June 15, 2021
Mounds Park Academy won its first state team championship in any sport in school history thanks in large part to Bryan Kelly.
In the 2005 Class A state tennis tournament, Kelly faced an opponent from The Blake school with the state championship tied at 3-3 in the best of seven contest. What followed was a three and half hour long battle that ultimately resulted in a 4-3 Mounds Park Academy victory. “It was one of the most fun atmospheres I’ve ever had an opportunity to be a part of and I’ll never forget the feeling of helping my team accomplish our ultimate goal,” says Kelly.
Kelly followed up this performance by leading the Panthers to a second consecutive state championship in 2006 and went on to become the state singles champion as a senior in 2007. He was a four year letter winner at MPA and earned multiple Tri Metro all-conference awards.
Kelly continued his tennis career collegiately at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. In 2008, he and the Irish won the Big East Conference championship. Additionally, the Irish qualified for the NCAA tennis tournament in each of his four years at Notre Dame. Kelly majored in finance and political science, earning a Big East Conference all-academic team award in 2010.
Kelly found his voice as a leader at Notre Dame, earning the Raymond T. Bender Leadership Award in both 2010 and 2011, and he credits his MPA athletics experience for first developing his leadership skills. “I observed the leadership of our previous teams over several years and how it impacted our varying degrees of team success,” he said. “Watching these leaders helped me to develop a pride and confidence in our team’s successes and helped us cultivate a winning culture that I believe I brought with me to college.”
Kelly now works as a solution leader in data innovation at McKinsey & Company in Chicago.
