In his words, why Tim Kelly decided it was time to close one of Washington's best basketball coaching legacies

Kelly spent 32 seasons at Curtis and Lincoln, but as one of his close coaching friends put it, constant cancer battle and hip pain meant 'he couldn't be Tim Kelly' anymore

Tim Kelly, one of the all-time winningest boys basketball coaches in Washington, resigned from his Curtis position on Tuesday, ending a 32-year run. / Photo by Vince Miller

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. - After formally announcing he was stepping down as the boys basketball coach at Curtis High School, Tim Kelly sat on his back porch in the evening hours, reading a swarm of heartfelt sendoff text messages from peers, administrators and former players.

All while he writhed in discomfort.

Kelly's body has been through a war zone battling stage-4 prostate cancer for the past 15 years. Now, his primary source of pain is in his hip, which aches so badly, he only walks when he needs to.

Imagine how difficult it was for Kelly, 63, to coach like that all winter sitting in a chair.

"This year was hard," said the normally-private Kelly, the tell-tale emotion still detectable in his voice as he spoke Tuesday night to a couple of reporters about his retirement decision.

"It was physically challenging. It really came down to - I wasn't able to coach like I'm used to coaching."

Largely immobile, Kelly admitted, while surrounded by quality assistant coaches, by his nature, he could no longer get into the essence - the nitty gritty - of instruction.

"Like I told people, the hardest part was practice," Kelly said. "You're always (normally) moving with what's going on, and you're right here, and these (players) are on the wing, and you stop them and you're like, 'This, and this, and this ... '

"But a lot of time (now), I'm sitting over here and across the way. ... You explain it, but you're not right there to really show it."

Throughout last season - Kelly's only losing season in 32 years, both at Curtis and Lincoln of Tacoma - the anguish of not being to coach in his usual way, as well as the pain in his hip, never subsided.

"Any (hip) movement you make, even trying to just go side to side, it just grabs you," Kelly said. "It's pretty painful."

So, as he sat down over the past few weeks talking with those close to him, including his wife, Gini; his two daughters, Annie and Katy; athletic director Suzanne Vick and principal Tom Adams; and close coaching pals Pat Mullen (Emerald Ridge) and Jason Kerr (O'Dea), he began to seriously mull retirement.

He knew as the school's annual 48-team summer league was quickly approaching, he realistically couldn't "sit there for 10 hours" overseeing the action.

And the planning of offseason team travel, the summer fund-raising golf tournament, and even the regular-season scheduling, including the Vikings' winter holiday tournament began weighing on him.

"The whole summer (of basketball) is waiting on you," Kelly said.

So, late last week, he told his wife he knew stepping down was the right decision.

"He's never done anything half-ass," Mullen said. "But now, he's realized he couldn't coach the way he wanted to.

"He couldn't be Tim Kelly, so that's why (he retired)."

What a legacy Kelly leaves behind.

He won all 581 games in 32 seasons in the WIAA's largest-school classification (4A), winning five career state championships with the Vikings (2013. 2022-23) and Lincoln of Tacoma (2001-02).

And when it comes to solely coaching in the same classification, his 581 wins all-time are most in Class 4A - and No. 8 overall in Washington state history.

Beyond the wins, what Kelly dearly holds ontoin his early coaching memories was building a winning program at Lincoln while incorporating out-of-state travel as a necessity in the team's growth - all at a time when that wasn't the norm.

And his later-career cherished moments with Curtis, his alma mater?

He pointed to the Vikings' unexpected run to the 2013 WIAA championship - specifically the comeback 70-66 overtime semifinal win over Garfield.

"Our kids were crying after the game because they just put so much out there," Kelly said. "No one expected us to win - it was Garfield.

"If I took one game, that's the game that I'll remember."

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