Drew Kelly replicates sister’s success
Families act as a driving force for many athletes, inspiring them to do great things. This stands true for Drew Kelly, a Beacon High School ninth grader uplifted by her family, including an older sister who starred in basketball and soccer.
Drew has found second families as an athlete in the same sports, where connections and friendships with teammates have contributed to her love of competing. Kelly, 15, joined the soccer team as a seventh grader in 2023 and made this year’s varsity basketball team as a freshman.
Competing with older athletes is “definitely scary,” she said. “You have to work for it because you’re competing against seniors. But you’re proud of yourself because you’re up here with these older people.”
Her father, a sports junkie, signed Drew and her siblings up for a variety of sports when they were young to see which ones interested them most. For Drew, a Wappingers Falls resident who began playing sports at age 5, it happened to be basketball and soccer. Her passion for those sports carried into middle school and high school.
She calls herself a “diehard team player” who would rather pass the ball to teammates, letting them share the spotlight, than score bunches of goals or shots.
One the older players on the soccer team in 2023 was her sister, senior Devyn Kelly, who Drew said is a role model academically and athletically. Devyn was on the pitch when Drew scored her first varsity goal. “That was a big moment,” said Drew. “She was the first person I ran to and gave a hug.”
As a striker and center midfielder, Drew finished with six goals in 2023 and 12 this past fall, including the team’s first goal of the season, and its lone score in a 1-0 win over Warwick on Sept. 3. The Bulldogs ended the season with just one loss but came up short in a penalty shootout after two overtimes to New Paltz in the first round of the Section IX, Class A playoffs.
Drew also followed Devyn, who graduated in June, to the basketball team, where she will compete as a point guard in a sport for which she has “always had that spark.” Last season, with Devyn among its leading scorers, the Bulldogs ended the regular season at 16-4, winning their second-straight league title before losing to Red Hook in the Section IX, Class A tournament.
Shannon Gunsett, the junior varsity basketball coach, described Drew as a talented player and “coach’s dream” who brings relentless energy to practices and games. “What sets Drew apart from others is her coachability,” said Gunsett. “She listens, embraces feedback and consistently works to improve her game.”
Like all student-athletes, Drew struggles to balance schoolwork with practices and games, and being a two-season athlete and playing both sports year-round outside of school is time-consuming. Even so, Kelly has proven to be a tenacious force and has been able to hold her own so far.
