Iain Somerside

Iain Somerside
Somerside wearing a rowing blazer for Henley Royal Regatta
Born (1958-11-03) 3 November 1958[1]
Scotland
Nationality Scotland
Alma materAlexandra High School (South Africa)[2]
OccupationRowing coach
Years active1980s–2024
EmployerThe Glasgow Academy (former)
Organizations
Known forFounding and leading the rowing programme at The Glasgow Academy
Notable workDevelopment of junior rowers including Gavin Horsburgh and Joshua Armstrong
ChildrenIndia Somerside,[5] Kimberly Somerside
Awards

Iain Somerside is a Scottish rowing coach and sport developer, best known for establishing and leading the rowing programme at The Glasgow Academy in Glasgow, Scotland. Active in the sport since the 1980s, he has played a significant role in the advancement of junior rowing in Scotland, holding coaching and administrative positions at both national and Great Britain junior levels.[6][7] Under his leadership, The Glasgow Academy Boat Club grew into one of the leading junior rowing programmes in the country, producing multiple national champions and several international medalists, including world junior champions.[8][7]

Somerside began coaching at Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club in the late 1980s, where he led the first Scotland-based crew to finish in the top ten at the Women's Eights Head of the River Race in London.[9] He later served as President of the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association and was instrumental in the development of the Scottish National Rowing Academy, becoming its first director in the mid-2000s.[6][4] He co-founded Strathclyde Park Rowing Club in 2000 and contributed to expanding opportunities for high-performance training and youth development in Scotland.[6][10]

In 2008, Somerside launched a rowing programme at The Glasgow Academy, reviving school rowing in the city and reactivating the historic Glasgow Schools Rowing Club boathouse at Glasgow Green.[11] Over the following years, his school crews won events at the British Rowing Junior Championships, set records at Henley Royal Regatta, and earned selection to the World Rowing Junior Championships and Home International Regatta.[7][12][13] In 2015, two of his athletes, Gavin Horsburgh and Joshua Armstrong, became Scotland's first junior world rowing champions.[7][8]

Beyond school coaching, Somerside has led national junior crews for both Scottish Rowing and British Rowing, including at the 2016 and 2018 World Junior Championships and the GB v France Under-16 Match.[14][15] He has also contributed to national performance strategy and coach development initiatives in Scotland.[7]

Somerside's contributions have been recognised with major honours. He was named Scottish Rowing Coach of the Year in 2015[12] and received the national Performance Coach of the Year award from sportscotland the same year.[16] As of his retirement from The Glasgow Academy in 2024, he had spent nearly five decades in Scottish rowing and was considered an influential figure in Scottish junior rowing in the development of junior rowing in the country.[17][8]

Coaching Career

Early Career and Club Development

Somerside has been involved in Scottish rowing since the 1980s. By 1988, he was coaching at Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club in Glasgow, where he led a composite Scottish women's eight to a record-high 7th-place finish at the Women's Eights Head of the River Race in London.[9] This was the highest-ever placing for a Scotland-based crew in that event up to that time, and the achievement stood as a Scottish record until 2009.

In the following years, Somerside took on broader roles in Scottish rowing. He served as President of the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association (SARA, now known as Scottish Rowing),[6] contributing to the governance and development of the sport nationally. He was also instrumental in establishing new rowing opportunities: in 2000, he co-founded the Strathclyde Park Rowing Club at the Strathclyde Country Park international rowing course. Somerside played a major part in developing the Scottish National Rowing Academy based at Strathclyde Park,[6] and he was appointed the first director of this new National Rowing Academy when it opened in the mid-2000s.[10] In that capacity, he worked to expand youth rowing development, coach education, and high-performance training in Scotland.[10]

Glasgow Academy Programme

In 2008, Iain Somerside launched a rowing programme at The Glasgow Academy, an independent school in Glasgow. At that time, organized school rowing in the city had dwindled; the once-busy Glasgow Schools Rowing Club boathouse at Glasgow Green was largely inactive.[11] Somerside's initiative brought The Glasgow Academy's pupils into the sport, effectively reviving the Glasgow Schools boathouse as a center for junior rowing activity.[11] He established The Glasgow Academy Boat Club (often referred to as Glasgow Academy Rowing Club) as the school's rowing team.

Under Somerside's leadership, the Glasgow Academy rowing programme grew rapidly and achieved significant success. By the mid-2010s it had become one of Scotland's leading junior rowing programmes. Somerside coached numerous crews to national titles and prominent regatta results. In 2015 a Glasgow Academy boys’ coxless quad (junior men's quadruple scull) set a course record at Henley Royal Regatta in their event.[7] Later that summer, two members of that crew – Joshua Armstrong and Gavin Horsburgh – won gold medals at the 2015 World Rowing Junior Championships in Rio de Janeiro, as part of Great Britain's junior men's quad, marking GB's first-ever junior quad sculls world title.[7][8] These two athletes, both coached by Somerside at Glasgow Academy, became Scotland's first junior world rowing champions and were jointly named Scottish Junior Rowers of the Year in 2015.[12] Another Glasgow Academy student, Alex Rankin, reached the A-final of the junior women's four at the same World Championships,[13] highlighting the club's competitive depth under Somerside.

Domestically, Somerside's Glasgow Academy crews also excelled. The school won multiple events at the British Rowing Junior Championships and regularly reached the podium at the UK National Schools’ Regatta. From 2011 onward, Glasgow Academy Boat Club produced several British junior champion crews (in various boat classes) and consistently had athletes selected to represent Scotland at the annual Home International Regatta and Great Britain at junior level.[7]

Somerside served as The Glasgow Academy's Head of Rowing (Director of Rowing) for about 17 years, overseeing all coaching and development of the sport at the school. In late 2024, he announced he would be stepping down from his role, having developed into a leading Scottish school rowing programme.[16][17] He was succeeded by coach Kevin Plank,[17] who took over leadership of the Glasgow Academy Boat Club as Somerside retired from the programme.[17]

National and International Coaching

He has been part of Scottish Rowing's coach development programmes and has mentored athletes who progressed to the Scotland Rowing Team and GB Junior Team.[7] Through the 2010s, a significant number of athletes from Somerside's Glasgow Academy programme advanced to row for Britain at junior world championships, the Coupe de la Jeunesse, and other international competitions.[7] Somerside also played an advisory role in Scottish Rowing's performance pathway, drawing on his experience to help identify and train young Scottish rowing talent.

Beyond his work at the school level, Iain Somerside has contributed to rowing on the national stage through coaching appointments with Scottish and British teams. He was involved in coaching Scotland's junior national squad in various competitions and development programmes. In 2016, Somerside was selected as a coach for the Great Britain Junior Team at the World Rowing Junior Championships held in Rotterdam. He served as the coach for the GB junior women's coxless four at the 2016 World Juniors,[18] accompanying two of his Glasgow Academy athletes (Alex Rankin and India Somerside) who were racing in that crew. The following year, he continued to assist GB junior crews; and in 2018, Somerside was appointed as a coach for the GB vs France Under-16 Match, an annual international dual meet for young rowers. In that 2018 fixture, he coached the junior women's pair representing Great Britain (consisting of two Glasgow Academy rowers) to compete against France.[15]

Awards and recognition

Somerside's contributions have been recognized with major coaching awards. In November 2015, he was named Scottish Rowing Coach of the Year,[12] an award presented at the Scottish Rowing annual awards dinner in Glasgow. This award acknowledged the success of his coaching that year, in which his Glasgow Academy pupils achieved outstanding results including world junior championship gold. Around the same time, Somerside also received a prominent national honor at the sportscotland Coaching, Officiating and Volunteer (COV) Awards 2015. He was awarded Performance Coach of the Year for Scotland,[16] recognizing his excellence in coaching high-performance junior rowers. The Scotsman newspaper noted that at the 2015 awards ceremony, Somerside was credited as “Head Coach of the Glasgow Schools Rowing Club for the past eight years”[16] (the Glasgow Schools RC being effectively The Glasgow Academy's rowing club). These accolades reflected Somerside's impact on the sport – both in developing young athletes to reach new heights and in revitalising school rowing in Glasgow.

In addition to his 2015 honors, Somerside's legacy includes the successes of the programmes he led. The Glasgow Academy Boat Club, under his guidance, earned a reputation as a top junior club in the UK. Its achievements (such as multiple British junior titles and international medals) have been documented by Scottish Rowing and noted by Scottish Rowing and press coverage.[8][7] Somerside's long career in coaching and sport development has left a lasting influence on Scottish rowing, and he is widely regarded as a key figure in nurturing the next generation of Scottish and British rowers.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Iain Campbell Somerside – Appointments". Companies House. Retrieved 31 July 2025. Date of birth: November 1958
  2. ^ Somerside, Iain. "Iain Somerside – Rowing Coach, Glasgow Academy". LinkedIn. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  3. ^ "2024 AGM draft minutes" (PDF). Scottish Rowing. 6 October 2024. Retrieved 12 July 2025. ...Matt Taylor asked me to be his Vice‑President... within a few weeks... I would take over as acting President... after nine years on the Board.
  4. ^ a b Mackenzie, Roddy (10 May 2002). "Rowing under fresh starter's orders". TES Magazine. Iain Somerside, director of the new National Rowing Academy
  5. ^ "First place in GB Trials was the nicest of shocks for Somerside". Scottish Rowing. 13 November 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2025. What a difference a year has made for 19‑year‑old Somerside…
  6. ^ a b c d e "History". Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club. 2025. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "FOUR SCOTS IN GB ROWING TEAM FOR WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS IN RIO". Scottish Rowing. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d e Annual Review 2014–15 (PDF) (Report). Scottish Rowing. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  9. ^ a b "History". Clyde Amateur Rowing Club. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  10. ^ a b c Mackenzie, Roddy (2007). "Rowing under fresh starter's orders". TES Magazine. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  11. ^ a b c "Our History". Glasgow Schools Rowing Club. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  12. ^ a b c d "Scottish Rowing Awards 2015". Scottish Rowing. 11 November 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  13. ^ a b "Clydesdale ARC 4s and 8s Head report". Scottish Rowing. 17 February 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  14. ^ "Glasgow rowers aiming to emulate Team GB counterparts at Rotterdam Worlds". Scottish Rowing. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  15. ^ a b "Great Britain team for annual J16 GB v France match announced". British Rowing. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  16. ^ a b c d "Curling coach Murdoch is recognised for her service". The Scotsman. 26 November 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  17. ^ a b c d "The rise of Glasgow Academy Rowing Club". Junior Rowing News. 26 September 2024. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  18. ^ "GB Rowing Team Juniors Ready to Take on the World in Rotterdam". row2k. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
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