‘He is what makes high school football great.’ At Providence, Soto Kelly relishes his shot

For some Charlotte-area high school football teams, spring workouts begin Monday, and for Providence High junior Soto Kelly, he’s been looking forward to these workouts for a long time.

Kelly, 16, has mostly played junior-varsity the past two seasons. Now, he’ll finally get a chance with the big boys.

“Football is my everyday life,” Kelly said. “I treat it like it’s something special. It means a lot.”

Many ninth graders start their careers on the junior-varsity, and Soto was no exception. But after a solid freshman season, Panthers’ coach Wes Ward told him, in the summer of 2023, that he would probably going back to junior-varsity for his sophomore year.

Kelly said hearing that was tough.

“That day just lit something in me,” Kelly said. “I just went out there and hit people as hard as I could, even if they were on my team. But that’s just how it is. You have got to go out there and do the work. It made me mad, but it also made me work for something.

“It made me a better person.”

Kelly did get some minutes on varsity, mostly on special teams, last season and after it ended, he really dedicated himself in the weight room.

Coach Ward never doubted Kelly’s football intelligence or his want to, but Kelly was 130 pounds trying to play with some of the state’s best teams in the Southwestern 4A conference.

Butler, Independence and Charlotte Catholic all have multiple state championships, for example, and annually produce strong teams.

“It can be difficult to stick it out like he did,” Ward said. “Especially nowadays, there’s not a lot of mental toughness among kids. He could’ve very easily said ‘I’m going to go somewhere else,’ but he didn’t. He believes in the program and his coaches. ‘Do they think I’m ready to play? If not, then I’ve got to do this, this and this.’”

For Kelly, that meant putting on 25 pounds since the past season ended. And Kelly was among the leading tacklers on that Panthers’ JV team.

“His angles to the ball and just relentless effort, which is what he’s built on, has made him a good player,” Ward said. “It was just getting his body ready to get on a varsity field. If you’re 130 (pounds), that’s tough, especially at big 4A ball, (which has) good athletes, big bodies. But 150 is a little different.”

Ward said, despite his size, that Soto “has been that guy.”

“He’s like a program robot when he comes there for practice and weights,” Ward said. “I think he’s what makes high school football great. You know, those kind of kids that love it and have those aspirations that ‘I can be great if I work hard.’”

Kelly’s goal is to get to 180 pounds before his senior season and then as close to 200 as he can. He wants desperately to play in college.

And he said he just can’t wait to really get started on varsity. Kelly will compete for a starting job at safety.

That junior-varsity time is done.

“I think we have a really good team,” Kelly said, “and I’m ready to just go out there and compete with those guys. You can expect me to be a big heavy hitter and a big team leader and someone that can just get the job done.”