Where Are They Now?

Kristen Kelly

Field Hockey, 1991-94

Jeff Uccello

Baseball, 1993-96

Student-athletes playing sports for the University of Connecticut rarely leave the school without learning about dedication, hardships, and drive.  Kristen Kelly and Jeff Uccello found more than that.

The two former Husky athletes met through mutual friends a few years after school in 1998, and are now happily married with two children.

Kristen Kelly, from Shawnee High School in Medford, N.J., was named one of the best field hockey players in the country her senior year of high school.  She earned All-America and All-State honors after her senior year and competed in the U.S. Olympic Festival.

When determining where to go for college, the choice was not so hard for Kelly, who admired the competitive nature of the field hockey coach and UConn’s excellent academic program.

Kelly only excelled further at UConn where she became a four-time Mid-East All-Region pick and a two-time BIG EAST All-Star.  In 1993, Kelly joined the U.S. National Women’s Field Hockey Squad and won a bronze medal at the World Cup in Dublin, Ireland.

During the team’s last home game of her senior year of 1994, Kelly suffered a devastating injury as she tore her anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral and medial meniscus in her right knee.  This forced her to sit out the rest of the season and the BIG EAST Championship.

“I was very disappointed,” said Kelly. “I felt as though I was at my peak.”

Although Kelly sat out the rest of her senior year, her knee healed in time for her to “train in residence” for the 1996 Olympic Team the next summer.  However, she re-injured the knee, and retired in March 1996.

“I learned a lot from that experience,” she said. “I overcame obstacles in life and became a better leader, more confident, and more patient.  My injury only taught me how to live every moment while you can, and to move on.”

After her field hockey career ended, she went into pharmaceutical sales.  Since starting a family, Kelly has been a stay-at-home mother for four years now.

Kelly has not played field hockey since her last injury. However, she does plan on giving lessons to young girls in her neighborhood. 

Jeff Uccello began playing baseball at the age of six and played for Newington High School in Connecticut.  At Newington, he became an all-conference performer his junior and senior year with a .399 career hitter.

Uccello chose to come to UConn because it was local, and because his older brother had also gone there.  Despite struggling early in his career as a Husky, Uccello saved his best for last.

After recovering from a thumb injury his junior year, Uccello started 40 games at catcher as a senior in 1996. He was named to the All-BIG EAST Team, earned All-New England honors, and was named National Collegiate Player of the Week and BIG EAST Player of the Week April 15-21.

During that week, he broke conference single-game record with four home runs, 10 RBIs, and totaling 18 bases in all.  The record for the home runs was held at that time by former Red Sox first baseman Mo Vaughn, who played for Seton Hall in college.

“That day makes my experience so much more memorable,” said Uccello.

After graduating college with a marketing degree, Uccello pursued baseball in the minor leagues.  For two years, he played for the Michigan Battle Cats and the Sarasota Red Sox ending his career there with a .281 batting average.

“It was a long journey with many ups and downs,” he said.  “I learned you can’t succeed every time you’re up at bat, but you can learn from it.”

Today, Uccello works for MediMedia in pharmaceutical sales where he is a senior account director.  Here, he sells and provides solutions to big pharmacy companies.

“Sales are a lot like baseball, you can’t succeed all the time,” he said.

Uccello keeps baseball close to his heart by volunteering as a coach for a little league near his hometown.

Kelly and Uccello reside in the southern part of New Jersey with their two sons Drew, 4, and Reid, 1.

--Naomi Smith