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Mature, Talented Kelley
Eyeing Big Year for Basha
By Jose Garcia
azpreps365.com
When Ryan Kelley received his first traffic ticket, the responsible
side of Kelley shifted into high gear.
Since the teenager and trouble don’t mix, Kelley took the initiative
to get a job to pay for traffic school.
“I wanted to fix my mistake without burdening my parents,” Kelley
said.
He might be only 17, but Kelley, Basha’s high-profile quarterback,
understands accountability.
His level of maturity reflects well on the way in which his parents,
Martha and Ted, are raising him and how his older siblings, Gillian
and Brianna, watched over him — mixed in with Gillian beating Kelley
in a game or two.
That support at home and Kelley’s maturity shielded him from the
scrutiny he received from University of Oregon fans after making one
of his biggest decisions so far — decommitting from Oregon. In the
process, Kelley, a team-first player, learned that it’s OK to be selfish
when making a life-changing choice.
The recruiting campaign — a coaching staff blitz — that stepped
in to win Kelley’s pledge next was Arizona State.
But that hasn’t stopped other teams from inquiring about the senior’s
interest to flip again.
Nothing is official until Kelley signs on the dotted line on Feb. 1,
but Kelley seems intent on staying put in the Valley.
Vision for the future.
Kelley can’t see that well out of his right eye without a contact
lense.
Defensive backs will have a hard time believing that the Basha
QB has a vision issue as soon as Kelley shows off his right arm and
timing with wide receiver Terrell Brown on deep passing routes this
season. If it weren’t for the contact lens, Kelley would probably bump
into walls like he did when he was a little kid wearing an eye patch.
Timing helped Kelley identify the reason for his misshaped right
cornea. And destiny gave him his first glimpse into his football future,
all because of his right eye.
During a routine eye exam he had to take before enrolling at a
school when Kelley was four, he covered his left eye and was asked
to identify the object in front of him. It was a sailboat, but it could’ve
been the Queen Mary and it still wouldn’t have mattered.
A specialist diagnosed the problem, a astigmatism. Eye drops, a
patch, glasses, time and eventually a contact lense were the recommendations
from doctors.
Kelley has 20/60 vision in his right eye, which is considered mild
vision loss. He started to like football around when he was four, when
the specialist told Kelley that his right cornea was shaped like a football.
“Of course it is,” he answered as a matter of fact to the specialist.
It wasn’t his vision that brought more nervous moments to the
Kelleys last year, however.
Kelley didn’t suit up after learning he broke some ribs and was
mistakenly told that he had also broken his right elbow during
Basha’s game against Chandler in Week 7 in 2015. Kelley had felt
some chest pain in games prior to the Chandler contest.
X-rays were taken when Kelley began to feel the pain, but X-rays
can’t really reveal fresh fractured ribs, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Kelley continued to play until after the Chandler game, when he took
a hit that sent him to the emergency room to get his chest checked
again.
While in the ER, Kelley began to feel pain in his right throwing
arm and elbow. X-rays on his ribs and elbow finally revealed four broken
ribs and, according to an X-ray technician, a broken elbow.
Kelley didn’t believe his elbow was broken because he could still
move his arm, but he was still concerned about his future.
He canceled his recruiting trip to UCLA because of the injuries
and thought about a career in coaching if playing was out of the
question.
But a couple of days later, after the ER visit, a specialist told Kelley
to put his coaching plans on hold, because he just had a sprained
elbow. He sat out the following week’s game and returned to action
with a flak jacket, which he wore prior to the Chandler game, two
weeks after getting sidelined and still not 100 percent.
Kelley also continued with the stressful college recruiting process.
Because of his ability to make every throw in the pocket or on the
run, athleticism, smarts, and competiveness, Kelley is considered
one of the nation’s elite dual threats at his position, according to his
6th-year QB coach Dennis Gile of the QB Academy.
The injuries did affect Kelley’s mechanics and consistency,
though, but he’s almost back to his old self. “Ryan has such an extreme
arm talent,” Gile said. “But the hard work he’s put in is a testament
to the kid’s dedication.”
On the recruiting front, Kelley narrowed his college choices to
Oregon, Arizona State, Cal, Michigan State and UCLA in October
and picked Oregon a couple of weeks later.
The rapport he struck with then Oregon offensive coordinator
Scott Frost was the biggest reason Oregon won out, he said. But on
Dec. 1 Frost was named Central Florida’s head coach.
The coaching exit combined with Oregon not communicating with
Kelley for a couple of weeks during Oregon’s Spring ball left Kelley
questioning if Oregon was the right fit. That opened the door for ASU,
which stepped in full-force.
The day after ASU announced Chip Lindsey as its new offensive
coordinator, and 12 days after Frost’s move to Central Florida became
official, Lindsey showed up at Basha. It was an awkward first
meeting with Kelley, who was decked out in Oregon garb while working
out in the weight room.
But the Oregon green didn’t dissuade Lindsey from giving his
ASU sales pitch to Kelley. Kelley gave himself enough time to think
things through as he tried to form a bond with Oregon’s new offenpage
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Ryan Kelley with his mom Martha and dad Ted (photo by
Jose Garcia of azpreps365.com)