Local Profile – Tim Kelly (TK)

Originally Published in IVCBA’s LIVE.WORK.PLAY, Written by Kayla Anderson

Tim Kelly, The Sports and Community Supervisor in Incline Village, is a seemingly simple man in the kindest and most beautiful way. Talking to Tim it is hard to not conjure up thoughts and feelings of a gentler time in the past, seemingly one with less noise, when it felt like, even if it were not true, that all mattered was your family, your community and your contribution to it. This is ‘all’ that matters to Tim and within five minutes of talking it is incredibly obvious that he cares hard and deeply. His world revolves around his family, his job, and his local community and what he is doing to make it better.  By certain modern societal standards of money, fame and recognition his aspirations are not ‘great’. There is absolutely no ulterior motive other than helping those around him. To Tim, his role is incredibly important and the responsibility could not be greater. Tim sees immense opportunity to shape the community around him and is currently living out his dream job in being able to do so through recreation. 

Tim is a big believer in what you do rather than what you do specifically for a living, luckily for him, in his life, he loves both. Tim grew up as an athlete and had an incredibly active youth. He went to Reno High for sports and went on to play basketball in college at Pacific Lutheran. Basketball, even more so than any of the other sports he has loved, has been a recurring theme throughout his life as both an athlete and a coach at the collegiate level and at Servite HS in Anaheim, CA, before moving to Incline. He still coaches youth basketball in Incline and attempts to instill strong moral character in his athletes even more so than athletic prowess. As a coach his six values are an attitude of gratitude, humility, courage, perseverance, enthusiasm and faith / belief. Listening to him talk, his passion for coaching and working with kids, is blatantly obvious, it is attached to every word. Being a mentor means more to him than any sport itself which is why he is also a youth minister. 

As the unofficial ‘athletic director’ of Incline Village Tim loves to do ‘all of the things’ His favorites are surfing, skiing, biking and playing basketball. Fortunately, Tim gets to do most of these things with his wife Maureen and their three kids. Team sports are generally his favorite for the camaraderie. Among the ones he gets to help provide and organize for his community flag football is his favorite but he is proud of every single sport and recreation program Incline offers, whether soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, dodgeball, pickleball or any of the many others. Tim is proud of all of the youth and adult sport programs offered whether team or individual and truly appreciates his cohorts in the parks department and those who make his job easier with facilities. Tim’s goal is for all Incline residents to be active in some way to live a healthy life. He believes that his role is not just to provide services to the community but to build community. 

Tim’s history as it relates to sharing his love of sport, coaching it, and providing it to others is vast. His whole life has been defined by these things as well as sharing the values that sport has taught him with his own family and his community who he considers extended family. Tim hopes to be at his desk or on the fields as the Incline Sports and Community Supervisor for at least another ten years. He is self-described, and accurately so, as ‘The biggest Incline fan I’ve ever met’.  Tim explained, “I do this for a loving, not for a living.” It is obvious it is in Incline’s best interest that this benevolent, sport loving, community man sticks around as long as possible.