NOTE: The Senior Close-Up is an occasional feature on the Bard Athletics web site, with the focus being the life of a student-athlete at Bard. Here, every student must complete a Senior Project to graduate. The Senior Project is an original, individual, focused project growing out of the student's cumulative academic experiences. Preparation begins in the junior year, and our course each semester in the senior year is devoted entirely to the Senior Project. The student submits the completed project to a committee of three professors and participates with them in a Senior Project Review.
By Jim Sheahan
Director of Athletic Communications & Marketing
On the list of crucial attributes for successful soccer goalkeeping, decisiveness has to be in the top three.
So it's ironic that Kelsey O'Brien, perhaps the best keeper ever to play for the women's soccer team here, admits that off the field, she's one of the most indecisive people you'll ever meet.
"I didn't even decide I was coming to Bard until May 5 of my senior year of high school, because that's the day deposits were due," she said, smiling. "The soccer field is the one place where I know I can be decisive."
It was a random comment a classmate made in the winter of 2012-13 at Southampton (N.J.) High School that even got Bard into the discussion about her college plans. Her family has a strong connection to Villanova University, but O'Brien didn't want to play Div. I soccer.
"Academics are too important to me," O'Brien said. "When my friend mentioned Bard, it was January. I looked it up and it looked like a quirky place with Div. III athletics. (Coach Bill Kelly) contacted me, he saw me play a couple of times, and I decided at the last minute to come."
It has turned out to be a life-changing decision for her, and a program-changing decision for women's soccer at Bard.
"When I visited Villanova, not to say anything bad about Villanova, but there was a science class with 300 students, and they all wanted to talk to the professor," she recalled. "On one of my first visits to Bard, Felicia Keesing, the head of the department, was talking to me one-on-one. And that's how it's been here. It's the best decision I've ever made."
On the soccer field, she made an immediate impact as a freshman, starting 12 games. In her sophomore year, she started 14 games and was the Liberty League and Eastern College Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week once. She even set a new school record in the javelin for the track team that year.
Her junior year got off to a great start with a Liberty League Weekly Women's Soccer Honor Roll nod, but then on Oct. 13, 2015, she blew out her knee during warmups at Skidmore College and missed the rest of the season.
"In the beginning everything was just painful, including the start of rehab," O'Brien said. "After that point it becomes a mental thing. During preseason this year I was probably at 80 percent, but since about two weeks ago I'm all the way back."
The academic side of her life at Bard has remained the focus. A biology major, she has spent summers working for Dr. Brooke Jude in the biology lab here. Microbiology is O'Brien's passion, though you won't be surprised to hear that she hasn't decided yet whether research or medical school is next on her path.
"My mom says I have to decide by the day my college loans have to start being paid back," O'Brien said.
Until then, she's working on her Senior Project and still working her way back into form on the field. Bard is hoping she'll be sharp, as Liberty League play has begun, and the Raptors have consecutive games in October against the current No. 2 and No. 1 teams in the country - Williams College and William Smith College, respectively.
"For me, there's almost less pressure when we play a team that is nationally ranked," O'Brien said. "Maybe they'll get 20 shots off. Well, I don't care because you're not getting them past me. That doesn't mean it's not nerve-wracking, but I like the challenge."
