Billy Glasgow and Ian McMoneagle present a cheque for £500 to the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Bellahouston – a contribution raised at the recent Junior Xmas Handicap.
The presentation was one of the last formal roles for them both following their announcement of stepping down at the club AGM in November.
Billy has decided the time is right to stand aside, after many years of devoted service to Giffnock North and to the Athletics community as a whole, particularly in his role of coordinating the SAIL (Scottish Athletics Indoor League). This was a task he had taken on from John Innes of VPCOG when the demise of the league was in prospect as John stepped down, also after many years.
Billy’s history with Giffnock North is a long one – almost from the start of the ‘Running Section‘. He was an ex footballer who took to endurance running and then from his marathon, half marathon and 10k days he saw the potential in developing a Junior Section.
His contribution, ironically enough, was as a sprints coach in the club. When asked why he didn’t follow his endurance background, Billy’s answer was, “everyone else preferred the idea of coaching endurance and middle distance, so I went with sprints because that’s what the club needed.” This approach underlined Billy’s selfless attitude in general to the sport and his input over all these years.
We are very glad to note that he will continue his involvement as Honorary President of the club and also his sprints coaching role. More recently Billy had a major role in the development of sprinter Alyson Bell, now on the Olympic Futures Programme.
We also would like to pay tribute to Ian McMoneagle our Treasurer for the last 13 years. Ian has been an outstanding Treasurer for the club having overseen the period where the demands on the club and on the treasurer increased dramatically. He was another stalwart in the Senior Endurance section for many years until injury forced his retirement. Some of us will always remember his email address “marathon9”.
Many thanks to both Ian and Billy from all of us at the club for all the efforts across all the years of service which have massively contributed to the success of Giffnock North.
