Coach of the Year 2009

This years Coach of the Year awards will take place on Thursday 12th November 2009 at a glitzy ceremony in the Welsh Institute of Sport, Cardiff.

Whilst the current vanguard of proven stars received honours from the Queen this year; fresh, new talent has emerged to lay down markers for the future.

Becky James excelled in the Junior World Track Cycling Championships, Jazz Carlin stepped up to the big time with Team GB at the Swimming World Championships and Philip Cochrane showed his class at the Wheelchair Tennis Junior Masters.

Talented new athletes such as these can only hope to reach the zenith of their potential thanks to the close attention of their coaches. Often overlooked or too modest to court the limelight, it is the tireless work of these unspoken heroes that the Sports Council for Wales celebrates each year at the Coach of the Year awards.

It is not exclusively high performance coaches that we set our sights on either. Community coaches, at the coalface of grassroots sport, are some of the most deserving recipients of our attention and praise. Be it club coaches, female coaches, coaches to disabled sportspeople, young coaches or coaches who have dedicated their lives unswervingly to the cause – we applaud them all for their steadfast commitment and inspirational leadership.

The Sports Council for Wales will launch a high profile pan-Wales campaign to recognise the incredible work of Welsh coaches in 2010, bringing their work into the collective consciousness of the Welsh public on a grand scale.

In a sporting year that culminates with the Delhi Commonwealth Games and Wales’ first ever staging of the Ryder Cup, it seems only fitting that the masterminds behind some of our finest performers will have the spotlight shone on them in equal measure.