Grace Kelly is an artist and a dancer and, just talking with the McAllen High/IB student, one can tell that the name she bears may be also one of her greatest characteristics.
But, in her soccer uniform, persona replicates the tenacious Bulldog she represents on the soccer field. She transforms into Grace, under pressure.
Kelly waited behind Gonzalez for three years to have her chance to step into the box and be the last line of defense for the perennial power Bulldogs’ program.
Because of that tenacity — along with 14 shutouts and a season when she went 7-for-7 facing penalty kicks — the senior has earned The Monitor’s 2021 All-Area Girls Soccer Goalkeeper of the Year award.
Kelly is the second straight McHi goalkeeper to be honored with an all-area nod, following last year’s All-Area Player of the Year, Lexi Gonzalez.
“I’m not going to lie, it was rough to know I had to wait my turn,” said Kelly, who will attend UT Austin in the fall and study neurosciences. “When I had that opportunity, I fully grasped the situation and worked to be a leader on that team.”
That leadership was visually confirmed at the beginning of the season. With the ball-control style the Bulldogs play, Kelly usually a multitude of attacks, but when opponents did attack, it was in full force.
“Grace was so observant and could use her critical thinking on the field,” McAllen High head coach Patrick Arney said. “She was really coachable, but the thing that helped her the most was that she was so determined to do well this year. She had such a drive. Life would’ve been so much different without her in goal this year.”
Kelly said she knew the opportunity was there and she was determined to take over that spot. More than six months before her senior season began, she dropped some of her other activities to focus on her goal and started working daily, usually out on some field at 6 a.m.
“We knew what she could do but one of the nice surprises was the dedication and drive she has had since last year,” Arney said. “She really went out and got things done and pushed herself. She withstood everything and we hadn’t seen her in overdrive like that.
“One day, one of my teachers was telling me that she saw Grace at 6:30 in the morning in the field across from her apartment working out. I knew then that she really wanted this.”
Kelly said she vividly remembers he first game in goal. Prior to that, she had been a forward. However, during her fourth-grade year, her team’s goalie took a kick to her arm that broke it. On the sideline, the coach looked for the next tallest girl.
“I was chosen to be the goalie,” Kelly said. “So I put on her goalie stuff and that was my first day playing. Then I got kicked in the nose. It wasn’t broken but I was bleeding all over her stuff. She didn’t play goalie again. I became the goalie.”
She’s been there ever since.
Arney said what stood out throughout the year is how she improved and how no one put a ball in the goal during seven penalty kick attempts. In at least one case it was the difference between a win and a loss for the 21-1 Bulldogs.
“I remember my first save against Sharyland after the first PK went over,” Kelly said. “I was feeling the pressure, but it was my moment to shine and I hyped myself up and got situated. I could tell she (the penalty kicker) was trying to trick me and I read through it, saved it and punched it over and we won. It was one of my most favorite high school experiences.”
“Being a goalie takes a special person,” Arney said. “You have to be a little crazy. It was great to see what she did to become a great goalie and the best she could be.”