Am I Jock Or Not

Bruce proves he's still Scott it as he gets career back on track

HAVING risen from being a rather mercenary five-year-old to being one of the most popular and respected names on the Borders athletics circuit Earlston’s Bruce Scott is enjoying one of his best seasons ever – at the age of 52.

A former Jed Sprint winner, he returned to the Riverside track on Saturday to pick up the Veterans’ Sprint title. But as one of several coaches of the highly successful Tweed Leader Jed Track (TLJT) Athletics Club, he also enjoyed watching his young athletes participate on the same circuit that he has spent most of his life on.

And, despite the many changes within the Scottish pro-games set-up, Scott applies the coaching methods he was introduced to more than 30 years ago.

Explaining what first attracted him to the world of professional racing, Bruce told TheSouthern : “I realised that sprinting was in my blood at the primary school sports in the late 1960s. This was my favourite day of the year, when it was custom to hand out half a crown to the winner of each event.

“I suppose I was unwittingly enrolled in professional foot racing then, when I could earn a full month’s pocket money in one day.”

Obviously looking for a more lucrative deal in his teenage years, Scott turned his attention to football, but after a stint with Gala Fairydean took up sprinting again at the age of 20 when he joined the running school of Jedburgh legend John Steede who had his own unique training tactics.

“I first ran at Oxton games in 1980,” recalled Bruce. “I remember it well as I was instructed to look shabby. I ran in a pair of football shorts and an old t-shirt and came second in my heat. I ran all of that season and the following one without winning a heat.

“The type of training we did then kept the speed out of the legs. Speed would come later when we were gearing up for the big one. Jock made sure I was disciplined and, most of all, very patient. I had great respect for Jock. If he said I was to run six 400s in the mud and rain then that’s what I did without question.”

In the 1980s there was a huge divide between amateur and professional athletics and after some quick consideration Bruce made up his mind which side of the fence he wished to be on.

“I did consider turning amateur, but you had to go through a process of reinstatement,” he explained.

“I knew of runners who had gone through the process and were required to hand back all the prize money they had made. As I had already spent my winnings and could not afford to pay the sum of money back, I didn’t give it serious consideration.

Yes, Virginia, There is Life after Retirement: The Days of Lilies

Way back when, in the 1970's, I started gardening in my yard.  For the first four years it was a very part-time job, since I was working full-time in the City.  And then I stayed home and had three children to raise.  By the time I went back to school for my MBA, I had pretty much gotten the yard planned out, or so I thought.  It seems it never ends. When it came to flowers, I had two weaknesses - daylilies and hostas.  One required lots of sun and the other required shade.  Having purchased a house with not one thing growing on the property, shade was hard to come by.  Not so today.  The only really sunny part is on the north side in the flower beds.  And that is where I am growing more than 30 varieties of daylilies- all of them moved from their original location and no longer labeled. Denise was the Treasurer of West Bloomfield, MI, from 1988-2008. She has a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology and a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Economics from Wayne State University. She has completed the Advanced Government Finance Institute at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and served on the GFOA Treasury and Investment Management Standing Committee. A former member of the Michigan Committee on Governmental Accounting and Auditing and Chair of the MGFOA Legislative Committee, she currently chairs the MGFOA Fiscal Stress Committee. In 2009 she was elected an Honorary Life Member of MGFOA.

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