Jason Kelly is a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach and former player, who is the current head baseball coach of the

Washington Huskies The Washington Huskies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Washington, located in Seattle. The school competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac- ...

. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

for the

Cal Poly Mustangs The Cal Poly Mustangs are the athletic teams representing California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. The university fields twenty-one teams and compete in NCAA Division I; they are primarily members of the Big West ...

, the Cuesta Cougars and the

Missouri Valley Vikings Missouri Valley College is a private college that is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Marshall, Missouri. The college was founded in 1889 and supports 40 academic majors and an enrollment close to 1,500 students. Misso ...

Playing career

Kelly grew up in

Santa Maria, California Santa Maria (Spanish language, Spanish for "Mary, mother of Jesus, St. Mary") is a city near the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California in northern Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara County. It is approximately no ...

, where he attended

St. Joseph High School St. Joseph's School, St. Joseph's Catholic School, St Joseph's School, St Joseph's Catholic School, and variants are frequently used school names, and may refer to: Africa * St Joseph's School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Asia * St Joseph Higher Secon ...

. As a junior at St. Joseph, Kelly posted a 14–0 record with an

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) of 1.45, and recorded 107

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s in 87

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...

, earning him ''Santa Maria Times'' All-Area MVP. Kelly enrolled at

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

, where he played baseball for the

Mustangs The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated animals, they ...

. As a freshman in 1999, Kelly pitched to a 3–1 record, a 7.91 ERA. and 30

. In his second season, he

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

. For the 2001 season, Kelly transferred to

Cuesta College Cuesta College is a public community college in San Luis Obispo County, California. History The first community college in the San Luis Obispo area was founded in 1916 as a San Luis Obispo High School division. It lasted until 1919 with the Uni ...

, where he pitched for the Cougars' head coach, Larry Lee. Kelly led the team with ten wins and

, also getting named First Team All-

Western State Conference The Western State Conference (WSC) is a college athletic conference that is affiliated with the California Community College Athletic Association. The conference was established in 1950, making it the oldest community college conference in Califo ...

. Kelly would finish his career playing for the

during the 2002 season.

Coaching career

Kelly began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant for the Cal Poly Mustangs, a job he supplemented while also working at a local grocery store. The following year, he got his first full-time assist job, being named the pitching coach at Chico State. Kelly would reunite with Larry Lee, joining his staff at Cal Poly as the pitching coach. On August 16, 2012, Kelly was named the pitching coach of the

. Kelly helped elevate Huskie pitching, culminating in a

2018 College World Series Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...

appearance. For his efforts during that season, he was named ''d1baseball.coms Assistant Coach of the Year. At the conclusion of the 2019 season, Kelly left the Huskies to take the same position with the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member o ...

. Following head coach Tracy Smith's dismissal, Kelly left Arizona State to become the pitching coach of the

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a ...

. On June 24, 2022, Kelly was named the head coach of the Washington Huskies.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Washington Huskies bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Jason Living people Arizona State Sun Devils baseball coaches Cal Poly Mustangs baseball coaches Cal Poly Mustangs baseball players Chico State Wildcats baseball coaches Cuesta Cougars baseball coaches Cuesta Cougars baseball players LSU Tigers baseball coaches Missouri Valley Vikings baseball players Washington Huskies baseball coaches Year of birth missing (living people) St. Joseph High School (Santa Maria, California) alumni Sportspeople from Santa Maria, California Baseball players from Santa Barbara County, California