Tony McGuigan Nomination

Tony McGuigan Nominated as Coach of the Year

Tony McGuigan was recently nominated as coach of the year by the NRAA.

He is now a finalist for Shooting Australia's 2014 Coach of the Year award.

Tony and Wendy McGuigan will be attending the “Awards of Excellent” night on Saturday 21st February put on by Shooting Australia.

Tony has always been interested and enthusiastic in helping new shooters learn the art of target rifle shooting and to share his passion for the sport.

Tony has been recognised for the work he has done with young shooters in particular, and over the last 12 years has worked with Shore school and more recently with The Scots College to train the young students in all facets of the sport.  It has been a huge and rewarding task, with great personal satisfaction to Tony when he sees the youngsters develop the skill of shooting and also learn how to work together as a team and support each other.  This is a quality that the parents and Masters in Charge emphasise at the annual dinner following the GPS competition.

In the four years Tony was with the Shore School they achieved a second and three firsts in the GPS Premiership, fifteen years since their last win.

MNBRC benefited by Tony’s time with Shore when a number of their students became members of the club after leaving school. The club has been very proud of these young men who have done well in their chosen careers and in their shooting.

Tony retired as Shore coach to take a trip to Bisley in 2007 leaving Shore in the capable hands of our own James Wood, an ex shooting captain of Shore.  However Tony was soon approached by The Scots College to take on the role of coach with their shooting team.

The Scots College had not had a great deal of success in recent times and Tony was incredibly proud of the way the students responded to his training. With Tony as coach the school won the GPS Premiership in 2013, the first time for the College in thirty years.

It is impressive to note that at one time MNBRC had six GPS Shooting captains in our club.  Andrew Wilson from The Armidale School, James Wood and Hamish Bush from  Shore, David Jacques and Alison Brown from Sydney High, and Edward Cartwright from Sydney Grammar. The club is fortunate to have made a link with the GPS shooters through Tony’s work with various schools, and a number of them have continued their involvement in the sport and become members.