Sunflower School students Nate Hulse, 10, left, and Cy Bunghart, 11, ponder their moves during a chess club meeting with Austin Kelly, 22, right. Kelly, the club's leader, has taught the game to the elementary students for eight years. Now a senior at Kansas University, Kelly is leaving the club to run for student body president.

Every Wednesday afternoon for the past eight years, Austin Kelly has commanded the attention of young chess players.

Two weeks ago, it was clear Kelly also earned the admiration of students at Sunflower School.

Kelly, now a 22-year-old senior at Kansas University, was a Lawrence High School freshman when he began volunteering to lead 20 to 25 students in the school’s first chess club.

“I just thought it was something I thought I could do,” Kelly said.

He had to say goodbye to the students this year because he’s running for KU student body president with the Student Senate coalition ConnectKU.

“We were almost crying because he’s going to leave,” said Nate Hulse, 10.

The fifth-grader said he will continue to play chess at home with his younger brother, Trey, 7, and friends.

“You just feel like you have to do it and get better,” he said.

That’s just what Kelly expects the club members to do.

“I have no doubt they’ll continue to play whether they have a club coach or not,” he said. “They will still get better.”

There’s no word yet whether there will be a replacement, but Kelly said he may look into recruiting someone.

Kelly helped lead the students to several state tournaments. Four club members placed in the top 11 of more than 100 participants in the Free State High School Scholastic Chess Tournament March 1.

“The best time we had was the first time we got a trophy,” Kelly said. “We got first. I was really proud of them.”

Kelly, who competed throughout junior high and high school in chess, said the game is easy to learn. He said he wanted to teach children at a young age to increase their chances of success.

“Everyone has potential,” Kelly said.

He began playing as a seventh-grader at Southwest Junior High School. He was encouraged by his social studies teacher, Kelly Barker, who sponsored the junior high chess club for six years. Barker has served as mentor to Kelly ever since.

Barker said Kelly has been cognizant of children’s needs because he has a sister in sixth grade and his mother is a preschool teacher.

“He’s just such a neat guy that I wish he could find enough time to do everything that he wants to do, but I know this is the point of his life where he has to make big decisions about what he wants to do,” Barker said. “It’s good for him to move on.”