UCSB's top gymnast likes to boast about a Notre Dame track star, and vice versa

Where are they now? By Andy Wilcox, Journal Sports EditorBrothers who are 13 months apart can be miles apart when it comes to respecting each other.But that couldn?t be farther from the truth for Colfax High graduates Michael and Scott Kelley.?It?s never been like that,? Scott said, when asked if jealousy ever came between them.They actually are miles apart these days ? thousands of miles apart ? but are still on each other?s minds often.Scott is one of the top three triple jumpers on the track and field squad at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., where he just finished his sophomore season.Michael just finished his junior season of men?s gymnastics at the University of California-Santa Barbara, where he was the Gauchos? team captain for the second straight year.?Mike is very responsible and helpful for everyone on the team,? said 17th-year Gauchos head coach Mircea Badulescu. ?He?s working hard and is a good model to be followed. He?s very respectful and demonstrates a very high work ethic.?Scott got all the headlines in the family as a football and track and field star at Colfax, but Michael seems to know it was out of his brother?s control. In fact, he seems to have been proud of Scott all along. ?I brag about my brother all the time,? Michael said. ?Scott got all the headlines in high school, but that comes with the sports he did. A lot of people who have done gymnastics know how hard it is.?Michael appreciates any recognition he can get, such as his recently being selected Athlete of the Year for gymnastics at the 34th annual Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame Banquet.He earned All-American honors in two events last year, finishing fifth on the high bar with a 9.45 and fifth on the pommel horse at 9.20 at the USAG national collegiate championships. He also scored as high as 9.15 on the rings and 9.40 on the vault.This season, Michael took first place on the vault and fourth place all-around at the national meet, helping the Gauchos place third as a team.Most of the attention Michael gets as a gymnast is from other UCSB athletes.?They come up to me and say ?It?s unbelievable that you can do that.? I got some headlines from time to time in the college newspaper. But gymnastics is not as exciting as a sport like basketball.?The only other sport Michael has done competitively is track and field, as a Colfax junior.?Nothing comes close to gymnastics for me,? he said. ?If I had to do it all over again, with all the pain, I?d still do it.?Scott probably felt the same about football, although he hasn?t regretted giving it up for track. He walked on to the team ? as most Fighting Irish tracksters must do because of the lack of scholarships offered by Notre Dame ? and quickly became a force in the triple jump, his only event.He placed seventh as a freshman at the Big East Conference Outdoor Championships with a 45-foot-9 effort in March. This year, his season-bests were the 45-2 indoor mark he notched to place sixth in the conference, and the 45-4 outdoor mark that placed him ninth in the Big East.?It?s wonderful to be training with people who are much better than I am,? Scott said. ?In high school I didn?t have anything to shoot for. Now I have somebody to look up to.?Even though he was the All-Auburn Journal Offensive Football Player of the Year after his 1998-99 senior year at Colfax, Scott has probably always seen his brother as an athletic peer, especially since Michael beat him in the long jump that one year at Colfax.?I do a lot of bragging at my school about how my brother is such an awesome gymnast,? Scott said. ?He and I hype each other up. We?re really close. Whenever I come back (to Calfornia), I usually catch one or two of his meets. He definitely has talent.?Scott recalled how Michael evolved from being ?a little chubby? as a youth.?He looked in the mirror one day and said ?I don?t like the way my body looks,? then he went crazy (getting into shape),? Scott said. ?Now he?s as cut (muscularly toned) as can be.?He just kept on improving. He?s so determined. Once he sets a goal he goes at it harder than anyone I know.?Scott and Michael started doing gymnastics together. But after six year, Scott decided to get into basketball and football.?I was growing and it got to be much more difficult for me,? Scott said. ?Besides, I?m not as daring or carefee as my brother. I would never even bungee jump, but he would skydive, bungee, anything extreme. He likes getting a rush.?Eleven years ago, when he and Scott were brought over from Korea and adopted by Jean and Bruce Kelley of Weimar, Michael was flying off a bike within a half-hour of arriving.As Jean recalls, he was riding down their hilly street, following one of the Kelley?s two daughters to go meet a neighbor, when he realized the bike didn?t have brakes ? or so he thought. It had foot brakes, not the hand brakes he was accustomed to in his native country. He crashed and broke his leg.Now 21, the closest Michael has to injuries are soreness in his shoulders due to them being dislocated several times, and in his lower back because it?s aging faster than the rest of his body. But he manages with a good conditioning program.?He has a lots of potential and desire to succeed,? Badulescu said.The coach said Michael?s vault start value, 9.8, is one of the hardest in the world. A routine meeting minimum judging requirements has a start value of 9.1.?People do my vault in the Olympics,? Michael explained. ?It?s a handspring over the vault, then two front flips, then I land on my feet. I?ve been trying to get it down consistently. Whatever I can do for the team. Gymnastics is thought to be an individual sport, but you always have to pull through for the team.?Badulescu said Michael will look to improve in his weakest events, the floor exercise and the parallel bars, in order to get a higher standard start value as an all-around gymnast.?I hope that Michael?s next year will be the best ever,? the coach said.Meanwhile, Michael will be deciding what career to pursue. He?s had more trouble in school than Scott, due mostly to a learning disability called auditory processing.?It mostly affects my writing. It takes me twice or three times as long to write a paper than other people,? he said. ?It?s hard to be in a class and know your friend can whip out a 10-page paper in half a day and you have to start two weeks in advance so you can correct it and all. I can?t procrastinate ? although that?s not one of the things I do, anyway.?While Michael carries about a 2.6 GPA, Scott is a 3.48 student who has made the dean?s list in three of his four semesters.?I did it all through high school, with three sports. This is just the next level,? Scott said of juggling school and athletics. ?My parents instilled a good work ethic and it carried over.?He was talking of his adopting parents. As for their natural parents, the boys got to meet their natural mother for the first time in 10 years last summer in a teary reunion. They had to communicate with her through a translator, although Michael plans to learn the language enough to get past that barrier.Their uncle, Oh Sang Park, is a former two-time Taekwondo world champion and a member of Korea?s Hall of Fame in that sport.?He used to be the head bodyguard for the president of Kenya,? Scott said of the uncle, who now lives in Miami.Scott is majoring in Industrial Design, which involves improving the functions of existing products, everything from desk lamps to portable CD players, to make them more user-friendly.?I want to target teen-agers,? he said, ?and make all the things I wanted as a kid.?He said he hopes to improve the designs of athletic shoes, particularly triple-jumping shoes.Michael is majoring in Environmental Studies, with a minor in Sports Management.?I plan to be here five years, and probably coach in my fifth year so I can still be a part of gymnastics,? he said. ?I?d also like to go work for Disneyland or some other company that does show business or circuses ? anything that has me doing something upside down.?