Kelso is having a Soccer Summer

Shortly after attending the Special Olympics Indiana Summer Games, Jen Kelso traveled to Minnesota to serve as technical delegate for soccer at the 2026 USA Games.

Next week, she is going international. She will serve as head of delegation for Special Olympics USA from July 6-11 at the Unified Football World Cup in Paris.

Following that experience, she returns stateside to run the Major League Soccer Unified All-Star Experience in Charlotte, N.C.

“It’s a summer of soccer,” she said.

Kelso is vice president and chief operating officer of Special Olympics Indiana. Her role at USA Games dates back to 2024, when she applied for the position. At the time, she worked at Special Olympics Illinois.

Sharing her talents on a national and world stage is rewarding in many ways. For Kelso, it comes down to helping coaches and support staff provide the best opportunities and experiences for athletes.

“I get to come be part of things and help on a national level,” she said. “It’s very exciting.”

Leading into USA Games, Kelso met with coaches to help prepare them and set the rules baseline. She recruited volunteers and officials, set up the tournament schedule, scheduled fields and secured equipment.

“Basically, everything that you need to do for a tournament, that’s what we’ve been doing,” she said.

USA Games included 14 traditional soccer teams in five divisions and eight Unified teams in two divisions. Pool play took place the first two days followed by two medal rounds.

“Teams submit scores based on what they believe is their ability, and we pool play them together,” Kelso said. “We are able to division based on the scores of the games. Then basically, everyone starts fresh.”

Kelso was happy to see Indiana win one of the Unified divisions, though she had to be impartial.

“It’s cool to have Team Indiana be one of them,” she said. “It’s like I get the best of both worlds. I get to do all of this planning and stuff but silently cheer when our team is doing well.”

Kelso has been part of each USA Games since 2006 in some capacity, including golf coach, volunteer and Youth Leadership Experience leader. The event is held every four years.

This year, Kelso said USA Games is a good boost going into her next event.

“I’m excited that I get to do this,” she said. “I get to be on this side of it at this level, and then I get to flip and I get to serve as head of delegation for Special Olympics USA to go to Paris. I get to have that experience of it and participating in the event and not having to run it.”

The third edition of the Special Olympics Unified Football World Cup includes 24 teams, 12 men’s and 12 women’s. Teams are comprised of athletes with intellectual disabilities and Unified partners (athletes without intellectual disabilities) competing for a title.

Participants have to be age 16-22 and needed to complete an application and attend a tryout.

Special Olympics USA will be represented by a women’s team made up of six athletes and five Unified partners. Ryleigh Marquardt of DeKalb County is one of the Unified partners. She was on the gold-medal-winning USA Games team.

The team is coached by Molly Underly of Brighton, Colo, and Katherine Rice of Flossmoor, Ill. The team’s trainer, Casey Fougerousse of Carmel, is another Indiana connection.

This will be Kelso’s third time attending the event. She was head of delegation in 2018 in Chicago and 2022 in Detroit.

Two weeks after returning from France, she will run the MLS Unified All-Star Experience that is part of MLS All-Star week in Charlotte.

That will feature Special Olympics Unified soccer players paired with MLS club athletes on teams.

“MLS partners with Special Olympics and MLS teams across the country,” Kelso said. “They have an exchange program, so all of the MLS clubs have a Unified team that also plays against each other. Charlotte is playing St. Louis, and Unified teams will also play after the first team plays.”

Kelso worked for Special Olympics Illinois for 25 years before joining the Indiana staff. Along with serving as lead of Special Olympics North America’s efforts to implement and grow soccer programs on the state level, she manages the partnerships between Special Olympics and MLS, among other organizations.