2020 Quincy Blue Devil Sports Hall of Fame Inductee: Ron Bridal, Athlete

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2020 and 2021 classes are being inducted into the Quincy Blue Devil Sports Hall of Fame together this year. Bridal will be inducted on Saturday, Nov. 27 before QHS’s boys basketball game.)

The stingiest goalkeeper in the history of the Quincy High School boys soccer program, Ron Bridal remains among the top netminders in Illinois High School Association history a quarter-century after his graduation.

As a senior during the fall 1994 season – he is a 1995 QHS graduate – Bridal set single-season school records with 17 shutouts and seven goals allowed. It enabled the Blue Devils to finish 20-1-2 with a Western Big 6 Conference championship and a regional championship.

In three years as a starter, Bridal compiled a 50-8-10 record and a program-record 39 career shutouts. He ranks in the top 20 in state history in career shutouts and with eight consecutive shutouts during the 1994 season. He also ranks in the top 25 with his 17 shutouts as a senior. The Blue Devils won two regional championships and a sectional championship with Bridal as the goalkeeper.

He served as an assistant coach with the boys and girls soccer programs before being named the QHS boys soccer head coach in 2017. In three seasons at the helm, Bridal has led the Blue Devils to a 38-25-3 record and one Western Big 6 Conference championship.

Bridal is a social studies and psychology teacher at the high school. He and his wife, Jessica, have two children.