James Hughes wins ECB Young Coach of the Year Award
Final year BSc Sports Coaching student at Southampton Solent University, James Hughes, has been named ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) Young Coach of the Year. He was presented with his award by ex-England and Warwickshire spin-bowler Ashley Giles at a ceremony hosted by Sky sports’ presenter Matt Floyd.
James, who has just five teaching weeks left at Southampton Solent said: “This is amazing and I don’t think it has sunk in yet. I was at the dinner with seven other regional winners and the top three were given awards. I couldn’t believe it when they called my name out.”
In order to be eligible to win the award, young coaches must be nominated by their district association. For James this was Hampshire Cricket and he can still recall being sat in the Southampton Solent University library when an email popped up saying he had won ‘Hampshire Young Coach of the Year’.
This summer he will further strengthen his association with Hampshire Cricket with an internship working for them as a performance analyst. He is also looking forward to broadening the variety of skills he has acquired, both through his degree course and through experienced gained by coaching and playing cricket.
James concludes: “More than anything, winning this award has been a huge motivator and a massive honour. It makes me want to push on and challenge myself, see how much more I can offer.
“My life goal is to make a career out of doing something I love, and for me that’s supporting people who want to get better at cricket.”
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT THE MEDIA OFFICE ON 023 8031 9079 or press.office@solent.ac.uk
About Southampton Solent University
Southampton Solent University offers more than 23,000 students over 200 qualifications ranging from HND to PhD, in subjects such as maritime education and training, fashion and design, media and television, music, health, sport and leisure, business, IT and technology. The University was awarded the 2013 Quality Assurance kitemark for quality and standards of teaching and learning. Solent was voted one of the most creative universities in the UK in a Which? University 2014 poll of students. Solent Business School has been awarded the Small Business Charter Award, which is supported by the Association of Business Schools and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and ‘gold approval’ by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
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