The coach of Paralympic gold medallists Kenneth Cairns and Margaret McEleny was amongst the winners at last night's Scottish Coach of the Year Awards. Eddie McCluskey, who coaches at Port Glasgow Otters swim club, won the Male Coach category.

All the award winners including Paralympic Boccia Coach Jacqueline Lynn and Golfing guru Ian Rae were toasted by Steve Redgrave's coach, Jurgen Grobler, who was the after dinner speaker at the special award ceremony in Edinburgh.

The event, which is organised by sportscotland, recognises the key role played by coaches in the development and achievements of Scottish sportsmen and women. Alastair Dempster, Chairman, sportscotland said: "The role of the coach is the vital and often unseen factor behind an athlete or team's success.

"All top athletes will pay tribute to the coaches who first inspired them to get involved in sport, encouraged them to stay involved and helped them maximise their potential. These awards recognise the important role they play in creating a more active Scotland."

The winners at the 2000 Coach of the Year Awards are:

BIOGRAPHIES

Bond, Raymond Buchanan, Andrew Clark, Ann Frame, Sandra Hird, Irene Krawczyk, Vince Lynn, Jacqueline McCluskey, Eddie McGregor, Lorraine McKenzie, Emma Lousie McKeown, Steven McLaren, Carol McLeod, Callum Neilson, H. Stewart Oulton, John Plomer, Chris Rae, Ian Thomson, Ramsay

RAYMOND BOND
Raymond is a tireless enthusiast who has made a huge impact in over 26 years involvement with both cricket and table tennis. Through the Sports Development Schools Programme he organises inter-school tournaments for both sports in the Stirling area. His work with beginners at grass-roots level has produced internationals at all levels in both sports. One of his recent success stories is Kari Anderson who is a women's cricket international for the Scotland senior and England under-17 teams.

ANDREW BUCHANAN
Andrew is a former international swimmer who has dramatically improved the performance levels of Alloa ASC. Since taking over the Head Coach duties in 1995 he has taken the club from being 28th in the Western District and having no entries for the National Championships, to 4th overall and having eight National Senior Champions and 6 National Junior Champions.

ANN CLARK & SANDRA FRAME (joint nomination)
Former Scotland international players, Anne and Sandra pass on their skills and knowledge at Scotstoun Netball Club. Since taking over in 1987, they have established the club at the forefront of the Scottish game, and are the current Scottish League and Cup champions. Club membership has also risen steadily and the club are now able to re-establish a third team. Many players who have benefited from their coaching have gone on to international success: five Scotstoun players competed at this year's World Youth Cup, where Scotland Under 21's finished 6th.

IRENE HIRD
Irene is a Curling enthusiast and has had great success at junior level where she coaches Scotland's National Junior Squad. She coached the winning team at the 2000 Scottish Junior Women's Championships. She also devised "Curling's Cool" which has now become a nationwide programme, introducing hundreds of primary school kids to the sport. She is also heavily involved in other areas of the sport including club development, coach education, curling for the disabled and adult beginner classes.

VINCE KRAWCZYK He has a great track record in Volleyball: in the past 14 years he has coached teams to 8 Scottish Championships, 2 British Championships and to 11 of the last 12 Scottish Cup finals. However, it is with Troon Volleyball Club where he has had his greatest successes. Since the ladies team formed four years ago, Vince has taken them through three divisions to be crowned Scottish Champions this year. He has also had remarkable success with Troon Junior teams on the international stage, coaching boys' and girls' teams to victory at Belgian International Tournaments in the last 2 years. At the prestigious World Youth Games he led an under-18 girls' team to runners-up spot in 1999 and to the semi-finals in 2000.

JACQUELINE LYNN
A groundbreaking Boccia coach who not only acts as a source of inspiration to athletes but to her fellow coaches too. In 1997 she devised a level 2 coaching course that is recognised throughout Great Britain as a blueprint for coaching in the sport. She is also responsible for shaping the World Class Performance Plan that has brought the sport necessary funding. The professional structure she has brought to Boccia has made success at elite level more attainable. As manager to the Boccia team at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, she oversaw the team have its most successful games yet, with Nigel Murray taking home Britain's first ever individual gold medal.

STEVEN MCKEOWN
Using his experience as a top class competitor Steve has been equally successful as a coach with Tryst Olympic Wrestling club. The former British and Commonwealth Championship medallist has nurtured a series of young novices to success at Scottish, British and International level. Earlier this year, he guided the club to the British Championship.

CAROL MCLAREN
Carol has a varied sporting background and her talent and enthusiasm has brought success wherever she has been involved. Formerly a player/coach with Whitehill Ladies she guided the club to a clean sweep of all the major trophies in Scottish Women's Football. The following season she repeated the feat with Cumbernauld Ladies. As a keen runner and swimmer, she formed the Stonehaven Splash n' Dash club on moving to the Northeast. The club, which started as a hobby, grew to involve 350 members within five years. Two years ago, she grasped the opportunity to coach at Scotland's biggest Triathlon club, Fleet Feet Triathletes. The club currently has seven internationals including Charles Milne, one of Britain's top junior Duathletes.

CALLUM MCLEOD
Since becoming involved with Glasgow Western Hockey club six years ago, Callum has taken the men's first XI from being in Scotland's top 5 teams to being Scotland's undisputed top team. Western have won the National League for the past three seasons and this year they added the Scottish Cup and earned promotion to the top division in European Club Hockey by winning the European Cup B Division. Eight members of Western play for the Scottish National Team.

EDDIE MCCLUSKEY
Coach for Port Glasgow Otters Swim team since 1992, he has helped guide the careers of two of Scotland's finest swimmers with a disability, Kenneth Cairns and Margaret McEleny. Kenneth and Maggie have won a trove of medals at European, World and Paralympic level in the last decade, including seven medals between them at the recent Sydney Paralympics. It is not only at elite level where he makes his mark, he is also more than willing to spend his time passing on his knowledge to novice competitors.

LORRAINE MCGREGOR
Working at grass roots level, Lorraine tirelessly coaches youth football. Working with Murieston United for two years, this former player has helped the club not only expand but improve the team's performances. She helped coach the boy's under-13 team to third place West Lothian league in their first season playing 11-a-side. She also takes control of the girl's under-12 team and has now built a squad of nearly 30 girls after starting from scratch 2 years ago. Her knowledge and enthusiasm continue to help the club prosper.

EMMA LOUISE MCKENZIE
After retiring from Gymnastics due to injury, Emma decided to put something back into the sport. Working alongside her mother, Emma coaches at Grangemouth Girls Gymnastics Club and, through Stirling Council and Clackmannanshire Council, at many primary schools in the areas. In her four years coaching, Emma has steered youngsters under her guidance to over 70 medals at junior competitions. This year she coached Craigbank Primary to the victory in the beginner's class at the Scottish Championships Finals in Perth.

H. STEWART NEILSON
A coach for over 20 years, Stewart's experience and expertise have made a big impact on youth football at both regional and national level. Under his guidance, Scotland's under-18 team beat England, Wales and Northern Ireland to win the Centenary Shield Home Internationals earlier this year. As coach for Scotland's under-14 and under-18 teams, he has been praised for raising not only the playing standards but his colleague's coaching standards too. His innovative techniques are also being utilised in his role as project leader for the Princess Royal Sports and Community Trust/Deveronvale FC Youth Development Programme, which aims to produce football stars of the future.

JOHN OULTON
Involved with Scottish athletics for over 20 years, in the last six years he has turned his attention to Paralympic athletes with remarkable success. His greatest successes have come through the achievements of Caroline Innes and Pauline Latto. Caroline is one of the stars of British disability sport: she has been a gold medallist at the last three Paralympic Games. In Sydney she won gold over 200m and 400m, an event in which she also smashed the world record. She also took silver over 100m. Pauline Latto has blossomed as an elite performer under John's tutelage. In Sydney she won silver in the javelin, her best performance to date.

CHRIS PLOMER
For nearly 40 years Chris has been the driving force behind junior cricket in the Arbroath and Tayside area. Whilst teaching at Hayshead Primary and later on at Timmersgreen Primary he devoted much of his free time to coaching cricket to the children. Although he retired in 1992, he has continued to coach cricket at the schools and five other local primary schools too. Many Scotland internationalists have at one time benefited from Chris' coaching: he coached Scotland's current captain and most capped player George Salmond as a youngster. It is not just producing elite performers that drives Chris; he encourages children of all abilities to get involved in sport. His 'sport for all' attitude was rewarded this year when a mixed team from Timmersgreen Primary won the prestigious UK Kwik Cricket Championships at Trent Bridge, a competition entered by 5,000 primary schools from all over Britain.

IAN RAE
Ian is a golfing coach who has the knack of dramatically improving the results of those who come under his guidance. Whether coaching club players, amateurs or professionals his record is littered with success stories. This year alone, as head coach for Scottish Amateur Teams he has overseen Scotland Under-18's winning the European Championships, Scotland's Under- 21's finishing 2nd in the European Championships and Scotland's Senior Team winning this year's Home Internationals. On an individual level he has guided Steven O'Hara from club player to finishing 2nd in this year's World Amateur Team Championships with Great Britain, David Inglis to winning British Boy's Amateur Championship and Alistair Forsyth to top 40 in the European Tour in his rookie year.

RAMSAY THOMSON
A coach of over 20 years experience whose expertise has benefited junior judo players at both club and national level. At club level, he coaches at Whitburn Judo Club three times a week. At national level, he takes responsibility for the Scottish National Junior Squad and acts as a key link to the British Junior Squad. His coaching has helped many youngsters to graduate from novice status to British Junior International.