Kelly McCollum Sheetz

Kelly was an exceptional athlete at Avon, earning 12 varsity letters while playing field hockey, basketball, and softball. She was named to the All-North Central Connecticut Conference (NCCC) team three times in softball and twice in basketball. Kelly was also a standout on the field hockey field where she led the Falcons to the Class S championship game in 1990, scoring a team-leading 28 goals. She was an All-State player in 1990 and a three-time All-NCCC player during her career. Kelly went onto play field hockey at Northwestern University in Chicago, helping her team reach the NCAA Final Four in 1994. She was a four-year starter for the Division I program, earning All-Big 10 and Regional All-American honors in 1993 and 1994, when the team was ranked No. 1 in the country for five consecutive weeks and won the Big 10 championship. She graduated from Northwestern with a BS degree in Chemical Engineering. After graduation, Kelly began her coaching career and was an assistant coach at the University of New Hampshire (1995-96) and Northeastern University in Boston (1997-99) where she earned a Masters in Business Administration. She returned to Northwestern in 2000 as an assistant coach. In 2004, Kelly was named head coach of the Wildcats, one of the youngest head field hockey coaches at a Division I program at that time. She coached the squad for five seasons. Kelly was inducted in the Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007. Since 2012, Kelly has been the director of the Department of New Business Development for the Chicago Park District, responsible for developing and managing corporate partnerships, advertising, promotions, and sponsorship opportunities. The Department looks to provide financial support for events, programs, and facilities to increase non-tax revenue and enhance program offerings. The Chicago Park District has more 580 parks, 31 beaches, 10 museums, nine golf courses and many more facilities. Kelly and her husband, David Sheetz, live in Chicago with their two children Connor and Kaylee. Kelly has remained active coaching her kids in their youth sports. “Kelly was such a gifted student athlete, but even more so, a top-notch quality person of genuine integrity, fair play, good old fashioned hard worker who earned everything she received,” said Terri Ziemnicki, her high school field hockey coach.