When The University of Texas Permian Basin football season came to an end on Saturday, November 18, Hayden Kelly, former UTPB football player, assumed his playing days were over. But that changed when he got a direct message on Instagram from GLS Dolphins Ancona, an amateur football team in Ancona, Italy. 

"I was cool being done. I thought I was going to go coach and that would be it," said Kelly. "Then they hit me up on Instagram, and at first, I was just like, this is kind of weird, but then I checked it out, and it was legit."  

GLS Dolphins Ancona was founded in 1982 and played several friendly matches in its first few years as a club, before participating in 11-player American football championship (30 times in Serie A1 and 8 times in Serie A2 or B). The team has three teams, an under 16, under 19, and a senior team.  

It has been only two months since Kelly has been on the football field, and he is about return to the field soon as the Dolphins season starts in March. 

"The regular season is March to May and the playoffs start in June," said Kelly.  

Since the season starts in a few months, Kelly will be flying to Rome on Saturday and then driving the rest of the way to where he will be staying. A perk of the season being in the spring is that it will allow Kelly to stay on the football staff and start his coaching career here at UTPB.   

"Coach McCullough was the first person I asked because I didn't want to put him in any kind of bind," said Kelly. "This is going to come to an end, so I wanted to make sure I could still come back and coach, and he said, 'Go live your dream, if you want to play, go play, your spot will be here when you get back. I'm not going to fill it.'" 

This will be an exciting time for Kelly who will not only get to put the pads on again but also, for the first time, will get to travel overseas. 

"I've been to Canada and Mexico before but never across the world," said Kelly. "Four months is a long time to be across the world, so I'm sure I'll miss being here. I like to be around all the guys, too, so I'll miss that as well. But I'll be back in time for summer and fall camp, so it'll work out well." 

There is a seven-hour time difference from Texas to Ancona, so that will be a big adjustment for Kelly who doesn't know how to prepare for that.  

"It'll be a big adjustment, I don't know how to go about it," said Kelly. "I guess try and stay awake the whole day the first time I get there. It'll be a little weird at first, but I'll adjust to it." 

GLS Dolphins Ancona

Schedule
Week	Date	Opponent	Time (CET)
1	Mar. 2	Frogs Legnano	9 p.m.
2		BYE
3	Mar. 16	Panthers Parma	6 p.m.
4		BYE
5	Apr. 6	Rhinos Milan	6 p.m.
6	Apr. 13	Lazio Marines	6 p.m.
7	Apr. 20	Warriors Bologna	6 p.m.
8		BYE
9	May 5	Skorpions Varese	2:30 p.m.
10	May 18	Guelfi Florence	3 p.m.
11	May 25	Jaguars Turin	6 p.m.