St. Francis grad Kelsay focuses on ‘family’ as first-year head coach at Michigan State

In her first season as head women’s volleyball coach at Michigan State University, Kristen Kelsay is focused on creating the sense of a “Spartan family.”

“How being a Spartan is about being something bigger than yourself,” said Kelsay, of Wheaton.

She’s well-versed in all things Spartan — a 2010 graduate of St. Francis High School, the Spartans, and a setter on the Michigan State women’s team from 2010-13.

A fine example of family came in Kelsay’s first match, when her own family came to Michigan State’s Breslin Center on Aug. 30 to watch the Spartans sweep Merrimack in three games.

“It was really special to have them by my side,” said Kelsay, now 4-0 entering Monday’s match at Western Michigan.

Her father, retired Addison Trail coach and school psychologist Bruce Kelsay, said that since his daughter was hired last Dec. 22 as Michigan State’s eighth women’s volleyball coach, wherever she goes on the East Lansing campus, people welcome her “home.”

Kristen Kelsay was a two-time Michigan State co-captain, a two-time Big Ten Conference Sportsmanship Award winner and three-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar who ranks fourth in program history in sets played and seventh in assists.

After she graduated with a bachelor’s degree, also in psychology, she stayed on campus as a graduate assistant, then as a four-year assistant to her own coach at MSU, Cathy George, now with the Grand Rapids Rise professional women’s team. Coaching positions at Northwestern and Minnesota followed.

The day after Michigan State parted ways with coach Leah Johnson last Dec. 16, athletic director Alan Haller called Kelsay to ask if she’d be interested in the job. A no-brainer for Kelsay, she was announced as the Spartans’ new head coach on Dec. 22.

“There’s a piece of my heart that’s always been in East Lansing ever since I left,” she said. “So to be back home with these people who love and care about me and love and care about Spartan volleyball has been just surreal in ways, and a really unique journey for a first-time head coach.

“I’m very blessed, honestly, to be at a place in this first role as head coach with so many people who know and support me and where the program is going. So I think Saturday night (Aug. 30) was just such a culmination of that, over the last eight months, to get to that moment,” she said.

With a roster that includes junior libero Lia Schneider (St. Charles East) and sophomore middle blocker Breccan Scheck (Glenbard West), Kelsey and her three first-year Michigan State assistants are building a foundation based on core team values such as daily improvement and representing Spartans volleyball with class on and off the court.

“Our program values reflect the goal of having these young people graduate ready to take on the next chapter of their life as well as be better, high-level, elite-level players,” Kelsay said.

She’s been surrounded by positive athletic role models her entire life. Her mother, Mary, taught psychology and coached at Addison Trail High School, where she met Bruce Kelsay.

Younger sisters McKenna and Nikki both were athletes. McKenna has coached track and field and volleyball at Batavia High School. Nikki, the youngest, coached lacrosse at Glenbrook South before returning to postgraduate studies.

In addition to her own family, Kristen Kelsay feels like she was partially raised by former St. Francis head coach Peg Kopec, as well as by Michigan State’s George, who attended Kelsay’s first game.

“A lot of our program values are ingrained in helping develop strong, young, independent women, because that’s what they did for me,” Kelsay said.

Kopec will take pride in the Sept. 27 match between Michigan and Michigan State at the Breslin Center. Another St. Francis star she coached, Erin Virtue, is in her third season as the Wolverines head coach.

“Peg’s going to have two Big Ten head coaches as alumni of her program who are now leading strong women and trying to be like her,” Kelsay said.