Sports Updated: 19 January 2023 09:53 EAT 177 Views | ~ 1 minute

Cereals Coach named start times/SJAK December coach of the Month

National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) men’s handball team coach Brian Mathews has been named the StarTimes/SJAK Coach of the Month of December 2022.

Brian Mathews who also doubles up as the NCPB ladies team head coach, guided the millers to the East and Central Africa Club championship title after thumping Tanzanian champions Ngome 24-18 in the title deciding match played in Zanzibar last month.

To win this award, Mathews narrowly beat his counterpart Jack Ochieng who also led Nairobi Water queens to the ladies title in the women’s category of the same regional competition, among other nominees.

Mathews walked away with Ksh 100,000, a StarTimes 55-inch smart television set and a personalized trophy thanks to title sponsor StarTimes Kenya.

Speaking while receiving the award at the NCPB headquarters, Mathews expressed his gratitude for the recognition.

“This award has come as a pleasant surprise to me. I understand I am only the second coach to win this award and that only gives me more motivation to better the handball sport in the country. I gathered much experience while trading my skills in Demark as a player, now it’s time for me to pass down the knowledge to the younger generation,” he said.

He added; “I want to thank SJAK and StarTimes for this great scheme to reward coaches. This will motivate us more to give the best to the players.”

On his part, StarTimes Kenya head of Public Relations Alex Mwaura praised the coach for his achievement while also praising the award initiative which seeks to recognize excellence as far as coaching is concerned.

“Every time we see a team register impressive results, there must be the coach at the helm of it all. This is the reason we have decided to focus on them in collaboration with SJAK. We are more than confident that this award will act as a motivation to coaches in various sporting disciplines and as a result, we are likely to witness an improvement of teams’ performances in general.” he said.