Kevin Kelley enters his 12th season as the head coach of the Rockhurst men's lacrosse team. Kelley was hired to start the program in 2013. Since their inaugural season back in 2014, of which the Hawks won two games, Kelley has guided Rockhurst to 10 consecutive winning seasons. Over that 11-year span, the Hawks have gone 106-61, with a .635 winning percentage and have finished the season in the USILA Top 20 a total of five times.
Kelley was named the GLVC Co-Coach of the Year while leading the Hawks to their first GLVC Tournament championship in 2023. In 2022 Kelley guided the Hawks to their first-ever GLVC regular season championship, finishing with a 6-1 record and a share of the GLVC regular season title. The Hawks garnered a share of their first championship in exciting fashion, by taking down seventh-ranked Lindenwood, 11-10, in overtime.
Over the past 10 seasons, Rockhurst Men's Lacrosse has seen 77 players earn RMAC/GLVC All-Conference awards, including 35 first-teamers. In addition, the Hawks have had 12 USILA Scholar All-Americans, 12 USILA South All-Region, and six USILA All-Americans. Rockhurst has also appeared in six conference tournaments, making the championship game one time in 2019.
Kelley was named the RMAC Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2018. The Hawks set a school record for wins in 2018 with 14 wins. Rockhurst has knocked off multiple nationally ranked opponents in their nine-year history, highlighted by defeating 10th-ranked Mercyhurst in 2018, 10th-ranked University of Indianapolis in 2021 and their first-ever Top 20 win vs. 12th-ranked Colorado Mesa in 2017.
Other noticeable milestones for the Hawks include finishing as an NCAA D2 statistical champions in Extra-Man Opportunities/EMO (45.1 percent, 32/71), Team Face-Off Percentage (73.2) and individual Face-Off Percentage (Zach Bodeau, 77.6) in 2018, as well as the highest scoring offense in D2 in 2019, averaging 17.5 goals per game.
Rockhurst has had many players walk away with season-ending on-field honors. Luke Goetze earned USILA Third Team All-American honors in 2023. Sam Lindahl was named a USILA Honorable Mention All-American Attacker in 2022, while Alec Heflin was named a US Lacrosse Magazine Honorable Mention All-American midfielder in 2022. Luke Goetz, Lindahl and Heflin were all honored as All-South Region players as well in 2022. Connor Bateman was named RMAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2018 and two Hawks received RMAC Freshman of the Year honors: Michael Beckham (2015) and Luke Vanoverbeke (2017).
Academically, the Hawks have also achieved a host of success. Zach Bodeau has been a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American and was the CoSIDA Division II National Team Player of the Year in the At-Large category in 2020. Connor Bateman earned Academic All-American honors in 2018 and 2020. Joe Burbach, Jake Martin Luis Martinez, Drake O'Neill, Bodeau, Sal Valdivia, Graden Soucy and Lindahl have all received USILA Scholar All-America honors for their four-year on-field and off-field accomplishments. In total, 80 Hawks have received Academic All-Conference recognition. Mike Boehm received All-RMAC Academic Player of the Year and Academic All-District honors in 2017. In 2016, Boehm was awarded the RMAC Summit Award in Men's Lacrosse for having the highest cumulative GPA in the conference.
As a program, Rockhurst has twice been named a USILA D2 Academic Team in the only two years the award has been given. In order to qualify, the program must have a cumulative GPA above a 3.0 for both semesters.
Previous to Rockhurst, Kelley enjoyed success at the high school level. He coached at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas. While at SM East, Kelley helped turn a fledgling Lancers program into a perennial winner. SM East won the 2011 Kansas State Championship and followed that up with back-to-back LAKC Championship titles in 2012 and 2013.
Prior to SM East, Kelley coached at Rockhurst High School, New Trier High School out of the Chicago suburbs and Williamsville South High School in the Buffalo, New York suburbs.
Kelley graduated from Syracuse University with a B.S. in Marketing Management in 2000. He played on Syracuse’s NCAA Division I National Championship team in 2000 and the Orangemen’s national runner-up team in 1999. Prior to Syracuse, Kelley attended SUNY-Canton. He was a two-sport athlete at Canton. Kelley was named first team All-Northeast in football in 1997, as well as first team All-Region in lacrosse in 1997 and 1998.
Kelley was drafted by the Buffalo Bandits of the NLL and played professionally for the Chicago Machine of the MLL.
An avid CrossFitter, Kelley is also a big Buffalo Bills and Sabres fan, as well as his alma mater, Syracuse University, and he loves his Seinfeld reruns. Kelley also runs the KC Doom Girls Lacrosse Club during the summer. He lives in Kansas City with his wife Jessie (Rockhurst University ’01), his two daughters Cora and Evey, and their two dogs, Gracie and Alley, and two cats, George Costanza and Elaine Benes.
CAREER HEAD COACHING RECORD
YEAR SCHOOL RECORD PCT.
2025 Rockhurst 8-6 .571
2024 Rockhurst 10-5 .667
2023 Rockhurst 10-5 .667
2022 Rockhurst 8-6 .571
2021 Rockhurst 8-5 .615
2020 Rockhurst 6-1 .857
2019 Rockhurst 12-4 .750
2018 Rockhurst 14-3 .824
2017 Rockhurst 12-5 .705
2016 Rockhurst 9-8 .529
2015 Rockhurst 7-5 .583
2014 Rockhurst 2-8 .200
CAREER TOTAL: 106-61 .635
