New head coach for East Kilbride Pirates Women’s contact team

December 19th, 2022

Iain McFarlane steps up from DC to take over the role of Head Coach as Claire Cochrane leaves to focus on a career development opportunity

“Claire will be greatly missed,” said Club Chair Amanda McDonald. “She’s been a huge part of our women’s contact team from the beginning as one of our very first players. She’s been head coach since 2018 – trailblazing as our club’s first female head coach, and one of the first female head coaches in the country. She also went on to be part of the coaching staff for the recent world championship silver-medal winning Great Britain women’s team. She’s leaves us to focus on an exciting opportunity to further her career by studying for an additional qualification on top of her current job and we wish her every success!”

Current Women’s Contact Team DC Iain McFarlane now steps up to take on his first Head Coaching role. Iain has been part of  the Pirates since he started as senior team rookie player in 2014, before transitioning to coaching in 2018 initially with our U16s, and then taking on the role of defensive backs coach with our National Championship-winning senior team. He’s also a long-standing member of the club committee and most recently has taken on the role of DC for the Stirling Clansmen during the university football season.

“I’m delighted to see Iain take over the role from Claire,” said Amanda. “He’s already built a fantastic rapport with the players as DC and is in a great position to take the team forward as EKPW return to a much bigger conference and more travel for the first time since Covid. Excitingly, our 2023 season also sees our first young female payers move up directly from our U16 team to women’s contact.”

The East Kilbride Pirates women’s team’s pre-season is already underway, but things kick off in earnest with when the team return after the Christmas holidays on Wed 18 January from 7-8.30pm at Calderglen High School in East Kilbride.

The Pirates women’s team are looking to add additional coaches and players to the roster. If you’re interested, please email info@piratesfootball.co.uk or message us via our social channels.

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