Grant McDonald
SCHOOL: South Delta FRESHMAN’S FUTURE: Maine
There are three distinct chapters to Grant McDonald’s career as a senior varsity starter with the South Delta Sun Devils football team.
Yet, if you’ve watched this three-act play unfold, you know it hasn’t been about a steady climb to a dramatic finish.
Instead, each chapter has been more like a story unto itself, with the collective essay ultimately portraying the 6-3, 220-pounder as the skilled, prepared and intangibly heroic leader so highly sought by the collegiate football world.
In Chapter 1, as a 10th grader, he’s the starter at linebacker who helps lead his senior varsity team to the Subway Bowl title, snapping the three-year reign of Victoria’s Mount Douglas Rams and also rushing for two touchdowns in the championship final.
In Chapter 3, this past season as a senior, his team stumbles and loses its way after he suffers a high-ankle sprain, but undergoes something of a miraculous comeback upon his return, advancing all the way to the provincial semifinal, where the Sun Devils are 22-21 losers to eventual champion Terry Fox.
Upon his return, with his ankle still tender, McDonald’s presence was unmistakable, even though he was limited to playing exclusively on the defensive side of ball. And Chapter 2? McDonald’s Grade 11 season was the most tangible example of a player who reeks of intangibles.
During that 2015 campaign, South Delta found itself transitioning between star quarterbacks, and McDonald did what needed to be done.
Not only did his 9.2-yards-percarry average lead all Triple-A running backs, he was the top tier’s No. 2 rusher with 1,217 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also led all of Triple-A football with 103 tackles.
And now, as he embarks on a collegiate career at the NCAA Division 1 FCS level next season at the University of Maine, he will make another transition, this time playing a position — tight end — which he has never played.
“I was surprised and shocked at first that I wasn’t going to be playing defence,” McDonald says, “but now I understand what the coaches have planned for me and I am starting to see myself as that offensive player again.”
His high school coach Ray Moon adds: “I think he can be that (Rob) Gronkowski-type who can catch, has size and can hit.”
It’s the start of the next chapter, and if it’s anything like the first three, Grant McDonald should become the Maine man.