Notre Dame coach Kelly makes visit to alma mater St. John’s

DANVERS – Brian Kelly will be the first to tell you he wasn’t a very good football player when he was at St. John’s Prep.”But I loved the game,” said Kelly, whose path has taken him from The Prep to the University of Notre Dame as head football coach. “I was passionate about it. I gave it everything I had. Finally, one of the assistants (John Westfield) went up to coach (Fred) Glatz and told him ‘we have to get this Kelly kid in there. He really wants to play.'”It made an impression on Kelly ? so much so that no matter where he’s coached since then, he’s made it a point to offer at least one walk-on scholarship per season, just to reward players who give it all they have despite what may seem to be their lack of BCS-caliber talent.”You need your talented players if you want to win ? and we sure want to win at Notre Dame,” he said. “But give me some of those other types of players too ? the ones who may not have all the talent but who plug away, and who really want it. You’re not going to win without them, either.”Kelly, a 1979 Prep graduate who played his college ball at Assumption in Worcester, was speaking at an alumni association fundraiser to benefit the family of Steven Berkel, who would have graduated later this month, and his father, William, both of whom died in an auto accident when the younger Berkel was a freshman.Kelly said that while winning was certainly important at Notre Dame, it was not – as Vince Lombardi said – the only thing.”It can’t just be about winning,” Kelly said. “Everybody wants to win. Certainly, that’s a big part of it. But you have to find balance. I make time for my family. But I have to tell you, if you’re going to miss your son’s Little League game, or the play, or the recital, it has be because of something more than just winning.”For me,” he said, “it’s shaping the lives of young men. That’s the real rewarding part.”Kelly begins his third season at Notre Dame with a changing landscape. In another year or two, the BCS system, as we know it today, will be changed in favor of a playoff system among four teams.”I’d say that’s pretty much a given,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s 100 percent official, or how they’re going to do it ? whether they’ll use the existing bowls or have two at-large games. The interesting thing about this is going to be the next tier down. How are they going to handle the other bowl games? What will they be like?”Kelly acknowledges, too, that when it comes to motivating his players, “we don’t have pictures of the Champs Bowl all over the walls. We have the Orange Bowl. The Sugar Bowl. Rose Bowl. Fiesta Bowl. Those are the bowls we want to go to.”Kelly also said that despite all the attention paid in the last week to post-career adjustment, and possible long-term brain injuries, he’s not fearful of the game’s future the way some coaches might be.”Not at all,” he said. “I’ve been coaching a long time. And to me, if you do it right, there’s a way to teach this game and make it safe for everybody to play. That’s what we need to concentrate on.”Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].