all 50 states and special invitees from over 15 countries. Kelly is the first woman to be selected as swimming commissioner for either the United States or World Scholar-Athlete Games.

“I was honored to be selected for this position. It is a great opportunity and I hope to do the very best for the athletes, coaches and staff of the Games. I have a good group of coaches to work with and I know they will do their very best to make these Games the best ever,” said Kelly.

Kelly will be joined in Rhode Island by two coaches with local ties. Sam Rayburn High School swimming coach Robert Kelly, (Kelly’s husband) will serve as one of her staff coaches. In addition, Pasadena High School teacher Lisa Hernandez.

Hernandez is a UIL swimming official and a volunteer assistant swimming coach for Pasadena High School.