Kelsey Baird joined the St. Edward’s University women’s soccer team as assistant coach under Nick Cowell in 2016.
In her first season, Baird helped coach 10 All-Heartland Conference players including the Heartland Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year. Baird assisted in developing seven all-region performers and one all-American. She also helped SEU to its eighth regular-season Heartland Conference title and eighth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
Baird moved into the assistant position after volunteering for the Hilltoppers from 2012-15. While a volunteer coach at St. Edward's, Baird was also the head coach for the Veritas Academy varsity girl's soccer team in Austin. At Veritas, Baird helped start the program and led the team to five playoff appearances, four district titles and two state championships. She was also the assistant Student Life director and taught Anatomy and Physiology at Veritas.
Baird is a co-founder and Education Director of Kibera Penda Project, a nonprofit organization in Kenya. Since 2009, the organization has provided over 200 scholarships to send students from the largest slum in Africa to high school and college.
Collegiately, Baird was a four-year letterwinner for the Hilltoppers. She was named honorable mention All-America (2008), first-team all-region (2006, 2007, 2008) and first-team All-Heartland Conference (2006, 2007, 2008). She was also named Heartland Conference Woman of the Year (2009) and a semifinalist for the NCAA Woman of the Year (2009). She was honored as a member of the NCAA DII 40th Anniversary Tribute Team (2014) and made the SEU Dean’s List every semester while in attendance.
In 2020 Baird was inducted into the SEU Athletics Hall of Fame.
Baird graduated in 2009 from St. Edward’s with a BS in Kinesiology. Baird lives in Austin with her husband Kyle and two sons, Beckett and Brayden.
