BY NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN– Hannah Kelly is a high jumper and a defender for UIL state soccer semifinalists McAllen High School. She’s also a longtime dancer and a student in MISD’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program. On Friday afternoon she signed her institutional letter of intent for the next step: studying and jumping for Duke University Track & Field.
Kelly had a laundry list of coaches, instructors, teammates and classmates to thank, which explained the large crowd on hand to watch her big day at McAllen High’s gymnasium.
“I definitely think that all my activities have made me who I am just because of how long I’ve been doing them,” Kelly said. “I really didn’t start track until seventh grade, but because I’ve been a part of Melba’s (dance academy) and because I’ve been in soccer since I was 2 or 4 years old, it definitely impacts how I jump or who I am now.”
With so much on her plate, the high jump bar is just one challenge she has to clear on a regular basis. In fact, with such a difficult course load, athletics is more of an escape than a burden.
Kelly splits her time as an athlete for the Bulldogs, which includes morning track and afternoon soccer practices, but the bulk of her day is spent at Lamar Academy, where IB students from around the city and beyond take classes.
“A lot of people don’t know about the IB program because everything that we do is kind of hard to explain,” Kelly said. “The main jist of the Diploma Programme, which is junior and senior year, is that we do a lot of things that don’t count toward our McAllen ISD grades. It’s more things that count toward IB so that includes the extended essay, we also have an internal assessment for all the classes you’re enrolled in.”
The IB program is part of a streamlined international curriculum that focuses on community interaction, world awareness and, of course, rigorous classes that are weighted similarly to AP classes which can explain her 108.3 average.
“Everything is much more difficult because we try to get ready for college, not in the sense of overloading yourself with work but making you think critically,” Kelly said. “I would say the family at IB has definitely helped me achieve my goals. There’s so much support there.”
Kelly’s 2018 athletic season was her most successful, but also the most turbulent. As the McHi soccer team made a historic run to become the first RGV girls program to reach the UIL State Tournament in Georgetown, a scheduling conflict during the state semifinal prevented Kelly from being able to compete in the area track meet.
The Bulldogs girls team won the 30-6A district track meet in between the soccer playoff run.
Hannah’s mother, Barbara Kelly, also believes that the number of extracurricular activities molded the future Blue Devil student-athlete. Kelly will major in applied mathematics.
“I think because she has always had a passion for learning, she loves math and she’s always been really great at math so much so that she’s always pushed herself to study really hard,” Barbara Kelly said. “Athletics has always been her stress relief. I really think that all of those activities shaped her to be an organized, multi-faceted person.”
Kelly’s decision to jump for Duke was a product of an East Coast road trip that the family took to visit schools and contact track coaches. Prior to the signing, her father told the story of Hannah being overlooked by an Ivy League coach, but later finding a perfect match and open arms in Durham with the Blue Devils.
McHi track coach Bob Bechtold said that Hannah’s jump to the next level can have a long-time impact on the team’s future.
“It’s huge for the program,” Bechtold said. “Other kids see her and what she’s accomplished and it motivates them to do better, which massively helps our program.”
Bechtold also used Hannah as an example as to why student-athletes should continue to take on as much as they can handle.
“There’s always a way to make it work and McHi’s probably the best school to make it happen, cause our coaching staff is a family,” Bechtold said. “We share athletes, we promote multi-sport athletes and Hannah is the epitome of that. She’ll come at 6 o’clock in the morning and high jump and practice until 6 o’clock in the evening with soccer, she’s non-stop.”