At the beginning of the school year, Archbishop Riordan High School introduced an abundance of new faculty members, one of whom was Sacred Heart alumnus Brian Kelly.

This being the first single-gender high school Kelly has worked at means that it would take some getting used to.

Initially, Kelly said that, “It was a trip because I was a counselor a lot, I worked with young ladiesin my office, and seeing that there were no more girls walking around was different; just seeing a flood of boys was different.”

Yet, it didn’t take him long to get used to the student life at Riordan, stating, “The dance really helped me understand something that wasn’t a norm for me. Seeing the interactions at the dance helped me to realize that teens all act like teens and they all deal with similar issues.”

In terms of how Kelly’s current position at the school differs from his former positions, he focused on communication. At his former job he would typically interact with teens, being the dean of discipline at his former school, and a counselor prior to earning that position.

Kelly’s interaction with adults wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. “I was essentially Mr. Zumbado, so very different,” he said. “Now I deal a lot more with scheduling and with adults, whereas before I was a dean and a counselor, which was primarily interacting with students.”

One of Kelly’s primary goals is to continue the school’s honored tradition of athletic events. He believes that something Riordan has always been consistently great at is the sports events.