Not What They Used To Be

I went to the Scottish Schools Athletics Championships at Grangemouth on Saturday. They have been held on this weekend (Friday and Saturday) since I was at school but the meeting is nothing like what it used to be even nine or ten years ago. Numbers of competitors and spectators have dropped disastrously. For instance at local level, there were only four (FOUR) athletes entered from Clydebank schools and I didn't see one there - this might have been my eyesight but to the best of my knowledge no Clydebank school pupil actually competed. This is quite a comedown when you remember that St Columba's and Braidfield used to send a bus each on both days, that Clydebank High and St Andrew's used to send at least a minibus, often a bus. If you head towards Bearsden and Milngavie, the situation is almost as bad with Boclair which on occasion sent two whole buses of athletes entering fewer than ten pupils. Peter Bowman told me that Bearsden Academy had only three boys competing om Saturday.

When you see and hear Scottish Athletics boasting about the quality of the sport in the country and then look at the reality it is a bit like inhabiting a parallel universe or talking to Alice in Wonderland.

Where does it put us as a club?
The first and biggest message is that we have to do our own recruiting and coaching and not rely on anyone to do the work for us. We need to sharpen up our act in this respect.
Second and partly emerging from that, we really need to be ready for a whole club approach to making the most of the new track at St Peter the Apostle when we finally get access to it. I say whole club because the seniors need more new blood and they won't get it if they are training elsewhere away from the new blood; I say whole club because the youngsters need the senior role models on the same site. The Committee might have to take a hard decision when some of the seniors refuse to leave the comparative comfort of their own wee howff in the Antonine but will surely have to nominate the new venue as the 'official' club training venue.
Third it tells us that we will have to make greater efforts to cultivate the local schools as recruiting territory - re-enthuse them with athletics as the base sport for all other sports. Rugby, hockey, football and even lacrosse (I suppose) all have athletics as their basic fitness sport and this should be made apparent to all schools.
Fourth it tells us that with the shrinking pool of available talent we need to realise that we are in a competitive world where all sports and all athletic clubs compete for the same talented individuals. The coaches have to take it on board and I believe that they have already done so - it is also incumbent on the Committee however to make sure that they are not operating with one hand behind their back. eg if Vicky Park and West Dumbarton have the clubmark, we must have it too.

From 250+ members in centenary year of 1985 down to 60+ is largely down to the lack of a proper track facility in the burgh as well as the other underlying national factors. We need to get back there.