Tim Kelly spent more than three decades in charge of the Trinity boys’ basketball team. (Randolph Record file photo)
TRINITY – Tim Kelly really is ready to step away from coaching high school basketball this time.
Kelly, the longtime coach at Trinity, has retired as the boys’ coach.
Kelly spent 34 seasons as Trinity’s coach. That time has included 673 victories and the 2004 Class 3A state championship.
Kelly’s final team posted a 19-10 record, snapping a string of two seasons with at least 20 victories. The Bulldogs tied for second place in the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
Brett Andrews, who coached the boys’ basketball team at Providence Grove last season, has taken a job at Trinity. He’s possible that he could take the coaching position after filling in on an interim basis this summer.
Trinity athletics director Robert Mitchell has been a longtime assistant coach to Kelly after playing for Kelly’s teams.
Kelly, who has dealt with Parkinson’s disease for more than a decade, oversaw the summer program in June and was on hand for Trinity’s summer league games. Then, he shared with others that he wouldn’t be coaching another season.
The gym at Trinity is named in Kelly’s honor. Earlier this year, the coach was a member of the inaugural class of the Trinity Athletics Hall of Fame.
Longtime Asheboro coach Brian Nance said Kelly’s contributions are sizable.
“Trinity, when I was in high school, was awful in basketball,” Nance said. “He made them the best basketball program in the area for years. He’s the one thing that you always knew was at Trinity.”
Kelly previously announced that he was retiring in March 2014 at age 56. That didn’t turn out to stick as he remained in the position.
Kelly, who began his time in the district as a coach at the middle school, has had numerous coaching posts at Trinity, including as football coach and brief stints with the baseball and track and field programs.
It could be a bit of a rebuild for the Bulldogs in basketball. The top five scorers from the 2023-24 team were seniors.
