Rounding the Bases with Jack Kelly

HIT & RUN

Major: Economics/Finance
Favorite athlete: Tom Brady or Mike Trout
Favorite hobby: traveling or watching movies
Favorite book: Where the Red Fern Grows
Favorite musical artist: Tenth Avenue North
Favorite TV show: Friends or Peaky Blinders
Favorite professional team: Boston Red Sox
Favorite restaurant: Manny's Steakhouse
Favorite Gopher sporting event: volleyball
Biggest fear: snakes
Biggest pet peeve: phone use during movies
Hidden talent: ping-pong
Person you'd most like to meet: Tom Brady
Something you never leave home without: wallet
Sport you'd like to try but never have: golf

TEAM SUPERLATIVES

Best personality in the dugout: Drake Davis
Hardest-working teammate: Drew Stahl
Most competitive teammate: Sam Thoresen
Most studious teammate: Danny Kapala
Biggest prankster: Zack Elliott
Build the ultimate five-tool player with your teammates: Max Meyer (arm), Zack Raabe (power), Sam Ireland (contact), Ronnie Sweeny (speed), Jordan kozicky (glove)

GopherSports.com met with each of Minnesota's 12 newcomers to discuss their life before the U and gather the inside scoop for the 2020 season. Transfer catcher/outfielder Jack Kelly is the focus of this week's installment, having recently brought his talents to the U after two season with Northwestern's program.

Prior to college baseball, Kelly experienced a decorated career at St. Michael-Albertville High School. As a four-year letterwinner, Kelly led the Knights to three Mississippi 8 Conference Championships. His senior season, he was named First Team All-Metro, All-Area and All-State, while being selected to the USA Today All-Minnesota Team as well.

Over the prior two campaigns, Kelly appeared in 56 games for the Northwestern Wildcats, starting in 35 of those contests. As a sophomore in 2019, he swung his way to the third-best batting average on the team, ending the year with a solid .296 clip to accompany a .378 on-base percentage.

Now with the Gophers, Kelly took the time to speak about his experience in baseball after his first fall in Minneapolis.

GopherSports.com: Why did you choose to attend the University of Minnesota?
Kelly: "Family was a big part of it for me. I live here, so being close to home was something I wanted. Also, the coaching staff here really emphasizes aspects of life outside of baseball and that was something that I was looking forward to."

GS: What are your thoughts on your brother, Cody, joining you at Minnesota in the fall of 2020?
Kelly: "I'm really excited for it and I know he's excited for it. I've loved my experience here so far, so I think that connection and letting him know what it's like here and what to get ready for has helped. I think it's going to be a good transition for him and he's really going to enjoy it and get better here."

GS: When did you start playing baseball and how did you first get involved?
Kelly: "I first started when I was like four or five. I basically got involved through my family being a big baseball family overall. My dad played college baseball, so I think he was the one that really guided my brother and me into baseball at an early age."

GS: What would you say is your biggest strength as a player and what is one possible area of improvement for you?
Kelly: "My biggest strength has always been my bat and my arm. I try to be a gap-to-gap hitter and with my arm, I've always tried to take care of it and get as strong as possible because I know that's a big aspect of the game. As far as my weakness goes, I would probably say speed, just being a primary catcher. I think this fall has been pretty big in terms of development for speed and conditioning."

GS: Do you have any game day rituals or superstitions?
Kelly: "I used to have a lot, but recently, not really. I try not to correlate external things with my performance, so it's more mental preparations or mental routines that get me ready for the game. The biggest thing for me is playing loose and having fun."

GS: What is the most memorable moment of your career so far?
Kelly: "Winning the state championship when I was 11 and closing the game, because that just sums up my youth in terms of all the fun years I had back then. More recently, it would probably be my junior or senior year of high school, playing with my best friends and my brother for those two years."

GS: Who has been the biggest influence on your athletic career?
Kelly: "My whole family. More specifically, my dad because he has been my coach basically my whole career. Also, my brother in terms of having someone to compete against and grow with."

GS: What are your goals for this upcoming 2020 season?
Kelly: "I know we have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, so I think we really do have the players, the coaching staff and program to compete against any team and go to Omaha at the end of the year."

GS: In your mind, what makes the Minnesota coaching staff special?
Kelly: "I think it's the fact that they emphasize more than baseball. I don't know if that's necessarily that common at this level, but I know for me and my teammates, it helps a lot when we can take our minds off of baseball. Even though you may think it could hurt your baseball abilities, I think it might actually help it because you are more balanced as a person and you have a little bit less stress and worries. I think that's something that's awesome about these coaches. They truly care about you whether or not it has to do with baseball and they're more than willing to show it."

GS: Do you have any advice for aspiring young athletes?
Kelly: "Being the hardest worker is the easiest one to say, because you can control that out of everything. If you want to work hard at it and you aspire to grow and get better both physically and mentally, you can take pretty big strides from there."

GS: What was it like growing up in a household that produced such strong multi-sport athletes?
Kelly: "It was fun, overall. It was always challenging in terms of pushing yourself to get better. Like I said, both my parents played sports and my siblings played multiple sports and growing up around all that really pushes you to get better in whichever area you are trying to grow in. You can hold each other accountable. Rooting for each other's success is pretty important as well."

GS: What are your aspirations for after college ball?
Kelly: "I want to play professional baseball, so that's the first thing. Furthermore, I have an interest in business. It's basically what my major is and my family history is in business, so something along those lines."

GS: Who are you looking forward to playing against the most as a Gopher?
Kelly: "Northwestern."

GS: What has your experience of being a Division I student-athlete been like?
Kelly: "It's a lot of fun because I think you learn a lot of things at this time of your life. A lot of it has to do with time management. There's a lot more real-life applications of being a student-athlete because you have to balance more on your plate and you have a little bit more responsibility. I think it's challenging at times, but it's mostly rewarding."

GS: What did you learn during your time at Northwestern that might aid you throughout your Minnesota tenure?
Kelly: "I definitely learned a lot about the professional side of things: being on time, being organized, networking with others and having relationships with them. [Northwestern] was where I was first exposed to overall development in other areas of life as well. There is a big emphasis on that here and it's been an easy transition thus far because it is a similar culture in that aspect."

GS: What are your predictions for the 2020 season?
Kelly: "I think we can get to Omaha because we have a ton of talent on both the pitching and hitting side. Right out of the gate this year, we bought into going as far as we can get and we're not going to settle for coming up short. We all believe in it and we can go far into playoffs."

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Players Mentioned

Drake Davis

Zack Elliott

Sam Ireland

Danny Kapala

Jack Kelly

Max Meyer

Zack Raabe

Drew Stahl

Sam Thoresen