Kenya Lionesses head coach Dennis Mwanja is the first recipient of the Sports Journalists Association of Kenya (SJAK)/StarTimes coach of the month award.
Mwanja was feted after guiding the Kenyan girls to victory in the first round of the Rugby Africa Cup qualifiers in Uganda.
The lioness were in fine form winning over the hosts as well as Zambia in Group B of the Africa Cup qualifiers to progress to the main tournament next year.
“I am really delighted to receive this award we do so much work as coaches behind the limelight and this is definitely a motivation. We see players awarded and now having a coach also receive the award is something huge,” said Mwanja as he received the award.
He added; “I want to thank the Sports Journalists and sponsors StarTimes for this gesture. It goes a long way in motivating us to work more.”
Coach Mwanza who also doubles as the KCB assistant coach bagged a personalized trophy, a 55-inch StarTimes Smart TV and a Sh100,000 cash reward on top of everything.
To win the award, Mwanja beat tough competition from his club senior at KCB Curtis Olago, Starthmore’s hockey tactician Meshack Senge, Paul Gitau of Kenya Pipeline volleyball team and David Obuya of Cricket Kenya.
The award, which seeks to reward coaches from across all disciplines in the country was launched last month by StarTimes and the November award is the first.
StarTimes Public Relations Manager Alex Mwaura said they are delighted to be back partnering with SJAK, having previously worked together to award football coaches.