Kevin Kelly: The Irish "Rent-a-Goalie"
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
Kevin Kelly would rather be playing hockey, no matter what. He always has his hockey bag packed and will go anywhere in the world to play in goal. Packed in that bag is a fierce determination and dedication to just play hockey – money is secondary to his great love for just being on the ice and playing the game he idolizes. With the National Hockey League (NHL) in lockout, many of our NHL players are also playing all over the world, so what's so different about Kevin Kelly you say?
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| KEVIN KELLY and Mark Bowes who is the Captain of the Irish National Hockey Team at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. |
Well, what's so unique about Kevin Kelly is that he is from Ireland – a country not noted for hockey but rather the Gaelic Games (GAA) of football, hurling, soccer or rugby. When you talk to Kevin about his love of hockey and the adversity he has faced just to play the game, you really have to admire his determination and the hockey skills he has acquired along the way.
The Celtic Connection was actually trying to track him down in Toronto where he is known as "the Irish-Rent-a-Goalie." He was playing several games a day there for all kinds of hockey clubs just to get the practice he needed to take part in the World Hockey Championship in Mexico.
Always having to prove his skills as a goalie, Kevin said, “my Irish accent and the fact that I’m a hockey goalie from Ireland is always looked upon with some suspicion both by the players and the coaches who don’t like wasting their time and I can’t blame them.”
I finally caught up with Kelly in Riga, Latvia, where he had gone to try out for a goalie position with a Division One team and a position which he had just secured the day he spoke with me.
Why Latvia? Kevin laughed and said, “actually, I’d sooner be playing hockey in North America where I can understand the language, but I’m over here in Latvia and can’t speak a word of the language.
“My girlfriend is from Latvia and she speaks Latvian, Russian and English, so she has to translate everything for me. Actually, she helped to arrange my tryout as a goalie here. Hockey in Latvia is pretty good to be honest with you.”
Speaking about playing goal for the Irish National Hockey team in the World Hockey Championship that took place in Mexico in March, Kevin said, “we came in fourth out of five and actually we should have won but one of our goals against South Africa was disallowed. When we looked at the video replay, we could clearly see there was no reason that it should have been disallowed.
“It was a very rough game and the South African team put three of our best players in hospital and they did the same to Luxembourg. Mexico won the tournament but I was pretty happy since I won the Man of the Match award.”
Kevin is still a member of the Irish National Hockey Team but since they only play about six or seven games a year, he must look for a spot on another team somewhere to continue his career in hockey.
Talking about when his interest in hockey first began, Kevin said, “I was about seven years old when I saw my first NHL game on Irish television. It’s very rare that they would show a hockey game in Ireland, but there it was. I was amazed at what I saw and I’ve been in love with the game ever since.”
After pestering his mother and father for months to bring him to the ice rink, they finally relented and he got his first pair of hockey skates six months later. The skates were Bauer moulded plastic which he kept until he was 13 years old out of necessity.
The addition of leg pads, hockey gloves and a stick meant he was ready to play the game that excited him. In those days, when all his friends were kicking a ball in the park or playing GAA in some Dublin event, Kevin was taking part in a game most people didn’t even know existed in Ireland.
Realizing that his opportunities for advancing his hockey career were limited and not wanting to go to college in Ireland, Kevin decided to go to the United States and try out for a Double A hockey team.
He could play for a team but he was also required to go to school and unfortunately the schools were too expensive so he had to return to Dublin. Here, he joined the Dublin Flyers hockey team and helped them to win the Scottish Cup while completing his education.
Kevin Kelly is 26 years old now and owns his own web development company that he set up six years ago in Dublin. He has a staff that runs the business for him which allows him to pursue his first love of hockey all over the world. Speaking about his company he said, “really, I only have to do about an hour’s work a day and that’s basically answering my e-mails.”
With regard to his long term goals in hockey, Kevin said, “I just want to play a good level of hockey, I don’t care about the money. Ideally, what I want is to play at least one professional season before I get too old and then I will know that I have given it a good shot. And if that doesn’t work out, then fair enough because I can’t improve any more than I am now since I’m not getting the ice time in the game or in the leagues that I need.
“My brother Dean is a very good hockey player and what I would like to do is give him every opportunity that I didn’t have and then basically, it’s up to him. We’re hoping to put him into a school in Toronto where he can also play hockey for a year or two. If he gets on well, then, we’re not going to stop him from doing what I wish I had been able to do at his age and didn’t have the same opportunity.”
For more information about the Irish Ice Hockey Association of Ireland and an opportunity to buy some of their team jerseys which are actual replicas of what the players wear in the national games, check out their website at www.iiha.org.
“Number one,” Kevin said, “all the money raised from the sale of the jerseys goes towards helping young Irish kids who want to play hockey. And, number two, the money goes towards building rinks for the kids. This is a full registered charity in Ireland so every penny goes towards helping the kids.”
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[Special thanks to Tom O’Flynn of Vancouver for suggesting the article on Irish goalie, Kevin Kelly. And also thanks to journalist Allan Maki of The Globe and Mail for his assistance in helping to track down Kevin.]
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