Upon hearing of his pending induction into the Welland Sports Wall of Fame, Don Burns went to the wall at the Seaway Mall to peruse all the inductees that came before him.

“After reading about them, I asked myself ‘What am I doing here?’ I still can’t believe it.”

For anyone reading the bio of the 83-year-old Welland native, the answer would be ‘plenty.’

The retired chartered professional accountant’s sports resume includes: coaching in the Welland Minor Baseball Association for more than 37 years, starting in 1978 and concluding in 2016; coaching girls softball in the Northwest Recreation League for seven years; coaching in the Welland Minor Basketball Association for 35 years from 1979 to 2014; being the only person to ever be commissioner of both the Welland Minor Baseball Association (1985-1990) and Welland Minor Basketball Association (1996-2016); and, winning the Gord Sykes Memorial Award in 2017 for grassroots coaching.

The Notre Dame alumnus fell in love with baseball and basketball at different times when he was growing up.

Growing up at 71 Cozy St. In ‘Frenchtown’, Burns was taken to senior baseball games at Burgar Park starting when he was seven or eight by Mary Hornik, a neighbour.

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