From his heaviest weight of 310 pounds down to his current 195 pounds, physical education teacher Roy Kelly has been inspiring his students to be active and positive in their physical education to reach their own goals. 

Kelly has been making students come out of their bubbles and set personal goals by finding their strengths and weaknesses and assisting them on what they need help with.

 “I really enjoy getting to know my students and finding their strengths. I think that’s one of the biggest things about teaching is getting to know your kids and finding out [what]  they do well at, what they struggle at, what they’re trying to accomplish and helping them achieve goals. I think in PE there are a lot of people who may not have the best past experiences in PE and I really try to get them to buy into not necessarily team sports, but the idea of being active,” Kelly said.

Kelly teaches how you affect others and how you think about yourself as a step to reaching your goals.

“I think you can see that with being positive and your interactions with other people and also yourself, [you help everyone]. We have people who talk negatively about us a lot of time but I think that individually we’re sometimes the worst about that. I talk about this in my personal wellness class, ” Kelly said.

From past experiences, Kelly knows that becoming more healthy and setting personal goals is possible. Weighing in at 310 pounds, Kelly was in need of change. After having back problems and knee pains, he was desperate.

“It was a long, hard journey. At my most I was 310 lbs. I’ve been someone who yo-yo’s a bit, you know, I’d lose weight and then I’d put it back on then lose it, it was hard to stay consistent until this past year,” Kelly said

Recently having back surgery, Kelly had to maintain his health if he wanted to keep a healthy back and not have prolonged issues. Teaching health and physical education has kept him healthy since losing weight.

“I feel like teaching some of these classes almost forces me to teach it as well as live it. [My weight is] down at my lowest right now at 195 lbs, and I feel great,” Kelly said.

After moving schools multiple times for various reasons, Kelly feels comfortable coming into his second year at HHS and seeing familiar faces, old students and new students. 

“It’s only my second time being in a school for two years. I’ve switched around a lot for various reasons, but it feels really good this year because I don’t have to come in and meet an entirely new school,” Kelly said. “Last year was kind of a whirlwind and this year I feel like I’m starting to get my bearings a little bit. But it’s definitely interesting, but I appreciate how comfortable I feel this year.”