Imagine writing a college application essay so noteworthy from the other 11,000 or so that landed on the desks of the Bucknell Admissions counselors that yours was one of the “5 from 2025” selected for reprint in Bucknell Magazine. So exceptional that it would land you on a podcast to explain your essay-writing process. Such was Kelley Francis’s “hello” to the school to which she would soon travel nearly 1,800 miles to call home for the next four years.
Kelley grew up in the skiers' paradise of Aspen, Colorado, and while she is no stranger to the slopes, soccer became her passion at a young age. Very few high-level soccer players come out of Aspen, however, so as Kelley’s skills improved and her love of the sport deepened, she began spreading her wings farther away.
By that time, Kelley was already starring for her Aspen High School team, where she became the school’s all-time leading scorer with 71 goals in just two seasons. Kelley earned First Team All-State honors in 2018 and 2019 while leading her team to two Western Slope League championships and deep runs in the Colorado 3A state playoffs. Then came the pandemic, which shifted her soccer opportunities to even farther outposts.
During her junior year, her parents began taking her out to a club in Grand Junction in the far western end of the state – about a two-and-a-half-hour drive each way – resulting in many back-seat homework sessions. After her junior soccer season at Aspen High School was canceled due to COVID, she and her family moved to the Denver area. Kelley spent her final high school season at Cherry Creek and also played high-level club soccer with Real Colorado ECNL and with the Colorado Olympic Development Program.
Kelly’s goal of playing college soccer was now firmly established, and in the summer leading into her junior year, she attended several ID camps around the country. One of those was Kelly Cook’s camp at Bucknell, which she heard about through family friend and Bison men’s soccer supporter Brian Rigney ’93.
Even though Kelley stands only 5’2”, Coach Cook noticed her immediately.
“The first time I saw Kelley was at our ID camp, and here was this little buzzy forward who just never stopped scoring goals,” said Cook. “It didn’t matter if it was small-sided games or 11v11, she just had a relentless work rate and a nose for the goal. The more I got to know her, the more her love for the game came out, and I thought, ‘oh man, would I love to have a player like that.’”
For Kelley, even though Bucknell was far from home, in some ways it reminded her of Aspen.
“Growing up we would come to Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes in New York, where my mom is from. I knew I wanted to play soccer on the East Coast at a smaller liberal arts school, one with a pretty campus in a more rural area, and one with really good soccer. That was Bucknell.”
Decision made, and now it was application time, which brings us back to that essay.
Kelley recalls being advised not to make the essay about soccer, but after scrapping a few other ideas, she found the perfect way to use her passion as a backdrop for a poignant tale about family, time, and pursuing one’s dreams.
The essay starts with this quote from her father, Tim: “I’m just the ball boy and the birdhouse fixer.”
Every year, Kelley gifts a new birdhouse on Father’s Day. Those birdhouses – 18 of them at the time of her writing -- hung from the tree limbs in the family’s backyard, which also served as Kelley’s makeshift training ground, and they became frequent casualties of errant shots. As did fence posts, chair legs, and even a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.
In her composition, Kelley eloquently wove her relentless soccer skill sessions against the symbolism of the birdhouses, which represent the marks of time and the love for a family that supported her along the way.
“I was not expecting the reception that my essay received. I originally had an idea but then decided to keep it more lighthearted. I was always told don’t write about soccer, but I did because it’s part of who I am. The birdhouses just kind of became a tradition, and it’s like a running thing now. I get him one every Father’s Day, and I’ll knock a few down and then he’ll replace them.”
The relentlessness that was forged during Kelley’s younger days in Colorado is now evident in both her soccer and academic prowess. Athletically, Kelley is part of a senior class that has never known anything but winning Patriot League championships. The Bison have won the last three league titles, marking the first “three-peat” in program history.
Despite being picked to finish ninth in the preseason poll, Bucknell won the league title at Boston University during Kelley’s freshman year, and the Bison outlasted top-seeded Army in penalty kicks in each of the last two championship matches. Kelley was an impact player right from the start, scoring three goals during her rookie year and three more last season. Her role has changed a bit over the last two seasons as she has shifted from a target forward to a wide midfielder, where she runs box-to-box and loves to play in open space.
“I scored a lot of goals in high school, so forward was my position coming in. I’m not the biggest person, so playing with my back to goal didn’t really suit me that well in college. I didn’t play that much as a sophomore, but then after a few games last year Kelly told me they were going to try me at outside mid because we were a bit thin in that position. I really liked it, and I felt like it fit me better.”
This year’s squad finished the non-league portion of the schedule with a 4-2-2 record, and now it’s nothing but Patriot League play the rest of the way, starting Saturday at home against Colgate. While winning a fourth straight title would be great, Kelley says the team first has to focus on maintaining the standard that has been established.
“The key for us has been our cohesion and grit. We have had this ability to finish out a game. I wouldn’t say anyone has had any expectation to win, but that tight-knit spirit has worked well for us, especially in the postseason.”
Off the pitch, Kelley majors in neuroscience and is one of only a handful of seniors on the entire campus with a 4.0 cumulative grade-point average (she says the last time she received a grade lower than an A was in middle school).
Kelley was in the International Baccalaureate program at Aspen High School before switching over to Advanced Placement courses at Cherry Creek. Her love of multiple scientific disciplines led her to study neuroscience.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in, and neuroscience kind of combines it all: biology, chemistry, psychology, a little physics. I don’t really know how I’ve kept up a 4.0, but I do work really hard and do a lot of homework. I’ve always been that way, so studying a lot was not new for me in college.”
Kelley will be completing her research component in the spring semester, and she is also heavily involved in the Bucknell Athletics Leadership Institute and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Eventually, she plans on pursuing a master’s degree in chemical engineering, but first she hopes to travel and even continue to play soccer.
“My ideal plan right now would be to keep playing soccer abroad and travel. After college, my dad just moved to Thailand and then backpacked in Argentina and then moved to Australia. I’m going to work for the rest of my life, but maybe after college, I’ll go see the world.”
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