{"id":7819,"date":"2014-08-20T11:55:24","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T15:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7819"},"modified":"2014-08-27T16:38:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T20:38:00","slug":"ed-mcnally-goes-full-circle-to-land-in-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ed-mcnally-goes-full-circle-to-land-in-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed McNally goes full circle to land in Aurora Sports Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

For his skills and achievements on the soccer pitch, Ed McNally has been chosen as one of two inductees for the \u201cathlete\u201d category in the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame\u2019s class of 2014.<\/p>\n

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, McNally\u2019s family came to Canada when he was just eleven. Originally settling in Richmond Hill, McNally\u2019s move to Aurora in high school coincided with when he began to be recognized as the top of his field.<\/p>\n

At the age of 16 he joined the Aurora Hearts, the local men\u2019s league team. It was with the Hearts that he was first scouted and recognized. The Hearts hosted an All-Star game against the Toronto Blizzard reserve squad of the National Soccer League in 1988. The following year, McNally was drafted by the Blizzard. <\/p>\n

McNally\u2019s professional club career was a whirlwind experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then there wasn\u2019t much security in a lot of the leagues, so leagues were constantly popping up and disappearing,\u201d said McNally. \u201cI think I played in every professional league there was back then. But most of it is a great experience, to play the sport you love for a living. And getting the chance to represent your country obviously is, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

He got the opportunity a number of times after getting on the Canadian youth program, starting with Olympic Qualifiers at the age of 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredible. There\u2019s nothing better than wearing a Canada shirt and listening to your national anthem, no matter what sport it is. Any athlete can relate to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

McNally was fortunate enough to travel the world playing international soccer. Four years after turning pro, McNally saw Bermuda and Jamaica during Olympic Qualifiers. That same year, he received \u201cquite the thrill\u201d when he was called to the \u2018A\u2019 squad to face his home country of Scotland. A year later, he spent two weeks with the Canadian \u2018B\u2019 squad in China in 1984, playing in what was called the Great Wall Championship. He then toured Central America with the World Cup squad in 1987.<\/p>\n

Despite the distance, McNally felt it was important to hold on to hometown connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re your buddies, they played on the same team as you,\u201d said McNally. \u201cIt was a long and fun route, but I always kept in contact with what was going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professional and international accolades didn\u2019t keep McNally from being humbled by the Hall of Fame induction. He said he was \u201cpretty shocked\u201d to receive the phone call.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very honoured,\u201d said McNally. \u201cIt\u2019s a great privilege, having grown up in the area. It was so many years ago, so you kind of forget what you did, so I started going back in my scrapbooks. Just to look back on all the people you\u2019ve met throughout the years brings back a lot of memories.\u201d
\nAfter his professional career, McNally\u2019s passion for soccer came what he called \u201cfull circle\u201d. He returned to the Aurora Soccer Club, taking on a player\/coach role. Later he would play in the over-35\u2019s Newmarket District Soccer League, where it all began.<\/p>\n

After a number of years with the Seniors Soccer Club, McNally\u2019s focus is now on his daughter\u2019s soccer career. After starting in Aurora, she has since been playing in Vaughan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got kids, holy moley, it\u2019s like five days a week. And nowadays they travel a lot further than we did when I was in the minor system.\u201d
\nAs for the local minor soccer program, McNally says he believes there is a lot of talent left out there to be recognized.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s jumped leaps and bounds from when we used to play. There are so many more kids in it now. It\u2019s great to see, it gets the kids out, keeps them fit, and teaches them to be a team. Life lessons get learned from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The induction ceremony will take place November 5 at The Mansion Events Centre in Aurora. More information can be found at www.aurorashof.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For his skills and achievements on the soccer pitch, Ed McNally has been chosen as one of two inductees for the \u201cathlete\u201d category in the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame\u2019s class of 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-227","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 21:34:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}