Cedric Huchuan Xia | Student Life

2010 Washington University graduate Zach Kelly passes the ball in a game against the University of Rochester on Feb. 5. Kelly led the Bears as a captain last year, made three Final Four appearances in four seasons, and was honorable-mention all-University Athletic Association selection in 2009.

After winning two NCAA Division III National Championships in his four-year tenure with the Washington University men’s basketball team, 2010 graduate Zach Kelly has officially taken the next step in his basketball career: moving to Leeds, England.

Kelly, a captain for the Bears last season, has signed a contract with the Bradford Dragons in the English Basketball League (EBL) and will start the new season this month. Kelly concurrently will pursue a master’s degree in international business from the Bradford College of Management.

For Kelly, who left for the United Kingdom last Wednesday, this chance took him by surprise after graduation; he never expected to extend his career to the semi-professional level after his time at Wash. U.

“This whole opportunity really came about serendipitously more than anything else,” Kelly wrote in an e-mail. “At the end of last school year, I never really had in my mind the idea of still playing competitive basketball.”

Over the summer, Kelly heard that a friend, who had played basketball at Columbia University, was going to play overseas while pursuing a master’s degree. After exploring the idea further, Kelly was put in contact with the Bradford Dragons, who coincidentally were in the market for a power forward. Soon enough, Kelly was offered a spot on the team and a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree.

“I never got to do study abroad at Wash. U. because of basketball, and whether it was volunteering, doing service work or just working abroad, I knew I wanted to do that somehow,” Kelly wrote. “This served my main goal of going abroad with the bonuses of playing basketball and getting a degree.”

Despite Kelly’s immensely successful career with the Bears, in which he compiled a 103-16 record, he emphasized that he plans to use this opportunity to explore other interests beyond basketball, including meeting people in a new part of the world. After being in England for only a week, Kelly has already encountered teammates from Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Jamaica, Antigua and the U.K.

“The motivation behind me pursuing this opportunity goes beyond basketball,” Kelly said. “Basketball is the avenue for which I intend to explore a place I’ve never been before and meet new people and hopefully learn something about myself in the process. Basketball is just a bonus.”

As Kelly’s mentor for the past four years, men’s basketball head coach Mark Edwards had only pride and encouraging words for his former center.

“[Kelly] has really enjoyed playing basketball, and to be able to move on to another phase of your life and hold on to the basketball is really super,” Edwards said. “I am really happy for him.”

The last time Edwards had seen a player score a professional contract after playing for the Bears was in 2003, when Chris Jeffries left to play in Brazil post-graduation. He has been there for seven years and is still playing basketball.

As for his future aspirations, Kelly has made the conscious decision to enjoy the experience that has been presented to him and worry about other life choices as they arrive. Playing basketball was not the strongest driving force behind the decision to move to England, and Kelly said that international business was not his strongest academic passion. He graduated from Wash. U. with degrees in psychology and political science.

“I really haven’t decided what my long-term aspirations are yet,” Kelly wrote. “I’m really just going to focus on making the most out of this experience and enjoying it to the fullest, and I’ll see where I am after that.”

For now, Kelly is a model for Division III athletes who have greater athletic aspirations beyond college sports. Through basketball, he has grasped an opportunity to live the international experience he was not able to achieve in college.

(L-R) Zach Kelly, Ross Kelly and Mike Young gather donated items in the lobby of Wheeler House on the South 40 as a part of SWAP, a student-run non profit business. (Courtesy of The Office of Sustainability)

Fifteen to 20 desk chairs, 10 to 15 televisions, 40 to 50 desk lamps, 15 to 20 microwaves, a few living room sets, a large number of plastic bins and hangers. This names only a few on the long list of items Sharing With A Purpose collected from Washington University dorms and apartments after move-out this past semester.

Better known as SWAP, the program collects and donates to charity any unwanted reusable items University students leave for trash. The newly established student-owned business has been a member of the Student Entrepreneurial Program since fall 2008 and received non-profit status from Missouri in February 2009.

Seniors Michael Young and Ross Kelley, two of SWAP’s six co-founders and owners, had no idea the group would meet so much initial success.

“We knew a lot of Wash. U. students were concerned about campus sustainability, but we did not expect the response to SWAP to be so positive in only its first year,” Kelley said.

SWAP, however, is certainly not the campus’s only student-run program with conservation and charity in mind. Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity’s furniture drive, which accepts all non-electronic appliances to donate to the St. Louis-based food bank Operation Food Search, has operated since spring 2002.

Senior Adam Yasinow, president of TKE, said the fraternity’s annual drive has remained successful throughout the years. Yasinow could not provide this year’s final collection number as the drive was still ongoing as of June.

The furniture drive and SWAP make up two of the largest contributors to the Share Our Stuff (S.O.S.) program in the Office of Sustainability at the University. Launched in 2008 under the leadership of Matt Malten, assistant vice chancellor for campus sustainability, S.O.S. seeks to reduce the amount of waste generated each year on campus.

TKE joined S.O.S. after it “ saw a marriage of interests” in the relationship, Yasinow said. SWAP owners also recognized the common ground and saw potential for raising its own publicity with the partnership.

“I cannot stress enough what a tremendous asset our relationship with the S.O.S. campaign and the Office of Sustainability has been, and we only look for further build upon this relationship,” Young said.

SWAP’s main beneficiary is Lydia’s House, a local organization that provides transitional housing for domestic violence survivors. After holding an on-campus sale of its items in late August, SWAP will send the proceeds to Lydia’s House and donate all unsold items to Operation Food Search.

“Our items go back to the Wash. U. community while [other groups] donate their items to outside organizations,” Young said.

Despite the ongoing work of such programs in past years, some students say that the efforts are not well publicized.

2007 alumnus Nicholas Gregg, who currently works for the School of Medicine, said he had never heard of TKE’s furniture drive during his undergraduate years at the University.

“Senior year, when we were moving out of our off-campus house, we did not know of such student groups. So we just left the items [in] the back alleyway, which someone did come and pick it up,” Gregg said.

Sophomore Dan Bernard claims to have heard very little about SWAP this year.

“It sounds good, but the groups need to give out more information and publicize better,” he said.

Bernard and Gregg also said the two groups could end up competing, since both have similar functions.

“It sounds like both organizations target the same group of people and do similar things—why two organizations?” Bernard said, echoed by Gregg’s suggestion that the programs would fare better if they combined their efforts.

The organizers behind the furniture drive and SWAP, however, said they found the relationship with each other and with S.O.S. mutually beneficial.

“We have been able to bounce ideas off of each other to help make the program more successful, and we have been able to share resources,” Young said.

Yasinow believes the cooperation also lets the programs pursue an overall agenda to “actively promote campus sustainability.”

With ever increasing public attention to the need for a sustainable future, the organizers expressed optimism about the success and impact of their efforts.

“Next year, we look to strengthen and continue our relationship with the S.O.S. drive. We have a strong relationship with Operation Food Search and look to continue our philanthropic cause,” Yasinow said.

SWAP expects an even more successful drive next year, Young said.

“As this was our first year, there is plenty of room for improvement and efficiency on our end. We hope to achieve our current goals at a higher level—promote our campus’s sustainability while benefiting a local charity.”

SWAP will host its sale on the South 40 on Aug. 21-22 and in the Village on Aug. 23-24.