Kelsie Barnard began her senior year on JC’s varsity soccer team and club soccer for The Oni Premier Soccer Academy. She plays primarily as an attacking center midfielder, but is a “versatile player.”

She has played on Maryland ODP for the past three years. In addition, she has traveled to Boca Raton with the Region 1 ODP team. Also, for Region 1, she has traveled to Costa Rica and has played the professional women’s teams there.
Kelsie gave details about herself to describe her success in soccer and said that she’s “very self-driven. I have just always had a dream to go as far as I can with soccer and become the best player that I can be.”
Her hard-working personality has affected her personal goals which are to “constantly improve.” Kelsie explained that her goals push her in every training session.
Soccer has taught Kelsie personal lessons like how to be a good leader.
She said, “Leading by example is so important. Whatever you ask of your teammates, you have to give that and even more.”
Soccer is a rewarding sport for Kelsie, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t face her own challenges.
Her biggest obstacle was “learning how to focus on what I can control. It can be so easy to focus on other factors like the coaches, the ref, and other players; but I’ve learned to stay positive, and I encourage others to do the same.”
Right now in Kelsie’s soccer career, she is in the process of college recruitment. In choosing a school is she looking for a college that will be “the best fit for me athletically and academically.”
After college, she hopes to play soccer professionally. She went into further detail when she said, “I hope to play professionally. Who knows if that will be in America or another country, but I am excited for the adventure.”
Kelsie is excited for where her soccer career will take her and is mainly focused on being happy wherever she chooses to go.
Off of the field, Kelsie likes to spend a lot of her free time in the outdoors. She mentioned that she likes to “go on hikes and sunset bike rides. Also, one of my favorite hobbies is painting. Painting keeps me calm on days where I am really stressed out.”
Kelsie is not only a student-athlete, but she is an artist who is taking AP Studio Art. You can see all her featured portfolio-art on her Instagram @barnard.kelsie.ap. Kelsie does a variety of different paintings such as oil, acrylic, and ink.
From playing soccer, Kelsie has gained lots of wisdom, so she shared advice everyone can use on and off the field. She said, “The best advice I can give is to just do what you love. If you love playing your sport, then stick to it, and don’t give up. If being an athlete doesn’t make you happy, then do something else. Whatever path you choose to go in life, do it for yourself.”
Kelsie is one of JC’s students who pushes herself in the classroom as well as on the field.
You can see Kelsie play this year from John Carroll’s new NFHS Network that streams games live and On-Demand.