Kelley

This is the second in a series of articles profiling the 2018 Knoch High School Sports Hall of Fame inducteesJEFFERSON TWP — Before high school, Tammie Kelley never considered herself an athlete.She was a farm girl.“I didn't start playing sports until ninth grade,” Kelley said. “I was a farm kid and there was always work for us to do.“Some of the coaches came out to the house and talked to my parents about me playing. My mom was an easy sell, but they had to convince my father.”They did — and Kelley produced a Hall of Fame career as a result. The 1983 graduate will be inducted into the Knoch High School Sports Hall of Fame Sept. 14.She played volleyball, basketball and ran track and field.“I guess I was better known for my track exploits, but I loved all of the sports,” Kelley said. “You get a taste of them all in gym class and that's where the coaches discover your athletic ability.“The coaches picked me up at home for practice and games, dropped me off afterward. That was the only way I could play.”A forward in basketball, Kelley considered herself more of a defensive player. “stealing the ball a lot and things like that.”She said basketball was the first sport she played. Debbie Bauman was her basketball coach, Fred Bernard her track coach.Kelley became the first Knoch female athlete to qualify for two events in the PIAA Track and Field Championships, advancing in the intermediate hurdles and as part of the 4x400 meter relay team.“I never even knew that until I saw it in the paper last week,” she said. “I'm pretty proud of that.”Kelley earned the U.S. Army Reserve National Scholar Athlete Award in 1983 and was voted most athletic in her graduating class. She earned a track scholarship to Slippery Rock University.Her athletic career there was short-lived — yet successful.“When I ran in high school, I always felt pressure on my legs,” Kelley recalled. “I felt like a Clydesdale. The free and easy feeling just wasn't there.”Midway through her sophomore year, Kelley was ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division II in the heptathlon, but still didn't feel right.“My coach noticed me bleeding from my lower back after a run and I was diagnosed with a cyst the size of a grapefruit in my back,” Kelley said. “That was never discovered during my high school years.“There was so much pressure, it was cutting off the circulation to my legs.”Kelley had to give up the heptathlon. She still competed in the javelin and placed sixth in that event at the PSAC meet.A week later, she had surgery to remove the cyst and her college athletic career was over.“It took a couple of years just to feel comfortable running again,” Kelley said.Later in life, she ran the Marine Corps Marathon in three hours and 40 minutes, the Tucson Marathon in under 3:20. She qualified for the Boston Marathon with the latter time, but did not go.Kelley went on to become a teacher in Carroll County in Maryland for eight years before becoming an FBI agent for 20 years. She retired from the latter in 2015.“I was always interested in law enforcement, but not many women entered that field at the time,” she said. “I thought teaching was a good career for a woman, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.“When I got accepted into the FBI, I loved it.”Kelley now works as a private investigator — and she's thrilled to be returning to Knoch for her induction.“I'm really honored by it,” she said. “But I guess I'll always wonder how good I might have been back then if I was totally healthy.”