Mercury All-Area POY: Kelly left indelible mark on Phoenixville program
From anonymity to the big man on campus.
Christian Kelly’s transformation at Phoenixville still takes him aback from time to time.
Not too long ago, Kelly stood at the heels of rejuvenating the Phantom boys basketball program.
Now, the senior exits as one of the greatest players to ever play in the purple and white.
Because of this, his award case adds another honor as the Kutztown commit has earned Mercury All-Area Player of the Year honors for a second straight season.
“I never expected any of this when I first started playing,” Kelly said. “I just wanted to play ball and get a good education. So much more has happened. It feels good knowing that I have so many fans in the school and in the community. Kids saying hi because they recognize me, it means a lot. I didn’t know that I could have made that big of an impact. It’s really cool.”
At 6-4, 185-pounds, Kelly is hard to miss. The same can be said with his play on the court.
Coming off a junior season where he earned All-Area POY honors after averaging 21.9 points per game in leading the Phantoms to a berth into the District 1-AAAA playoffs in the team’s first season in the Class AAAA classification, Kelly repeated what was expected of him.
With his college decision looming, he led the league in scoring (23.7 ppg), led the Phantoms to a second-straight trip to the PAC-10 Final Four, and again, led the team to a District 1-AAAA playoff berth.
“All the attention that came, I was ready for it. It was fun. I’m always ready for new challenges. I was ready to compete against anybody that came my way, whether they were taller, shorter, quicker or faster. I knew I could do what I had to do to get my team the win. I didn’t care about how many points I got or how many assists I got, the only thing that mattered at the end of the day was if our team got the win or not.
“I knew that I had to protect what was my mine and how hard I worked,” Kelly said. “I had to show everyone why I was being recruited by this school or that school and I knew going into each game that they knew my stats and who was recruiting me. I was going to get their best guy, their best defender so I took it as a challenge.”
A challenge he normally won due to an offseason training program that saw him noticeably bulked up, yet still holding his lean and athletic characteristics.
“During the summer Coach (Eric) Burnett said to keep working hard because success will follow. I was lifting weights and putting on muscle all summer. I put in individual work, put in work with my teammates. It was a busy summer, a good summer, too.”
Kelly shined offensively for a team that had only one other senior in the starting five, scoring 30-plus points in six of his 23 games, including a season-best 33 points in wins over Pottsgrove and Avon Grove. Kelly had 15 20-point games and scored point No. 1,000 in a 64-32 victory over Upper Perkiomen on December 22.
“I knew that I had to have a bigger impact than I had last year and I knew that I was going to have to be on the floor at all times. I couldn’t take any breaks on defense when I got tired, I had to make an impact whenever I was on the court.”
His shining moment of the season came in the team’s contest against league-undefeated (and eventual PAC-10 champion) Spring-Ford in late January. Coming off an injury to his thumb on shooting hand, Kelly, who had missed the previous three games, led the team back from a first-quarter deficit, scoring a game-high 27 points as the Phantoms topped the Rams 50-46 in one of the biggest games to take place at Phoenixville in recent memory.
“I was out a couple games before that. Going into that game I was a little bit nervous because I hadn’t played in a while. That game was big, it was one of the biggest I’ve played in. Once I got my legs in the second half, it was the same old thing. I had to do what I had to do to get the win.”
Phoenixville went on to lose in the PAC-10 semifinals to Perkiomen Valley before bowing out in the District 1-AAAA playback to Academy Park after falling to Central Bucks West in the second round.
But even in defeat, Kelly’s lasting impression on Phoenixville will live on.
“It makes me feel good about how much hard work we put in and the success that we had extended all the way out to all the schools in the conference. Everyone knew about us and we weren’t going to take anyone by surprise. We set the standard and hopefully the kids who come up to play high school basketball when me and my teammates are gone know what the expectation is now.”
Phoenixville can credit Kelly for resetting the expectation that had been long storied at Phoenixville: winning.
Who could have dreamt that two years ago?
