Netball’s Kiana Stagg has been awarded Talent Development Coach of the Year Award at this year’s UK Coaching Awards. The award recognises her exceptional coaching contributions with Mid-Sussex’s Magic Netball Club and the London Pulse U15 and U17 squads.
The UK Coaching Awards is a national celebration event, regarded as the most prestigious within the coaching community and created to honour the remarkable contributions coaches make – from delivering high quality and technical coaching, to supporting participants both physically and mentally.
Kiana coaches both at Magic NC and London Pulse, with the former now in its fifth year as the first junior performance-only club in Mid Sussex. She supported her U15 London Pulse squad to second place at the national School Games competition in September 2022. She then took the same group of athletes on to win the U17 National Performance Southern League.
According to her clubmates, the basis of Kiana’s coaching success has been sheer hard work and dedication, working closely with young players and taking the time to get to know and understand every single member of her squads. Supporting her players’ wider development, she has empowered the players to communicate their own thoughts and views on team and individual performance, creating an open environment where everyone can contribute to a winning formula.
Overwhelmed to be announced as an award winner, Kiana reflected: “It is just amazing, I am totally in shock but I am so thankful and hugely happy to have won this award tonight.
“Tonight has been so inspiring to see and hear from the other coaches and the biggest thing I have taken away with me tonight is the fact that one coach can make such an impact for an individual.
“A great coach is someone who is committed to the players who they are working with, knowing them individually, of course in my sport Netball as a team, having those relationships is just crucial but most importantly it is the want and the drive to work with those athletes.”
With previous award winners including Sarina Wiegman, Jane Figueiredo, Judy Murray, and Ben Stokes’ coaching chain, the awards are seen as one of the most prestigious within the coaching community, recognising the contributions coaches make to their participants lives and their impact within the wider coaching world – including outstanding coaches like Kiana who continue to play a vital role in supporting the well-being of the nation.
UK Coaching’s CEO Mark Gannon congratulated Kiana on her award, and for the profound coaching contribution that saw her honoured as part of the annual celebration: “I would like to extend a huge congratulations to Kiana on her fantastic work which we are very proud to recognise by presenting her with a UK Coaching award. Kiana, and all our winners and finalists should be extremely proud of what they have been able to achieve. Great coaches change lives, tackle inequalities, and help build communities, and continue to be the essential conduit to getting our nation more active.
“It is so important that we celebrate great coaching and acknowledge the tireless work our amazing coaching community deliver to support individuals on their own unique sporting journey. Kiana is one of the nation’s outstanding coaches for 2023 who has changed so many lives through their dedication and creativity in making sport and physical activity accessible for even more people.”
After leading the Vitality Roses to a historic first-ever Netball World Cup final over the summer, Head Coach Jess Thirlby was a finalist in the High Performance Coach of the Year category which was won by triathlon’s Adam Elliott.
Find out more about this year’s winners and the awards by heading to www.ukcoaching.org/uk-coaching-awards.
