NSC National Sports awards…
NATIONAL rugby coach Laurence `Laurie’ Adonis, football coach Wayne `Ziggy’ Dover and squash coach Carl Ince are all in with a chance of clinching the National Sports Commission’s (NSC) 2009 Sports Coach-of-the-Year award when the panellists meet shortly at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

All three coaches have raked in success during 2009 but according to the list of nominees, Adonis has the edge. However, it will be left to the panellists to decide who is more deserving of the award.

Adonis was nominated by the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), the Guyana Amateur Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation, the Guyana Weightlifting Association and the Guyana Hockey Board while Dover was nominated by the Guyana Football Federation and Ince by the Guyana Squash Association.

Other nominees for the award are track and field coach Robert Chisolm and boxing coach Lennox Daniels.

A look at Adonis’ achievements would reveal that he was responsible for the Guyana men’s National Sevens team winning the North America Caribbean Rugby Association championship which was staged in Mexico, thus qualifying to represent the Region at the International Rugby Board’s World Series Sevens Championship to be held in Las Vegas, USA next month. The team, by winning the Caribbean championship, has also qualified to represent the Region at the Commonwealth Games fixed for Delhi, India in October.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Guyana has won the Caribbean championship.

Apart from that, Adonis continues to serve as Rugby School and Youth Development Officer, where, due to his hard work and progressive efforts, the GRFU has been able to have a steady stream of players to boost the Union’s successful involvement in Under-19 and senior competitions at the Regional level.

Adonis was instrumental in 2009, in ensuring the GRFU successfully hosted a Schools Rugby Tournament for Under-14 and Under-16 players in which 10 schools participated.

He also coached the national 15s team that participated in the North America and Caribbean Rugby Association championship hosted in the Cayman Islands.

Ince coached the national junior squash team that retained the Boys’, Girls’ and Overall team titles at the Caribbean Area Squash Association championships last year.

Ince was also responsible for Guyana’s squash players winning several individual titles at the junior and senior Caribbean championships.

He also coached world-rated player Nicolette Fernandes, who, after a two-year absence from the sport due to a career-threatening knee injury, returned with a bang to win the national ladies’ title as well as the Caribbean women’s title.

Fernandes, through Ince’s tutorship, then went back on the international circuit and within a year, moved from the bottom of the Women’s International Squash Players Association ranking of 249 to 70.

Her greatest achievement last year was winning the Greek Open.

Dover was the head coach of the local women’s football team which placed second to the foreign Guyana female team in a friendly international tournament. The other team was Suriname.

He also coached Riddim Squad Football Team which was recently promoted to the Georgetown Football Association’s (GFA) Premier League after playing unbeaten in the GFA’s Division One League. The team reached the quarter-final of the Kashif and Shanghai tournament.

He also served as head coach of the Golden Jaguars who won their first overseas international tournament played in Suriname (Independence Cup).

The team defeated Suriname, French Guiana and the Netherlands Antilles by one-goal margins.

Apart from local duties, Dover coached the Caledonia Football Club of Trinidad and Tobago. The club placed third in the Island’s Reserve League.