Hired in January, 2023, Justin Kelley enters his first season as the head coach of the Leopard baseball team.

Kelley joined the Leopards after serving as an assistant coach with UMass Boston since the fall of 2019. While with the Beacons, Kelley served as the pitching coach and, during the 2022 season, his staff led the country in total strikeouts as well as tying or breaking program and NCAA Division III records for strikeouts in a game. In addition to his duties as the pitching coach, he was responsible for practice planning, game preparation, and creating individualized training programs for both position players and pitchers, while also coordinating team academics, recruiting operations, organizing youth camps and prospect clinics, and placing student-athletes in summer leagues.

Prior to joining the staff at UMass Boston, Kelley spent six years working for Major League Baseball Clubs, starting with serving as an associate scout for the Chicago Cubs in 2013 and working with the Miami Marlins, completing special projects for the baseball operations department. From 2016-2018 Kelley worked with the Minnesota Twins, first as an associate scout in the Northeast region and then as an area scout in the Mid-Atlantic region.

During the 2015-2016 year, Kelley worked at Northeastern University, serving as a volunteer to the program where he created advance scouting reports and assisted in the preparation of scouting reports and statistical analysis for the coaching staff.

A native of Melrose, Mass., Kelley has experience at the high school level, serving as an assistant baseball coach at both Melrose and Medford High Schools. During the 2021 season he was the pitching coach for the North Shore Navigators of the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

Kelley began his collegiate career at Saint Anselm College where he was a pitcher for one season (2007), appearing in six contests before transferring to Quinnipiac where earned a Bachelor's degree in Management in 2009. Kelley also earned a Master's degree in Sports Leadership from Northeastern University in 2012.

[Updated:  02/01/23]