STANFORD, Calif. — Brian Kelly has been named as Stanford’s new assistant coach heading into the 2025-26 campaign, the Paul A. Violich Women’s Lacrosse Head Coach Danielle Spencer announced Monday.
“We are thrilled to welcome Brian and his wife, Holly, to The Farm. Brian brings over two decades of coaching experience and is held in high regard throughout the lacrosse community,” said Spencer. “His leadership and expertise will be a tremendous asset to our program, and his perspective from the men’s game will add valuable insight as we continue to innovate and grow at the highest level of competition.”
Kelly comes to The Farm after a four-year stint at Johns Hopkins where he served as both an offensive coordinator as well as a goalie coach for the men’s lacrosse team. Having been tasked with handling defensive and goalie coaching duties from 2023-24, Kelly helped improve the Blue Jays from top-50 in scoring defense in 2022 to top-10 in 2024 while leading a goalie room that earned a higher than 50% save percentage for the first time since 2018. Additionally, Kelly helped Chayse Ierlan to a career-best in save percentage in 2024 as the Blue Jay goalkeeper ranked top-10 in both save percentage and goals against average while recording the most saves by a Blue Jay goalie since 2008.
“Thank you to Coach Spencer for believing in me and my abilities as a coach and mentor,” said Kelly. “I am so excited to begin my time on The Farm with one of the best women’s lacrosse programs in the country.”
Serving on Peter Milliman’s staff, Kelly helped guide the Blue Jays to at least a share of the Big Ten regular season title in his first two seasons while aiding the Blue Jays to two trips to the NCAA Quarterfinals and a 29-19 record. Kelly also helped the Blue Jays produce 15 All-Americans in total from 2023-25 including four from his defensive corps in 2024.
Prior to his time with the Blue Jays, Kelly was on staff at Goucher College for 15 years, serving as an assistant coach from 2008-12 before finishing his tenure as the head coach from 2012-2022. As the head coach of the Gophers, Kelly led the program to three appearances in the Landmark Conference Tournament (2013, 2014, 2018) including a trip to the title game in 2014. Before garnering the head coaching position, Kelly helped lead the Gophers to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances including a program-defining run in 2012 where the Gophers set records for wins (18) and winning percentage (.900) while setting a program-best 15-game win streak before falling to eventual national champions Salisbury in the second round.
As a player, Kelly helped lead the Blue Jays to two NCAA semifinal appearances in 1992 and 1993 and was named an Honorable Mention USILA All-American as a midfielder in 1993. He was also awarded Johns Hopkins’ George D. Penniman Award, symbolizing the team’s top midfielder, as well as the Turnbull-Reynolds Trophy for Outstanding Sportsmanship and Leadership during his final season. Prior to his time at Johns Hopkins as a player, Kelly was the captain of the Community College of Baltimore County NJCAA Championship lacrosse team in 1991 where he subsequently earned NJCAA Second Team All-American honors.
Kelly has also utilized his coaching talents as a director with various lacrosse clubs, training and mentoring aspiring players from across the country. With previous experience mentoring and working with players at Baltimore Crabs and True Lacrosse, Kelly will be stepping into a similar role at nearby Won Club where he will continue to provide instruction to athletes across all sport platforms.
A 2003 graduate of Johns Hopkins, Kelly holds a bachelor of arts degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences. He also earned his master of education in Athletic Program Leadership and Administration from Goucher College in 2021. Kelly is a 2015 NJCAA Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee and was inducted into the Towson High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.