Coach of the Year short-lists 2016

Monday 26th September 2016

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scottishathletics are delighted to announce short-lists for three awards in the Coach of the Year category for our annual awards.

The Awards Dinner is being held on the evening of Saturday 29 October at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow – with Olympian Derek Redmond as our Guest of Honour that night.

With some 200 coaches and staff having gathered at the Emirates Arena for the Coaching Conference over the past weekend, it was deemed appropriate to use that forum to announce the short-lists.

Director of Coaching Rodger Harkins spoke of a year of exceptional achievement in terms of athletes qualifying for the Olympics and Paralympics and achieved at all manner of levels and across various strands of the sport.

Indeed, Rodger came up with an interesting graphic which highlighted how over 100 coaches in Scotland have guided their athletes either to a National title or a Scotland vest during the past 12 months – to emphasise the depth of quality coaching ascross the country currently.

Our Coach of the Year awards are again split into three categories this year, taking in Performance, Development and Club Coach.

Here are the short-lists (in alphabetical order):

Performance Coach of the Year:

Sophie Dunnett

Derek Easton

Robert Hawkins

Ian Mirfin

Andy Young

Development Coach of the Year:

Willy Russell (Banchory & Stonehaven)

Dudley Walker (Giffnock North AAC)

Club Coach of the Year:

Andrew Ferguson (Aberdeen AAC)

Will Hogg (Central AC)

Donald Pegrum and Archie McBride (Cumbernauld AAC)

‘I don’t think anyone would dispute the assessment that it has been a marvellous year for our athletes and coaches,’ said Rodger.

‘I say that not thinking just about Rio and the Olympics and Paralympics but across various age groups and areas of the sport, as well. We continue to see a huge impact on GB and NI teams by Scottish athletes – and that reflects on the hard work being put in by the coaches.

‘Preparing the graphic with more than a 100 names on it was interesting for me to see the range and depth of coaches working with National champions and Scotland international athletes across the disciplines or age groups.

‘Hopefully we’ve shown that the number of coaches involved with athletes at that level is far more than the couple of dozen some people might imagine.

‘Hopefully high standards in coaching in Scotland are reflected in these short-lists and I congratulate all those mentioned and who came under our consideration.’