Kelley Inks with Sacred Heart

New England Recruiting Report | Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Evan Kelley held a press conference at the George Washington Carver Community Center in Norwalk last week where he officially signed his National Letter of Intent to play for Sacred Heart University in the fall. 

Kelley, a six-foot-four guard, led the FCIAC in scoring this year and saw his recruiting stock consistently grow throughout the course of his senior season.  In the end he claimed offers from St. Francis PA, Long Island, Central Connecticut, and Sacred Heart. 

“I’m really happy and I have no question about my decision,” Kelley told the Stamford Advocate.  “It was a mixture of everything, I loved the team, they have a good team now. (Assistant) coach (Johnny) Kidd has recruited me since I was a sophomore and I had a great relationship with him. The campus is nice too, it's a very good school, and it's still close to home so I can see my family.”

Kelley averaged 25.6 points per game this year for Norwalk head coach Bobby Trimboli, in addition to 6.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 2.4 steals. 

He joins two other Connecticut natives in Chris Evans and Steven Glowiak in the Pioneers’ recruiting class as Sacred Heart is looking to replace four graduating guards. 

During the press conference Kelley said that it was “a dream come true” to play division I basketball and that he chose the Carver Center as the location for his announcement because he grew up playing the game there. 

Trimboli told the Advocate that he thinks Kelley has all the tools to have a very successful career at Sacred Heart. 

"He can be extremely good, if he does what he did for me in college he can do very well in that league, and I'll have the luxury of being able to see him play because he's right around the corner," said Trimboli. "I think in that league you have to be a just little stronger, but he's got all the upside in the world to him. He's deceivingly long out there and I think that's something that gets underestimated about him, is that his length and athleticism is incredible. He gets up above the rim, defensively he gets on a lot of tipped passes and he can shoot over guards the same height as him because he's that much longer."

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