Development Officer

John Muir is Stewartry Rugby Club Development Officer. Originally from Irvine in Ayrshire John was keen to move down to Castle Douglas and work with Stewartry RFC.
Having grown up in Ayrshire, an area with strong football links, John played football with Crosshouse and Cunningham District. At 12 he turned to Rugby. John started playing for an Irvine/Kilmarnock side. During his first year in Irvine Royal Academy John was keen to get a school team started. So he gathered 18 of his classmates and approached the principle PE teacher and asked if he would start a team. With no rugby experience the teacher couldn't coach the team but encouraged the boys to keep an interest. John then approached a coach at Irvine, Tam Henning, to coach the school team and he agreed.

With the school team up and running Irvine took notice and started rugby in other surrounding schools. A team was then formed at Irvine. John moved back to Irvine the following year to play above his age group with the Under 16s and also helped Tam Henning with the school rugby.

John stayed there for another year till the majority of the team moved to Under 18s. With another boy from Irvine that was still under 16 he moved to play at Marr. Where they went on to win the National Championship with Marr.

After this Irvine called again this time looking for John to play in the senior side. At 15 John played his first match for the senior side. He never got a string of games until he was 16 when he played with the senior side on the Saturday. He later went on to represent Glasgow District at Under 18.

John played for Irvine's first 15 for 5 years picking up 3 Promotions, a Presidents Player of the Year and the National League 1 Player of the season award for the 2006-2007 season.

John also had two seasons playing in Australia playing for the Dubbo Rhinos and was invited to pre-season with then Premier One side GHA.

During this time John worked for the SRU as a Community Coach for two years helping Develop Rugby in Irvine and Ayrshire working with KA Leisure. He then worked for Irvine as a Community Coach and studied Leisure Management at SAC. He delivered sessions in both Secondary and Primary Schools and was Head Coach for the Mini Section at Irvine overseeing 3 teams. He also coached the Dubbo Rhinos Under 15s in Australia helping them to the Grand Final. John also coached Badminton and Athletics in schools around Ayrshire.

John said "Being a Rugby Development Officer has always been my dream job. I am grateful to Stewartry for the opportunity to work with them and develop an ambitious club. With such a good group of coaches at the club I can see a bright future ahead."

You can contact John here

SVQ Community Coach

David Tyre has been appointed by Stewartry Rugby Club as the SVQ Community Coach to assist the Development Officer, John Muir, in the deliver of the Stewartry Rugby Club Development plan. David will attend Murrayfield twice a month to work towards an SVQ Level 2 in Coaching, Teaching and Instruction- Rugby Union. As well as gaining valuable coaching experience working with the Development Officer to supplement to work already carried out in the Stewartry.  David’s profile will follow shortly.

Development Stats for Aug09 - Dec09

Session Delivered
31 Primary sessions
75 Secondary Sessions
7 Coach Education Sessions
12 Pathway Sessions

Session Total Attendance
423 Primary Pupils
1425 Secondary Pupils
256 Pathway Players