The photograph above is one of a set taken during a coaching morning at St Andrews School in the late 1990’s. We did quite a few mornings at various schools. There was a whole school term training and coaching at Clydebank HS on Saturday mornings where Scott Govan did high jump and Donald Govan taught hurdles in the big Games Hall, Billy Hislop did sprints on the football pitch, Bobby Bell did throws at the other side of the pitch and I had pupils running laps of the school and/or the surrounding streets. Then there was the summer term when we had Saturday mornings at Boclair Academy and then subsequently we had Tuesdays in the same school. The most ambitious project was when we asked SAAA for help to run coaching days in schools at the west end of Glasgow and eastern end of Dunbartonshire. The plan was to have ALL the coaches there including pole vaulting (David Gibson), High Jumping, Shot Putt, Javelin, Sprints, hurdles and middle distance running at the school and have it filmed with the video being left at the school. We only had two takers, probably because the most receptive schools were already involved with the club. The biggest such day was at Kelvinside Academy where we gained two good throws competitors – Brian Grassick was a javelin thrower and John Duffus did shot, discus and hammer. Billy Hislop and I did Sports Hall Athletics at Edinbarnet Primary, I did Sports Hall at the Antonine and at the Playdrome.
The point of all this is that you can wait all year for young recruits to come along but they won’t appear unless they know that we exist, and that the schools approve of what we are doing. We, like all successful clubs, cultivated the schools. We even had Ian Patterson from Clydebank High and Jim Burns from Boclair Academy as guests of honour at our senior presentation. Very often too, if you get the youngsters then you’ll have the parents. Jim Sweeney brought his son Steven along and Jim lasted longer as a club member being a good committee member too. Marjorie Small brought along her daughter Lesley and ended up doing much more running than Lesley did. The club made itself known on a year round basis to the schools. Remember that PE teachers talk to each other and goodwill is multiplied. When in the 1960’s Joyce Hume, PE at the Vale of Leven Academy sent Lynn Dollin and Ann Hannah and Aileen Rennie along and was happy with what they were receiving, we soon had Colleen McIntosh, Maureen McChesney and others from Notre Dame coming along too.
Never underestimate the power of the schools and their staff.
