‘It was hard.’ Curtis basketball coach Tim Kelly discusses retirement, health issues
Tim Kelly didn’t want his coaching career to end this way. The longtime Curtis High School boys basketball coach, who won five state titles during his coaching career — three at Curtis (2013, 2022 and 2023) and two at Lincoln (2001, 2002) — wanted to go out on his own terms.
But lingering prostate cancer, ongoing chemotherapy treatments and worsening hip issues have made it hard for Kelly to get around these days and he decided it was time to step down. The school made the official announcement on Tuesday.
“It was hard,” Kelly said from the backyard patio of his University Place home on Tuesday evening. “It wasn’t how I thought it would go. I didn’t envision it to be this way. This year was hard, physically challenging. It really comes down to, I wasn’t able to coach like I’m used to coaching.”
Kelly, 63, coached for 32 seasons at Lincoln and Curtis. In total, his teams made 22 state tournament appearances over the course of his coaching career. Kelly returned to Curtis, his alma mater, in 2006 after a 14-year run at Lincoln. In addition to the three state titles, Kelly won 12 Class 4A South Puget Sound League titles. In 2009, he was inducted into the Washington State Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Kelly has earned numerous accolades, including nine Class 4A SPSL Coach of the Year honors and two Washington State Coach of the Year awards. He won 581 games in 32 seasons in Class 4A, the largest high school sports classification in Washington. He compiled a 362-121 record at Curtis.
Kelly was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010. He has been living with and coaching through the cancer for years.
“There were a lot of times when I’d have chemo and go to practice three hours later,” Kelly said.
Kelly said he’s been fortunate he hasn’t dealt with nausea after chemo rounds, but the exhaustion made it hard some days.
“It’s more the mental part all the time,” he said. “That’s what made it hard. Just physically, I don’t want to do it anymore.”
Kelly said he has arthritis and two hairline fractures in his hip area, which have made it hard to walk the past couple of years. He’s hopeful for an eventual hip replacement but faces a tricky situation because of radiation done in the region.
A WINNING LEGACY
Kelly leaves the school as one of the most successful coaches the state has ever seen. A few memories stand out to him from over the years.
“The state championships are obviously something that’s pretty amazing, when I think I have five,” he said. “There’s guys that have been coaching as long as I have and some of them have never been to state. Pretty blessed in that way. The coaches, players that I’ve had.”
Kelly remembers his first year at Lincoln, when Bellarmine Prep was favored to win the league. The Abes beat the Lions twice in the regular season and then a third time in districts for a clean sweep. Kelly remembers two of his junior varsity players running around the court with brooms after the final win.
He liked traveling with his teams over the years, too, taking teams to tournaments in California and back east.
“We weren’t preparing for Foss or Mount Tahoma, that’s why we started traveling,” he said. “We want to be the best and you have to go play the best. You have to prepare to be the best even when we’re not.”
There were two back-to-back state champions for Kelly: the early 2000s Leonard White, Justin Holt, Aubrey Shelton teams and the 2020s Zoom Diallo, Tyce Paulsen and Cinque Maxwell-led teams.
