Stephen Maguire as Director of Coaching will be responsible for the technical leadership of the sport in the coming years. He will work with athletes and personal coaches on the high performance squads but he will impact on coaches and athletes at every level through the coaching department. Stephen will coordinate the work of the five regional coaches who were recently integrated into the Athletics Ireland coaching department from the Irish Schools Athletics Association. These regional coaches will be responsible for organising coaching clinics in their area for schools and juvenile athletes. The five coaches are John Sheils (Dublin), Enda Fitzpatrick (Leinster), Brid Golden (Munster), Mary Barrett (Connaught) and Eamonn Harvey (Ulster). Stephen will also be assisted by five Event Coordinators. These part time postions will be advertised shortly. There will be Coordinators for Endurance, Walks, Jumps, Throws and Sprints & Hurdles. There will be responsible for the development of these events. They will assist the Director with coaching squads and particularly in the gathering of information about the event. This information will be twofold. Firstly they will identify potential talent within the event and endeavour to develop these athletes and coaches. Secondly they will gather information on best practice from around the world and pass this on to coaches at every level. Stephen, from Strabane was recently chosen as the Northern Ireland coach of the year primarily in recognition of his work with sprinter Jason Smith. It has been a good month for Stephen. Stephen had been acting as an interim Director of Coaching and is now relishing the challenge of the position. Stephen will take up his positon with immediate effect.