Mark, thank you so much for taking the time to allow us to conduct this interview – to start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I left Scotland in 2000 and came to British Columbia with my wife. We settled in White Rock and lived just round the corner from South Surrey Athletic Park, and have continued to live in the South Surrey/White Rock area for the past 15 years with our 2 young boys.
Can you expand a bit on your playing and coaching background?
I began my youth career playing with local community clubs in Scotland, and eventually progressed to the youth system at Ayr United for 3 years. Thereafter, I played semi-professionally in the Scottish Junior Football League with Troon FC for 7 years before coming to Canada where I played with Coastal FC Mens Premier Team.
These days I continue to play on Coastal FC Masters team.
I started coaching for Coastal FC (Peach Arch/Semiahmoo SC) in the summer of 2000 and over the next several years went through the process of obtaining my coaching certification.
I completed my CSA National "A" License in 2008 and continue my education by attending various conferences and courses each year to keep in touch with the latest developments in the game. My coaching and playing involvement with the club is now entering it's 16th year, and it's been a privilege to have been part of it's growth and development over this period of time.
How did you get into coaching – what was the defining moment that made you realise this is what you wanted to do?
My parents have been my biggest influence. I’ve watched them work incredibly hard all their lives.
They’ve shown me that if you want to achieve things in life you need to work hard for it, so it just became normal for me to put in long hours no matter what job I've had. Their desire and commitment to working hard has instilled a strong work ethic in me and it’s something that’s helped me throughout my life, and in particular, in my role as a TD.
From a footballing perspective, an obvious choice would be Sir Alex Ferguson who also shared the same working class background as my parents, and possessed a strong work ethic to achieve what he has done in the game.
