T.J. Killelea already has gone far as a road cyclist.
Just a few years removed from pedaling a "low end" mountain bike around parking lots, the 2010 Red Bank High School graduate earned a King College cycling scholarship - that's right, a ride. And he represented the Bristol, Tenn., school well in his freshman year.
With a strong close to the 2010-11 season, Killelea finished third overall in the men's B standings in the Southeast Collegiate Cycling Conference. That was out of 59 competitors who collected points. He was No. 1 by a wide margin in individual time trial points, with 192 compared to 147 for second-place and overall men's B winner Luke Correale from the College of Charleston, and fourth in road race points.
Killelea will move up to men's A as a sophomore.
He's only in his fourth year of competitive racing. He represents King now even in the offseason, in men's category 3, but developed his abilities in three years with Scenic City Velo's Team Krystal.
He credits Steve Lewis from Scenic City Professional Coaching Services for that development. Lewis, in turn, praises Killelea's desire and dedication.
"T.J. is not the most gifted athlete, but he takes coaching very well and takes it to heart," Lewis said, "and he makes good decisions out there on the bike. He puts himself in position to use his skills and finish races, and he's done really well.
"A lot of times kids in their teens lose interest in the sport, because it's so difficult. It has to be a lifestyle, including diet and committed training. The sport itself is physically hard."
When Killelea realized he "liked going fast," a new road-racing bike piqued his passion. He said he really wanted to race, so his father, Tim, contacted Lewis.
"That was in January [2008]. I remember it was snowing," Lewis said. "I kind of explained how everything was going to work and laid out a training program for him. You have to be dedicated to the sport, and T.J. has been. Every time we've challenged him, he's met the challenge and come through. He definitely has to work, but he does it."
Lewis recalled an early assignment for Killelea to put in a three-hour training ride.
"It was raining that day, but he put his trainer [bike] inside the house and rode for three hours," Lewis said. "You can put yourself in a garage and hit yourself with a 2-by-4 and have more fun than that, but he did the whole three hours."
Men's A collegiate cycling will be a big step up, but Killelea is embracing it.
"What's kept me going is getting a chance to get a college education - and it's fun," he said.
Even though he doesn't particularly like "crit racing" - he was 27th in SECCC men's B criterium points - he fully included it in his busy first month out of school. He raced May 8 in Nashville and May 14-15 in the Highland Rim races at McMinnville. Then came the Rocket City races May 21-22 at Huntsville, where he was fifth in the circuit race and 14th in the downtown criterium, and the Tour of Atlanta on Memorial Day weekend, when he was 11th in both crits and fourth in the Sunday road race.
Back at Bristol for the Roan Groan the first weekend of June, he was 14th in a 55-mile road race that finished with an 8-mile ascent, third in a time trial later the same day and seventh in the criterium the next day. He was sixth overall in men's cat 3.
And he's really just getting started.