St. Paul hires alum Riley Kelly as new girls volleyball coach

Riley Kelly, a graduate and former player from St. Paul High School, has been named the new girls volleyball head coach for the 2023 season. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)

SANTA FE SPRINGS – Former alum and star player Riley Kelly has returned to become the new St. Paul High School girls volleyball coach, as announced by athletic director Rich Avina recently.

Kelly, who is the Lady Swordsmen All-time kills leader with 1,386 in her four-year varsity career, finished her college playing days at Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio and has been coaching club and at the high school level for the past six years.

“St. Paul High School’s Administration and Athletic Department are extremely excited to name Riley Kelly as our new Girls Volleyball head coach,” Avina said. “Riley is the whole package. Not only is she one of the greatest of all time to play at St. Paul, she was dominate in college, and has many years of coaching experience.

“I believe volleyball players will want to play for her and she will create a competitive program at the highest levels. Not only is she a heck of a volleyball mind, she is a great person and a role model to our young ladies at St. Paul.”

Kelly, 25, a 2015 St. Paul graduate, who was an outside hitter and opposite, earned numerous accolades in her four years.

Three of those years the Lady Swordsmen won the Camino Real League championship, qualified all four years for CIF and advanced to the state quarterfinals. In 2013 and ’14, St. Paul advanced to the semifinals.

She was also named league Most Valuable Player in her sophomore and senior years. The team MVP and three-year captain was also chosen CIF First Team in 2013-14 and was named to the Maxpreps All-State Team and she was also chosen as Player of the Year.

“I’m happy to be here,” Kelly said. “I played here, I was a student here and graduated here and I’m happy to be back.

“The first thing I want to do when I come back is meet the girls and get them super excited about the season. I want to bring the winning legacy back to St. Paul. I just want to have a winning culture and have a sisterhood like I did when I went here.”

In addition to volleyball, Kelly lettered in varsity Track and Field all four years, specializing in the shot put and discus.

Kelly, who has a degree in criminal justice, talked about her memories at St. Paul.

“Some of my greatest memories here at St. Paul was being in a winning program,” Kelly added. “We set records, I hold the kill record here, we made a first-time state appearance with my senior year team, and we also won league three years in a row.

“It was fun being part of a winning program and I will always remember that.”

Some of her four-year stats are 378 sets played, averaging 347 kills per season, 101 career blocks, 193 digs and 242 aces. In her senior year, Kelly had 402 kills, which was 13th in CIF-SS in 2014.

While in school, Kelly carried a 3.8 GPA, while taking mostly honors and AP classes.

Former St. Paul coach John Van Deventer said of her about her senior year – “She took the reins and led the team, not just physically, but with her leadership,” he said. “When things got tough, things did not bother her.”

Van Deventer was coach for the Swordsmen during those years when they advanced deep into the CIF Playoffs.

After graduating from St. Paul, Kelly started her studies for a semester at Whittier College, then in the Spring of 2016 transferred to Lourdes.

Kelly had mentioned after her senior year that she wanted to attend a small college in Division II or III. She found it small, as Lourdes has just over 1,100 students and it competes in NAIA.

She played her sophomore and junior years, but due to various ankle injuries in her career, Kelly decided not to play her senior year, but rather concentrate on her studies. She did, however, kept close to the program helping out where needed.

Perhaps one of her shining moments while playing at Lourdes was the playoffs in 2017. Lourdes was on the verge of upsetting then 16th-ranked Madonna University in their conference tournament.

In the fifth and final set in the semifinals, Lourdes was trailing, 6-3, but the 6-1 OH served five consecutive winners and Lourdes eventually upset Madonna.

The Gray Wolves would qualify for their third consecutive NAIA National Championship tournament.

Kelly also coached at Toledo Dynamic Volleyball Club in Ohio for two years, and is now coaching at ICON Volleyball club for the past three years. In 2019 Kelly got her first taste of high school coaching, taking on the head job for the Monrovia JV team.

Current senior St. Paul Volleyball player, Kaylee Leonard, played with Kelly on her ICON Club team and said this about her - “I’m very excited, because I already know her, and I think it’s going to be a big change for St. Paul Volleyball,” said Leonard, who won’t get the opportunity to play under Kelly.

“I know that she is very encouraging, and she likes to push her players to be the best that they can be and that she can be a big motivator.

“She’s funny, she knows how to get serious, she can talk to players very easily and she just has a very good energy to her.

Kelly, who has worked in the social service field, now works as an Adolescent Prevention Specialist within schools, where she educates students on positive life skills and substance use prevention.