High Performance Head Coaches confirmed for 2023
Bowls Scotland are pleased to announce our High Performance Head Coaches for the 2023 season. Bob Christie will continue as Para Head Coach, Wendy Purdie will take on the role of Women’s Head Coach and Frazer Muirhead will take on the role of Men’s Head Coach.
Following a record-breaking summer for Scotland’s para bowlers, Bob Christie will continue in his role as Para Head Coach for the coming year after leading the Commonwealth Games team to all 3 gold medals at Birmingham 2022. Having been in position since 2019, Bob has an extensive knowledge of the players competing in both the Physically Disabled and Visually Impaired categories.
Wendy Purdie has a vast amount of playing experience at international level having represented Scotland for over 10 years. More recently, she has turned her attention to coaching and developing the next generation of players and is currently a selector for the Scotland Indoor Ladies Under 25 International Team and the Mixed Scotland Indoor Under 18 International Team. Both teams recently won their respective British Isles International Series’. In the outdoor scene Wendy took on the role of Women’s Lead Coach at the 2022 European Championships which were held at the National Centre for Bowling, Ayr. Scotland had an extremely successful Championships winning 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals across the four disciplines. In her day-to-day job as Performance Manager for Scottish Gymnastics, Wendy is fully accustomed to preparing training plans, selection policies, and building relationships with athletes, skills which will be vital to the High Performance programme moving forward.
Once the selection process has taken place, Frazer Muirhead will begin working with the male performance players looking to build on the two bronze medals won at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in the Men’s Singles and Men’s Pairs. Having achieved over 50 caps for Scotland combined at indoor and outdoor internationals, Frazer knows what it takes to compete at the highest level having also won the Scottish Singles title in 1981 at just 19-years of age. Frazer has undertaken numerous coaching roles in recent years having been National Academy Coach between 2017 to 2019, Head Coach at last summer’s European Championships and a Support Coach at major championships such as the Atlantic Championships, World Cup and Commonwealth Games.
In their roles as Head Coaches, Bob, Wendy and Frazer will be responsible for decision making, planning, delivering training sessions and competition preparations, and team selection. With 2023 being another action-packed year attention will quickly turn to the Under 18 and Under 25 International Series, the British Isles Bowls International Series being held at the National Centre for Bowling, Ayr and the World Bowls Championships being held in Queensland, Australia in August. A full Calendar of Events for 2023 can be found here: https://www.bowlsscotland.com/media/3657/calendar-of-events-23.pdf
Director of High Performance, Michael Cavanagh, said: “We are delighted with these new appointments, and after consultations with players and coaches at the end of last season we hope this new approach of three bespoke positions will enable a clearer focus on all areas of our player squads. Ultimately, the aim is to maximise potential at all levels of performance.
“Our Head Coaches will now get to work and plan for the upcoming season, including recruitment of Assistant Coaches and the selection of the playing squads in the coming weeks.
“We have full confidence that Bob, Wendy and Frazer can deliver incredible success at this year’s British Isles competitions and World Championships as well as helping to develop the next generation of stars.”