Kelly's first love was the game of baseball. He knew all of the player's statistics, played many positions in the game, and also played basketball and soccer as well, the latter for which he was a paid certified referee.
His other love was sports journalism, starting his own magazine entitled Sports Weekly at the age of 12. Kelly soon had 26 paying subscribers nationwide. He was the magazine's sole writer, editor, publisher, illustrator, design manager and printing technician, all rolled into one.
During Kelly’s 4 years at Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, Virginia, he ran Cross-Country, becoming the team’s co-captain, and Indoor and Outdoor Track, eventually becoming the fastest Cross-Country distance runner in Central Virginia.
He also became a Staff Reporter and later the Sports Editor of his high school's newspaper, The Revolution. He loved the written word and couldn't bear to think of eliminating any of them. His idea of editing his work so that it could fit on to a single page was to make the picture smaller. He was also a staff writer for a local running website called www.milestat.com. Then in the summer of 2004 he began interning for a local weekly newspaper called The Hook, and in 6 month's time was hired as a journalist, debuting his own column called Sports Wrap, by Kelly Watt, which he wrote until his death.
Kelly pursued life with courage and with a goal, living each day to the fullest. He accomplished more by the end of the day than most of us did in a month. He was determined, driven, a team player with an unparalleled work ethic. He was humble and compassionately loved his team, his family and the people with whom he worked, always wanting everyone to feel respected and valued. Kelly made an impression, and he made all who were fortunate enough to have known him, better people.
Kelly's sister Morgan also ran Cross-Country for Albemarle High, for 3 years, and has played tennis year-round, since the age of 5. She was co-captain of her varsity team in 2008 and upon her graduation from Albemarle that year received the first annual Claudia Dodson Women in Sports Integrity Award and scholarship. Morgan graduated from The George Washington University in 2012.
Articles Featuring Kelly:
