Breanne Kelley: The Closer

Polson senior Breanne Kelley has ice water in her veins when it

becomes crunch time“

POLSON - When the Yankees are in a crunch, they go to Mariano Rivera. When the Patriots need a big play, the put the ball in the hands of Tom Brady, when the Lakers need a last second shot, they write up a play for Kobe Bryant. When the Polson Lady Pirates needed a big boost, they go to Breanne Kelley.

"She was always our go-to girl," Polson volleyball head coach Jan Toth said. "There's not a moment during the game where she questions whether she can win."

The same could be said for Kelley in basketball, as her father Randy Kelley coaches the team.

"There were a couple of games where she took it over," he said. "Once she decides to go, she has another gear."

That extra gear can be worth four straight kills that completely change the momentum of a match, or a clutch shot that puts her team ahead.

"I feel in pressure situations that I like to step up and be the one that hits it," Kelley said. "I always want to."

In three matches during this year's state volleyball tournament, Kelley collected 59 kills. For the regular season, Kelley led the entire Northwestern A conference with 203 kills.

"She's a perfectionist," Toth said. "Nothing in every game is good enough on the court."

That perfectionism is masked by Kelley's shy exterior.

"She's not a real audible kid," Toth said. "She's one of those silent leaders and killers."

That comes from practice. Lots of it. Toth has been known to hold intense practices, but even she has to tell Kelley to call it a night in the gym.

"I never at practice have to worry about her working hard or learning something," Toth said. "99 percent of the time, I was the one telling her to leave."

She's always trying to improve always trying to figure out what she can do better.

"Right now I don't know what to do because I don't have to go to practice," Kelley said after the conclusion of volleyball season.

Kelley just wrapped up a four-year-high school career that saw her starting from day one.

"I was really scared for our first game," Kelley said. "Then I realized all the starters were pretty young."

The young Lady Pirates took lumps her first year, but they jumped back to make the state tournament the next three and placed fourth at state in 2009.

"We won one game our first year," Kelley said. "We were so happy we were crying."

Kelley got all conference honors her freshman and sophomore year and all-state honors her junior and senior years in volleyball. She had nothing but compliments about her setter, senior Kayla Duford, who was the unshakable quarterback of her team.

"I already knew what she was going to do before she got the ball," Kelley said.

It was this year's early season game against Whitefish, with a loud crowd and hostile environment on the road, that Toth thought her senior made a silent statement.

"It gave her a little bit of fuel," Toth said. "It caused her to rise to another level. She realized nobody could touch her. I think it was a newfound level to the game."

Kelley had 23 kills in the game and quieted a boisterous Bulldogs crowd. It wouldn't be the only time she'd get that many kills either.

"She's really up there with the best of the best," Toth said. "At the state tournament, she had college coaches meeting up with her after her games."

Basketball has been a big part of Kelley's life, but the more Kelley learned about volleyball when she started playing in middle school, the more she liked about it.

"I always used to like basketball more because I would always play it with my dad," Kelley said.

Randy Kelley said that it's been a positive experience coaching his daughter.

"I've enjoyed it," Randy said. "I've always coached her, her mother coached her. It's been nice to see her grow as an athlete and as a student."

Kelley earned all-state honors in basketball last year and will be a big key to the Lady Pirates success this season.

"She's very humble for the things she's achieved," Randy said.

And that, even as just a senior in high school, has been a lot.

"She just has something about her that's very special," Toth said.