Kelly Gately: A Study in Versatility

With just a few days remaining last year before the Harvard women's soccer team was due to face Northern Colorado in the opening game of the National Intercollegiate Tournament, head coach Bob Scalise had a problem.

Although his extremely talented squad had finished with a 14-7 season record, a fourth-place showing in the EAIAW championship and an invitation to participate in the upcoming nationals, it was riddled with injuries--the latest to sophomore defensive star Jeannie Piersiak in the Easterns match against Cortland State.

On a gamble Scalise juggled several positions and slipped sophomore wing fullback Kelly Gately--a quick and versatile player--into Piersiak's center fullback slot. When the Nationals ended a week later, the Crimson booters stood in third place, and Gately's superb playing had earned her the all-tournament team. In addition, Gately was named as an honorable mention All-American for her outstanding season and tournament performances.

"Kelly is one the best players I've ever coached--she gets the ball just where she wants it and outplays everyone," Scalise says. She's also so talented that she can play and position on the field and play it well."

"Last year I think it was more important to a lot of players where they played, rather than whether it was good for the team," Scalise continues. "Kelly, however, made personal sacrifices by playing her hardest in whatever place I'd put her, even if it was not her best position."

At a slight 5'4", 115 lbs., Gately is atypical of the large, sturdy players who tend to dominate the defensive positions. "Because more people expect fullbacks to be slower, I have the advantage of being able to surprise players with my quickness and take the ball away from them," Gately says. "I also used to play offense so I know what they're thinking, and how they're planning to shoot as they run down the field."

In fact, Gately was a stellar offensive player for six years before she came to Harvard and switched to defensive line.

Starting with a club team in her hometown of Winchester, Mass. ("It was the first sport available to girls"), Gately went on to win a string of all-country encomiums. Her high school didn't offer soccer to girls until her senior year, when Gately circulated a petition that resulted in the formation of a team. She followed up by taking over as captain.

Soccer, however, was not Gately's only pastime--she also found the time to captain the basketball and softball squads, as well as place second academically in her class of 400-plus students.

"She was one of four standout freshmen who we played a great deal right away," Scalise remembers. "After about two or three games Kelly had worked her way into the starting lineup and she has started for us ever since then."

Gately's collegiate performances--which have earned her all-Ivy and all-New England titles--also brought her to the attention of the Women's Collegiate Select Committee, who picked her to play on the first team in a ten-day tour of European countries this summer. Afterward she found the time to play for a team in the Eastern Massachusetts Women's Soccer League that dropped just one of its 11 contests in a fiercely competitive area.

All of this activity found Gately in good shape when she returned to Harvard for the six-hour, triple workout that started preparation for the season opener against Bowdoin. This fall the psych major and Winthrop House denizen will have her hands full balancing daily two-and-a-half hour workouts with her aspirations to one day attend law or business school.

And where will Gately fit into the team plan in the coming year for the Crimson?

"I really don't know," Scalise says. "Kelly is such a good player and she has such a good attitude that if I say 'Kelly--today you're playing goal ' or 'Kelly--today you're playing wing,' she'd just say, 'O.K.,' and run out onto the field. But you can be sure that wherever Kelly plays, she's going to be a big asset to us."