Heart, Desire and Guts probably sums up Harry Kelly. He would take up the challenge and give 150% even if his leg was hanging off. Winning wasn’t everything but it was damn near everything. Harry started playing soccer at the minor level and his parents made sure that he had their support to play the game.

Harry was successful at all levels of soccer winning an Under 12 Provincial title, Under 16 Provincial title, Under 16 Atlantic title , competed for the Under 16 Eastern Canadian title, two 4A Championships, two Under 21 Provincial titles, played with Canada Games team 84 & 85, won Atlantic Championship with Under 18 Newfoundland team and was selected for a tryout with the National team where he was placed in the “B Pool”.

At 16 he started playing First Division seeing his first action at the Premier Cup in 1983 won by the Laurentians. Unfortunately in 1986 a knee injury took him out of the game for four years, but his return was triumphant as he went on to win nine Provincial Challenge Cup titles, and two National Challenge Cup medals a bronze in Chilliwack in 1999 & a silver in St. John’s in 2002. His success continues in Masters soccer with three Newfoundland Masters titles and two Eastern Canadian Masters Championships 2006 & 2007.

Harry was always up for a challenge and at the Eastern Canadian Masters Championships in 2007 after Keith Jackman was hurt he played in goal for the final two games. Harry loved to compete at a high level and enjoyed playing against the skilled local and national teams at Provincial & National tournaments.

Harry over his career won numerous individual awards MVP, Most Dedicated, Most Gentlemanly & Effective, Most Sportsmanlike etc. In 1998 he won the NLSA Challenge Cup MVP and was chosen Newfoundland Male Athlete of the Year. Throughout his career he was coached by Junior Edwards, Jim Loder, Al Slaney, Rudy Slaney in minor, Alec Slaney & Jim Stacey in junior and Junior Edwards, Gord Dunphy, Jim Loder, Keith Farrell and Junior Doyle in Senior. All of these coaches helped Harry in his development as a player and person.

Influential in his soccer career were his parents, coaches and especially ALL the 70’s team player that he looked up to.

Still living and working in St. Lawrence, he loves being involved with his children and their sports activities and spending time in the country. He enjoyed being involved in soccer in St Lawrence because when he was growing up and watching the 70’s teams and the winning tradition they had it got in your blood. Soccer allowed him to meet many people and he cherishes the many friendships that were made.

There are many memorable moments in soccer but for Harry some of the best are winning the two Gold medals at the Eastern Canadian Masters in PEI, winning the Silver medal at the National Challenge Cup in St. John’s in 2002 and the bronze medal at the National Challenge Cup in Chilliwack 1999. His most memorable minor memory is from the Under 12 provincial Championship playing against a powerful ASIA team and coach Junior Edwards giving the boys a “BIG TALK”, the whole team was crying after the talk. About 25 minutes into the second half Harry crossed the ball and it went into the far corner of the net to make the score 1 – 0. Harry looked over at the bench and saw the coach in pain as Coach Edwards at the time had a broken collar bone, but when Harry scored Junior jumped up and threw his arms in the air not thinking about his injury. I’m sure it hurt less after as the team won the game 3-0 and the Provincial Under 12 Championship. The bus ride home was very memorable as the Under 16’s were on the same bus and they had won the Under 16 Provincial Championship as well. In fact all bus rides home from any weekend game were always fun and the stories are too long to tell.

St. Lawrence Soccer welcomes Harry Kelly into the Hall of Fame.