Bruce McDonell

Alexander Bruce McDonell, born in 1943 grew up in Williamstown and attended Char-Lan District High School.  As a young boy Bruce seized every opportunity to play sports with the locals. It wasn’t long before his natural athletic abilities and fine sportsmanship became recognized by his peers within the community and beyond.   

While a student at Char-Lan DHS, Bruce competed in many school sports, excelling in track and field, football and basketball.  In track and field his specialties became the long and high jump events.  Bruce was a talented half back on the junior football team, and was soon recruited to play with the senior team. He played half back in his first two years and became an outstanding quarterback in his final two years of play.  Playing against teams from Vankleek Hill, Hawkesbury and Alexandria, his accomplishments would include a win and a loss in championship games.  Throughout high school, Bruce played basketball.  He was consistently the team’s top scorer and guided them to four successive league championships. Recognizing Bruce’s knowledge and love for the game, he was recruited to referee high school basketball after he graduated.  High School games in Ormstown and Valleyfield were just a couple of the places where his referee skills were called upon. 

After graduating from high school in 1963, Bruce played softball for Williamstown in the Border Softball League before joining the highly competitive Cornwall Sportsman’s Fastball League.  He was revered as an outstanding pitcher for Robert’s Fuels, earning the respect of his team and opposing team members alike. He lead his team to a league championship in 1973.  Giving back to the sport, Bruce would later go on to become a qualified softball umpire in the region. 

When Char-Lan Arena opened in 1974, Bruce joined the broomball league and played for the village of Martintown, quickly becoming one of the top players on the team.  He played in the Border Hockey League as most young fellows did when growing up in the area.  Bruce recalls that back in his playing days, the games were lots of fun and not so competitive as the league grew to become over the years. 

Once again Bruce continued to give back to the local sporting community as he coached all of his and his wife Linda’s six children in minor sports namely, girls softball, girls broomball and boys hockey.  Bruce earned the reputation of being fair and coached to improve the skills of the athlete.  At a parent meeting, he once stated that he never wanted to hear that a child was being paid to score a goal but they could be rewarded for getting an assist. 

A very community-minded man, Bruce was a volunteer fireman in Williamstown for 42 years, 20 of those as Fire Chief.

Bruce will become the 3rd member of his McDonell clan to be inducted into Glengarry’s Sports Hall of Fame.  Bruce’s grandfather, Dr. Alexander Tupper McDonald was inducted in 1983, and  Bruce’s son, Kent, was inducted in 2019.