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Crean Lutheran High School has hired Thomas Kelly as the new head coach of their varsity swim team.
He will work alongside Crean Lutheran’s director of aquatics and head water polo coach Jeff Runyan.
A private school in Irvine, California, Crean Lutheran has been a powerful force in high school swimming for the past few years; the boys team became back-to-back Empire League champions this past season, while the girls team are five-time CIF-SS champions and one-time California state champions.
The school’s swimming program has produced a number of notable alumni, including the likes of Ella Eastin and Kevin Chao. Eastin, who graduated in 2015, went on to swim for Stanford University and raced at several high-level competitions including Junior Nationals, the FINA World Short Course Championships and the NCAA Division I Championships. Chao, meanwhile, graduated in 2017 and swam for Texas Christian University and was a finalist at the Big 12 Conference Championships.
Kelly comes to the Saints from Edison High School, where he spent the spring of 2024 serving as an assistant coach for the boys and girls swim teams. While at Edison, he helped guide the program to a Sunset Wave League Championship title.
“I am extremely blessed to be joining Crean Lutheran as the head coach of an established men’s and women’s swim team,” Kelly said to OC Sports Zone. “I am tremendously excited to help foster young men and women in a Christ-centered environment into hard-working, respectful and disciplined human beings.
“My goal is to help establish Crean Lutheran into one of the premier aquatics programs in Southern California alongside Jeff Runyan and my coaching staff. I cannot wait to get started on this journey working on the pool deck while creating relationships with swimmers and parents.”
Crean Lutheran’s athletic officials announced the new coaching hire on September 16th, with athletic director Eric Olson expressing his enthusiasm for Kelly to join the program.
“Crean Lutheran Athletics is excited to welcome Thomas Kelly to the home of the Saints,” Olson said in a statement. “Thomas comes to Crean Lutheran with an exciting passion and a wealth of swim experience. He looks forward to coaching our swimmers and advancing the program to the next level.”
Kelly graduated from Edison High School in 2022; during his four years there, he was a dual-sport varsity athlete competing in swimming and water polo. He was also captain of the swim team his senior year and was later inducted into the Edison Athletics Hall of Fame for water polo.
Kelly went on to attend Golden West College for two years, where he continued competing in both swimming and water polo. He was a 13-time CCCAA All-American in swimming, including five individual events and eight relays, and was a back-to-back state champion and first-team all-conference selection in water polo in addition to being captain of both teams
Last fall, Kelly transferred to Concordia University of Irvine to continue his academic and athletic careers, once again as a dual-sport athlete.
Kelly began his coaching career in the winter of 2023, running the Edison High School boys water polo team’s off-season training and serving as an assistant to the high school boys water polo program at CMAC Aquatics alongside Runyan.