Bio

A Kansas City native, Robert Kelly begins his sixth year at the helm of the men’s soccer program at Avila in 2026. In total, this will be Kelly’s ninth season with Avila, having served as a men’s and women’s assistant coach for three seasons before his elevation to head coach prior to the 2021-22 campaign.

The 2025 season was one of the program’s best in nearly a decade, picking up its highest single-season win total since 2017.

In 2025, senior goalkeeper Harrison Ennis was named All-KCAC Honorable Mention for a season in which he finished fourth in the NAIA with 128 regular season saves and No. 5 in the KCAC with a .740 save percentage. Under Kelly’s tutelage, Ennis was the first Eagle men’s soccer player named to a postseason all-conference team since 2018.

Additionally, Kelly’s program was well-represented on the Avila end of season awards list, as senior forward Malcolm Goswell was named the 2025-26 Avila Male Scholar Athlete of the Year and Ennis was given the 2025-26 Leadership Award.

Prior to the 2025 campaign, Kelly and the Eagles increased their conference win total in each of his first four seasons in charge.

In the 2024 campaign, Avila picked up three conference victories, the program’s highest single-season total in its time in the KCAC. Additionally, on Oct. 19 and 26, 2024, Avila won consecutive games for the first time since the 2018 season.

Kelly came to Avila with a litany of playing experience. A standout at Rockhurst High School, Kelly played youth soccer for Futura FC in Kansas City and played collegiately at the University of Tulsa, Cloud County Community College and San Francisco State University. Following his successful amateur playing career, Kelly went on to play for SF City FC in the USL and the Kansas City Comets of the MASL.

During his playing career, Kelly won an AAC Conference Championship at Tulsa, a Missouri state championship at Rockhurst and three Missouri youth state championships.