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Kelly Bryan
Kelly Bryan enters her 19th season at Kenyon with an impressive string of accomplishments, most notably during the 2014 season in which the Ladies made a successful run through the postseason, which included a North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament title and upset victory over nationally-ranked Emory University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Over the last six seasons of play, the Ladies soccer team reached a program-record six straight NCAC Tournaments and attained 47 victories. In 2017, the Ladies went 7-0-1 in conference play, marking the first time since joining the league in 1984 that a Ladies team went undefeated. For Bryan, heading into the 2021 season, she owns a 149-135-25 Kenyon record and an overall career coaching record of 205-174-37.
In 2018, the Ladies went 8-6-3 and 4-2-2 in the NCAC, before falling in the semifinal round of the conference tourney. Bryan and the Ladies followed that up with an 8-8-1 season in 2019 and made another appearance in the NCAC Tournament.
In 2014, Kenyon won a share of the NCAC regular season title before winning the conference's tournament title for the first time in program history. During the remarkable season, the Ladies won 9-of-10 matches toward the end of the year, including upsetting Allegheny College in the NCAC Tournament final and then No. 21-ranked Emory University in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament. Bryan earned conference, state and region Coach of the Year honors in the process.
Bryan and her Kenyon team had one of the most successful seasons in program history during the 2006 campaign. The Ladies matched a program-best total for wins in a single season, earned the program's first-ever NCAC championship and defeated Capital University in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament. The tournament win was the Ladies' first-ever on the national stage. For her efforts, Bryan was named the NCAC Coach of the Year.
No stranger to campus, Bryan worked as an assistant coach at Kenyon during the 1998 season, serving under former head coach Scott Thielke. In 1999, she moved on to accept the head coaching position at North Carolina Wesleyan College, her alma mater. She coached at NCWC for four seasons and accumulated a 56-24-7 record, three conference championships, and three NCAA tournament appearances. She was also named the USA South Athletic Conference (formerly the Dixie Intercollegiate Conference) Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2000. In her first season at Wesleyan, Bryan guided the Battling Bishops to a 17-2-4 record while winning the Dixie Conference and NCAA Southeast Regional championship. The Bishops also journeyed all the way to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals.
Back in 1997, Bryan began her coaching career at the University of South Alabama, where she served as the second assistant coach for the Division I program. She spent one season there before moving on to Kenyon as an assistant in 1998-99. She also owns coaching experience with the USA Athletes International organization (Australia in 2003 and 2005, and Aruba in 2004), as a staff coach for the North Carolina ODP East team, and as coach of the Mount Vernon Soccer Association club team. She currently holds an NSCAA Advanced National Coaching Diploma.
During her playing days at NCWC, Bryan was a four-year starter and two-time team captain who made it to three NCAA tournaments. In 1994, she was part of the team that made it to the NCAA Final Four. She was named team Most Valuable Player in 1996, as well as NCWC's 'Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year' in 1996-97.
After graduating from NCWC with a bachelor's degree in psychology, Bryan earned her master's degree in exercise technology at the University of South Alabama. In 2011, she was certified as a NSCA Strength & Conditioning Specialist. A native of Dublin, Ohio, Bryan lives with her husband, Chase, and two children in nearby Heath, Ohio.
In addition to her coaching duties, Bryan serves as an Assistant Director of Athletics and had served as the Athletics Department's Senior Woman Administrator for a couple of years.
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