Tributes have been paid to Aberdeen Amateur Athletics Club coach Joyce Hogg who has died at the age of 74.
Hogg, an athletics stalwart who for decades served Aberdeen AAC as an athlete, coach, administrator, and mentor, died from complications of mesothelioma.
Alongside her husband Ken, Joyce created a formidable coaching partnership which produced sprinters and distance runners of international calibre season after season.
The two stepped back from coaching in 2019, with Joyce then 71 – but even in their final season, they were still guiding athletes to fresh achievements.
Michael Ferguson, the Aberdeen distance runner who had then been coached by Joyce and Ken his entire career, won the Scottish 1500m title the year they retired.
In the 1980s and into the 90s, Joyce was already engrained into the running of Aberdeen AAC, and competed in an array of events as a master’s athlete. In 1990, she won a British title for the over-40 women’s 400m hurdles, as well as the triple jump in the same category.
But it was Joyce’s dedication to coaching and the rapport she formed with her athletes which will be best remembered by those who knew her in the athletics community.
As with all top coaches, Joyce did more than hold a stopwatch and time endurances sessions, although she will have no doubt overseen hundreds of athletes take on countless workouts over her decades volunteering in the sport.
She and Ken, often inseparable at competitions, were well-known by anyone who had an interest in distance running. At races, the two were usually found on the second bend of the athletics track with stopwatches in hand, offering of encouragement as their athletes entered the final throes of a race. Be it at a league match in Inverness or a national final in Bedford, Joyce and Ken would be there.
Kelsey Stewart represented Great Britain and was selected for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games while coached by Joyce and Ken.
“You didn’t mess with Joyce,” she said.
“She told you it straight, she told you the truth, there was no mincing her words at all – but deep down, she was such a softie. She was just so supportive.
“When you needed a hug, she would give you a hug. She was so caring and genuinely wanted you to do well, whether it was running or whether it was the rest of life. She wanted you to be successful at everything.”
One quality many of Joyce’s former athletes often single out is just how well she got to know her athletes on a personal level. They were people first, and athletes second.
“There was one 400m rep in the winter where, if I remember right, we had 27 athletes on the track at the time,” Stewart recalled.
“Some coaches, if they had that number of athletes, might not know them on that deeper level because there are just so many people, but after the session she would email out the times to everyone. She took interest in every single person at training.”
And during competitions, Joyce would not have to say much for her athletes to know what to focus on mid-race.
“With my 400m, Joyce would always be standing at the 200m mark and I knew I was running well if I got a ‘good Kelsey’.
“And if I wasn’t, it was a ‘Kelsey we need to pick it up now’.
“The thought of me doing a 400m now and not having her there shouting that is quite a sore one. That’s going to be really, really difficult for me because I’ve had that for years.
“It’s just what I associate with 400s. I’m used to hearing her voice at 400m. It’s adjusting to life without that – it’s going to be really hard.”
‘They were a great team’
Perhaps the most successful athlete Joyce helped produce with Ken was Rhona Auckland, the Torphins long-distance runner who took an extraordinary victory at the European Under-23 Cross Country Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria, in 2014.
On the track, Auckland was equally formidable, taking a 10,000m silver at the European Under-23 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, the following year.
As with many other tributes, Auckland’s hone in on the emotional connection Joyce could make with the athletes she coached – knowing what to say, how to say it, and when. Equally important was the togetherness and team spirit which Joyce, helped to foster in training sessions and competitions.
“The first thing that jumps out at you is how great a team Ken and Joyce were,” Auckland said.
“With her coaching style, one thing that stands out was that she had a good knack for being realistic and practical in her guidance, but at the same time somehow managing to boost your confidence and push you to be your best and be really encouraging.
“The team nature of it was that you were celebrating everybody’s successes. It was a nice environment to be in.
“It’s very hard to speak about Joyce without mentioning Ken as well. They always, between them, could coach any athlete and handle any situation. They both offered different perspectives on a situation to help you figure out the right thing to do.”
Distance runners Michael Ferguson and Broc Drury were perhaps the last athletes to achieve national success on Joyce and Ken’s watch, with Drury winning the Scottish national cross country title in 2017, and Ferguson winning the Scottish 1500m title two years later. A photograph of Joyce and Ken sharing that victory with Ferguson will go down as one which summed up how much coaching meant to her.
“In 2019, Joyce was almost more delighted than me at winning,” Ferguson said.
“I was happy I won it but I could be a miserable git sometimes, and I think they were happier for me than I was for myself.
“Looking back, I’m really glad I had that moment with them at the end of their time coaching me. I’m really happy with that moment, that the ending of them coaching ended in a success.”
Following her retirement from coaching, Joyce spent much more time with her family away from the athletics track. Helping out her daughter, Lorna, with her horses and tending to the garden in the family home in Bridge of Don were frequent pastimes.
With one of Joyce’s defining characteristics as a coach being her loyalty to her athletes, it comes as no surprise that that same loyalty is reciprocated when athletes reflect on the impact Joyce had on her athletes’ lives.
“What a character. So caring and so knowledgeable, and so great,” Stewart said. “What a woman.”
Joyce’s funeral will be held at Aberdeen Crematorium at 11.15am on Thursday, May 18.
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