Jessie Kelly
Robbinsville freshman becomes certified field hockey referee through Jump In program.
Jessie Kelly just wanted to sharpen her skills when she decided to attend a field hockey camp three years ago.
The recent Pond Road Middle School graduate had tried out for the school team as a sixth grader, but she didn’t quite make the cut. She hoped her experience at the camp would help her earn a spot on the team the next year.
It did all that and more. Through her training at Cris Maloney’s Fundamental Field Hockey camp, Kelly is now a certified field hockey umpire, earning the select title of 14-year-old referee.
Surely, there aren’t many who share that distinction, but Kelly’s mom Bev said the training can be beneficial to athletes in all sports.
“Obviously, the more you learn, the better you’ll be,” Bev Kelly said. “It’s a huge opportunity to learn and to grow yourself, to become a leader and to teach the other kids. That’s awesome.”
Maloney offered Kelly and other campers the opportunity to undergo umpire training through JUMP IN, a USA Field Hockey program. She jumped at the chance and is now qualified to officiate U-12 through U-14 field hockey games. She also serves as a junior coach at the camp.
He said he wouldn’t have expected anything else from Kelly.
“She never misses an opportunity to practice or expand her hockey knowledge,” he said. “I’ve run into her watching Princeton University games. Learning how to umpire helps a player better understand the game. It makes them better players.”
Kelly saw her skills improve even before her umpire course. After she was cut from the Pond Road team almost three years ago, she immediately started working towards making the team, first on her own, and later with Maloney.
“A lot of my family members played in the past, so I thought it would be fun to at least try it,” Kelly said. “I did a few camps. I really liked doing it because it was a team sport. It was just fun. I kept on going with it.”
Bev said it was a relief when Kelly’s hard work finally paid off.
“Her determination was like, ‘I’m still going to play, even if there’s not room right now,’” Bev said. “For the next year, we were at the high school, she was running around the track, she was playing. She pushed herself for the whole rest of the year to be able to get there, and she finally made it. It was so exciting.”
That’s just how Kelly operates. Maloney said she carries that mindset everywhere, whether she’s holding a field hockey stick or a box of Girl Scout cookies—she’s sold nearly 4,000 boxes in the last two years and even made an appearance on the Today Show for her efforts.
“Jessie works very hard at seemingly everything she does,” he said. “That’s a measurable result of how hard she works.”
Though Kelly is qualified to work and get paid as an umpire, she hasn’t done so yet. She plans on taking some follow-up courses before she feels comfortable enough to take the field as an official.
“It’s going to be cool to umpire high school games or maybe middle school games,” she said. “I understand the rules better, but there’s other stuff that I probably don’t know about.”
A little extra training couldn’t hurt.
“Of course, she would still have to be mentored,” Bev said. “In a couple of years, she’ll be able to take a college-level umpiring course. She’s got the rules, she’s studying. She’s passionate about it. To watch her grow and to watch her work with the other kids has really been awesome. Truly the lesson to be learned here is whatever you want, don’t let anybody stop you.”
Kelly, an incoming freshman, is trying out for the Robbinsville High School team this year, but for now, she just hopes to pass on her deeper understanding of the game to the young athletes she works with at Maloney’s camp.
“They are just beginning, so they don’t always understand some things that are important to the game,” she said. “I’ll be able to teach them so that when they grow up, they will be able to play their best and be their best in the sport.”
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