Winner of POSB Everyday Champions Award '09 (Coaches Category): Bobok Viacheslav

25 coaches were amongst the 57 winners honoured in the inaugural POSB Everyday Champions Awards 2009 (Award) ceremony.

For winner Bobok Viacheslav, it was all about the love for the sport. His passion for fencing began when he was just a kid. Deeply inspired by his father, Bobok Gennady who was awarded ‘Honoured Coach Award’, Slava (as he is known affectionately by his charges) embarked on his coaching career in 1987 and has not looked back since.

And fencing is indeed in the family. Slava’s wife, Mrs Maria Bobok coaches the YMCA Women’s fencing team that has grown to dominate the local female junior fencing scene. And for her enthusiasm and passion, Slava revealed that he will be putting her up for nomination in the coaches category when the 2010 Award begin.

The two sisters, Cheryl and Liane Wong, who nominated Slava for the Award in 2009, are nothing short of respect and praise for their patient and understanding coach. This fantastic coach not only helps to ferry fencing equipment for the team but also adjusts his training schedule to fit their examination schedule.

In his eight-year coaching stint here, he has led his charges to many international tournaments and garnered three local coaching awards since. And he is now setting his goal on the team winning a medal for fencing in the Asian Games 2010.

Jason Chen, on the other hand, believes in chooses to use dragon boat to help those in need. Besides managing dragon boating and sports-related events, this genial fellow coaches four dragon boat teams after work that include the Pink Spartans.

He beams with pride when it comes to this group of dragon boaters who go against the odds to fight against cancer. The group that was originally founded by female cancer survivors has since expanded to include their husbands and even male cancer survivors. The team trains twice a week at the Kallang River.

Melissa Soh, captain of the five-year-old Singapore Management University’s dragon boat team is also greatly appreciative of her coach’s unique, fun and motivating training methods, which helped them to achieve the top three spots against other established tertiary teams in the Singapore Dragon Boat Festival and the Prime Minister’s Cup races.

All ready to play nominator this time around, Jason will like to nominate his former volleyball coach cum mentor, the retired Mr Ang Kwan Meng who is still actively sharing his knowledge and experience at Xin Min Secondary School since he graduated and Mr Paul Robinson – Team Manager of British Dragons, a multi-national dragon boating team for being the livewire in promoting dragon boating and building team spirit.

Know of a sports coach who is worthy of a nomination? Watch out for more details on our website and start nominating!