LCA senior WR Kelly sure-handed in traffic

By Ted Allen

Published: September 5, 2008

Liberty Christian Academy wide receiver Patrick Kelly has a God-given ability to go up in a crowd and come down with the football in his hands, often in the end zone.

“That’s really my favorite thing to do,” said Kelly, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound senior. “When we’re in the red zone, (quarterback) Mike (Rocco) just kind of puts a jump ball out there for me and lets me go get it. I’m all about those jump balls … just because I’ve got pretty good jumping ability.”

Kelly, who also does the long, triple and high jump in track and field, may not be as physically imposing as some, with a slender frame and lanky legs. When he was assigned to defend Jefferson Forest’s 6-6, 260-pound tight end Dustin Engledove in an offseason 7-on-7 game, he was at a definite disadvantage in muscle mass.

“(Engledove) lined up at wideout one time and he’s just got the huge frame … and, he looks like he’s going to be a dominant player,” Kelly said. “I was teasing him, I was telling him, ‘Just don’t hurt me out here.’”

But like last year’s teammate in the receiving corps Britt Campbell, now playing on the practice squad at Liberty University, Kelly’s got sprinter’s speed which, combined with his vertical jump, makes him a mismatch for most cornerbacks who try to cover him.

“I’d say I’ve got decent size for a high school receiver, being 6-3, 190,” Kelly said. “Most guys we play against range from like 5-7 to 5-10. I like to use my size to my advantage.”

Like Engledove, Kelly has received recruiting offers from LU and Army.

“I’m thinking about committing to Liberty soon,” said Kelly, who may also entertain offers from a few ACC schools, benefiting from recruiting interest geared toward Rocco and running back Desmond Rice. “I just like the environment, the coaching staff, they have a genuine love for all the players, it seems, and I want to go and play for somebody like that.”

As a player, Kelly derives most of his inspiration to for his performances on the field from his parents, Debbie, who works two jobs to support him and his younger brother, and Patrick Sr., who has stage 5 renal failure in his kidneys and is on worker’s disability following shoulder surgery for a torn labrum.

“He does dialysis three times a week from 6 a.m. until 10 in the morning,” Patrick said. “One of his kidneys completely shut down and the other one is only working at one-fourth the percentage that it’s supposed to so the dialysis kind of functions as another kidney.”

He’s still awaiting a transplant.

“I don’t really talk about it all with my family or anything, but that’s really a driving force inside, knowing my dad, he’s gone through so much with the kidney failure, and he’s happy every day,” Kelly Jr. added. “He gets up, he does what he has to do and he’s just got a smile on his face.”

During the ongoing rehabilitation and dialysis, Kelly Sr. is going back to college to get a degree. Then there’s Debbie.

“My mom, she works two jobs, she works day and night and she just does what she has to do,” Patrick Kelly Jr. added. “She doesn’t complain, and I’m just tremendously blessed because she does everything in the world for my brother and myself and sometimes I feel like we take that for granted.”

The Bulldogs, who have won three of the past four Virginia Independent Schools Division I and II state championships, haven’t taken it for granted, but they have grown to lean on Kelly’s leadership — as well as that of Rocco and tailback Rice, the three primary cogs in LCA’s offense.

“He’s been starting for us now, this being his third year and each year, he’s gotten better and better,” coach Frank Rocco said of Kelly, a first-team all-VIS state selection last fall who had five catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns in last Friday’s season-opening 47-23 win at Dan River. “We’re expecting good things from him.”

He is far from Mike Rocco’s only option in LCA’s passing-oriented offense, with Scott Hyland, converted quarterback Sam Burggraf, Heritage transfer Lorrell Morris and Rice among the Bulldogs’ other receivers.

“Pat is definitely the go-to guy (but) for our offense to be clicking, we need everyone to be touching the ball,” Frank Rocco said. “I’ve never believed in (throwing the ball 12 times to one receiver). We try to work a lot of guys into catching balls. It’s a more difficult offense to defend if you’re spreading it around.”

Rice, who rushed 14 times for 185 yards and three touchdowns last week, is a triple threat, also returning kicks and serving as Rocco’s best outlet for a screen pass.

“There’s a lot of new formations we’ve put in where we run downfield routes and real quick routes,” said Rice, who also played receiver last fall. “Patrick opens things up with the deep threat and they start keying on him and that opens things up for me coming across the middle.”

Kelly, who alternates with Rice at defensive back, with Rocco backing them up at safety, says Rice has excellent hands as a receiver and surprising strength for his size.

“He’s an all-around athlete,” he said. “Obviously, he’s a phenomenal running back. Size doesn’t mean a whole lot with him. He’s 5-7 but he packs a punch and he’s just got great hands coming out of the backfield.

“Desmond, he’s got the elusiveness, but at the same time he packs a real powerful punch,” he added. “When guys think they’re just going to come in and take him out, they’re going to come in high at him, he’ll just completely bowl them over because he’s got a lot of leg strength.”

Kelly caught Dan River by surprise with his speed on the first play from scrimmage last Friday, taking a reverse from Rice 53 yards for a touchdown.

“I’ve been under coach Rocco now for five years and he just adds plays every single year,” Kelly said. “He’s just a genius when it comes to offense. He’ll put something in and whatever it is, it almost always works.

“Coach really felt like with our speed, and Dan River, with their fast-flow defense, that if we opened up with a reverse on the first play we’d really catch their linebackers reading flow and then we’d kind of bounce it around on the outside and take it for a touchdown and we did.”