Milford's Kelley follows in the footsteps of legend

February 26, 2016

By Lenny Megliola, MetroWest Daily News

Mike Kelley’s attachment to Massachusetts Maritime Academy runs deep.

Real deep.

The 38-year-old Milford native played four years of football and baseball at the Cape Cod-based Academy. He’s in the school’s athletic hall of fame. He’s been an assistant football coach, and for 10 years was the Buccaneers’ assistant baseball coach.

Then, when Bob Corradi last year decided to retire after 43 years as the baseball coach, the search committee didn’t have to look long or far.

It hired Kelley.

Corradi’s remarkably long stint makes Kelley just the second baseball coach in the academy’s history.

Big shoes for Kelley to fill for sure.

“I can’t replicate Corradi,” said Kelley. “I’m going to be my own coach.” Corradi also served as athletic director for 23 years. Such a towering figure on campus that Kelley can’t even describe it. “We don’t have enough time to talk about that,” said his successor.

“I’m very attached to this place,” said Kelley, “but if you’d ask me if I’d wind up coaching after graduating, I would have said you were crazy. It wasn’t in my plans. Now I can’t think of doing anything else.”

His duties also include being a dorm lieutenant with 220 students. “I’m in charge of discipline.”

Kelley hit .400 in his senior year at the academy. He led the MASCAC in triples one year. He played infield, outfield, and pitched — as a starter and closer. “I liked starting better. You had the ball in your hand from the beginning of the game.”

In his growing-up days in Milford, Kelley played everything. At Milford High, football became his favorite sport.

“It was the physicality of it,” he said.

Against Shrewsbury on Thanksgiving of his senior season, Kelley ripped off a 76-yard touchdown run. Nice memory, but there’s also the game against North Middlesex that sticks in his mind, although for the wrong reason. “They had something like a 36-game winning streak, but we lost, 40-36 I think. We had ’em beat.”

He also played two seasons with the Milford American Legion baseball team.

Kelley was nuts about both sports, and the fact that he could play baseball and football at Mass. Maritime was very appealing.

He captained both teams.

At Milford High his senior year, Kelley, a wide receiver, had to play quarterback when the starter was ruled academically ineligible. History sort of repeated itself at Mass. Maritime when Kelley stepped in as QB for the last two games when the starter broke his collarbone. He went 1-1.

“We beat Framingham State and lost to Bridgewater,” he said.

Ah yes, Framingham State, where his father, Tom, is head coach and athletic director.

“I grew up on the Framingham campus,” said Mike. “I knew all the guys on the Framingham side of the field. That was added incentive for me.”

Meanwhile, his mother, Jackie, fretted.

“She didn’t want me to go to Framingham because my dad was there,” said Kelley. “She didn’t want us to be stepping on each other’s toes.” Tom had coached Mike in youth football and baseball. That was enough.

Both Kelleys are highly competitive. After Framingham State handed Mass. Maritime a beating two seasons ago, “Michael didn’t talk to me until after Christmas,” said his father.

Ironically, Tom Kelley calls Bob Corradi “my best friend, but I’m very proud that Mike would get a job at such a prestigious place like Mass. Maritime. Jobs like that don’t come along all the time.”

As for Corradi, he’s sure Kelley will be a worthy successor.

“The contributions Mike’s made to our program as a player and coach are immeasurable,” he said. “This program will be in great hands.”