Mike Keane is someone many of the Boxing Scotland and AIBA boxing family will be familiar with. Mike is a native of Fife’s second largest town Kirkcaldy, married to Anne, with four children and a new Granddaughter. Mike has has been industrious since a young age and has been successful in business and still has interests in property and transport.
Having been involved in the sport for the best part of four decades in a number of roles, Mike has recently been promoted to National Coach/Performance Director. This will see Mike take a more of a strategic lead of the overall performance program. This element of Mike’s role will not be full time and will allow Mike to operate as National Coach while developing the other coaching staff.
Before he departs for the 2015 Samoa Commonwealth Youth Games, we managed to grab Mike, in a rare quiet spell, to talk more about his extremely varied and successful career in Boxing:
BSL: Mike – please tell us about how and where your involvement started with the sport of Boxing?
MK: it all started way back in 1980 when I was the first boxer ever to compete for the then Kirkcaldy Amateur Boxing Club. My first bout went well and I won it by KO.
Not long after in 1983, I decided to started my own club (called Kirkcaldy Boys Club) but we soon out grew the small hall premises that we rented, leading to the opening of the Kingdom Club.
BSL: Kingdom Boxing Club is a well-known club which has produced a raft of champions over the years – tell us about its origins:
I founded the club in 1998 – we are still operate in the same premises to this day and I remain the Head Coach of the club and try to stay involved as much as I can with my other commitments. I feel it is important to stay attached to grass roots boxing.
The Kingdom Boxing Club has produced boxers who have competed at all levels over the years and we have produced District and Scottish Champions at School, Junior, Youth and Senior level at Novice, Intermediate and Open level.
Not only that, we have also produced a number of GB Champions and had boxers represent Team Scotland at World Championships, Commonwealth Youth and Commonwealth Games level – A pretty good achievement from a small club in Kirkcaldy.
BSL: you have been a very successful International Coach for some time now – Tell us about how you first got involved with Team Scotland:
My first involvement with Team Scotland was in the late 1990s. I was selected as a coach for a Scotland v Norway dual match and things began to snowball from there.
Dr John McKay was appointed as National Coach in 2003 and based himself in Fife not far from where I lived.
The Kingdom Club was one of the closest clubs to where John stayed and because of this I got to know John quickly. I played a part in the preparation of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games team as the Kingdom gym was sometimes used for squad training. I was also heavily involved in the preparation of the Youth Team that would participate in the inaugural Commonwealth Youth Games held in Bendigo, Australia in 2004, as much of the training was held in the Kingdom Gym. Throughout that period, I learned a lot from Dr McKay and keep in touch with him to this day.
I first got officially involved with the Boxing Scotland performance programme as a volunteer coach in 2009. It was a period of fairly major change for the then ABS with new ideas plans and big ambitions. I was given the massive task of preparing the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games team.
I landed my first employed role as Performance Co-ordinator with Boxing Scotland during the 2010 Delhi preparation phase, and with a lot of support from Tony Kerr of Byron, we delivered an incredibly intense Delhi 2010 preparation programme.
This resulted in us travelling to Germany, Sweden, Ireland and England to seek out the best training & sparring opportunities for our boxers. Fortunately, it all paid off with a fantastic Medal haul of 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze Medal from a relatively young team of seven boxers.
BSL: That is a great story of progression in a short space of time – Considering all the notable coaching successes you have enjoyed, what would you say has been your biggest one to date?
I would have to say all successes are BSL successes. But the biggest achievement to date must be the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games where we came away with 2 Gold and 2 Bronze Medals. This was a fantastic journey for the team. I must also mention I had a very good coaching team who are very much committed to the job in hand.
The introduction of our Technical Coach, Craig McEvoy, and later Emerging Talent Coach, Raymond Gibson, has seen us progress in World Boxing and now we are holding our own at every level. Recent results such as a fantastic silver medal in the 2012 Youth World Championships, 1 gold medal in the 2014 European Junior Championships and 2 Bronze Medals in the 2015 European Junior Championships. I would also like to mention the work that Danny Lee and Bert McShane have contributed along with the pool coaches new and old.
BSL: It sounds like the programme takes you far and wide – give us an example of some of the places and tournaments you have attended in the last few years:
In the last few years, I have attended:
• the European Championships in Estonia, Turkey, Croatia, Dublin
• the World Championships in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan
• the Commonwealth Youth Games in Australia and the Isle of Man and soon to be Samoa;
• the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and Glasgow.
• Numerous other multi nation tournaments all across the World.A total off 103 days away from home last year.
I find it very important to absorb as much as I can on different coaching techniques, boxing styles, programming, approaches and what Judges are looking for in Boxers while on my travels. Being a coach, I find myself always learning and it is true what they say – there is no coach that truly knows everything. I also like to know what is happening on a national level and take a keen interest in domestic boxing.
As our stature grows on the World stage, we have established strong relationships with leading boxing nations such as Russia. As a result, we have now held a number of beneficial camps here and in Russia prior to major international tournaments. We will be hosting our Russian friends again in late August as part of our 2015 Samoa Commonwealth Youth Games preparations.
BSL: Given your time in the sport and experiences all over the World, what are the most significant changes you have seen to the sport?
I have seen Boxing change massively over the years. When I started out it there were no headguards and the 20 point must system. It then progressed to the Computer system with headguards then back again to no Head Guards and a 10 point must system.
We have adapted well to these changes and our boxers/Scotland are indeed starting to impress on the rest of the World. We are no longer seen as an easy draw to the extent that some Nations now dread meeting the fighting Scots.
We are no longer just boxing with our hearts – our boxers are now tactically and technically aware. This, coupled with our traditional will to win and excellent fitness levels, means we are now competing with and beating the best nations regularly.
BSL: Finally, you will have witnessed much change over the years with Scottish Boxing – What are your thoughts on it now?
Boxing Scotland has changed massively as an organisation – as I said in 2009 we took on new ambitious. It was a bold vision and one that didn’t seem achievable at times. People that have been involved in boxing over the last 10 or 20 years appreciate just how much things have changed. That change has in involved everyone in BSL but I have to credit our Chairman for his determination over the last six years and I also have to say Fraser Walker has been a great support over that period.
As has been recently demonstrated, we now have the confidence of our major investor sportscotland which has just given us a significant increase in funding to ensure we progress with the performance programme and continue to deliver our medal targets.
Our clubs also deserve a special mention because, without the Coaches from the Clubs producing excellent boxers, we would not have the talent to work with. Our Club Coaches have been very supportive to the Performance Programme and this has helped us tremendously with our progression.
I am proud to have been involved with preparing the teams that have produced some of Scotland best international medal hauls/performances in its entire history.