ADAM Blackmore, who coaches the Malvern RFC U15 squad, received the Coach of the Year award from the Worcestershire All Sports Partnership (WASP) at a presentation evening at Sixways on Wednesday evening.

Adam was one of six top coaches from across Worcestershire who were nominated by their local authorities for the award.

The calibre of the nominees was very high, with representatives coming from the county's basketball, netball, swimming, rowing and soccer fraternities. However, the WASP nominations panel chose Adam for the prestigious award, much to his great surprise.

Adam received the WASP Coach of the Year award from WASP patron Richard Illingworth and former England international rugby star, Nicola Goodwin, who now works as a sports presenter for BBC Hereford & Worcester.

Paying tribute to Adam's work in youth sport and for Worcestershire rugby and Malvern RFC in particular, Nicola Goodwin told the audience of how Adam Blackmore had, over 15 months, changed the fortunes of the then Malvern RFC U14s from a squad with no ambition and low self-esteem, into one of the most successful, skilful and well-motivated youth rugby outfits in the county.

Under Adam's leadership, his Malvern squad has won acclaim and prizes at tournaments around the country.

He has also seen eight of the squad win county honours and three others taken into the West Midlands Elite Player Develop-ment Centre (EPDC) which is a stepping-stone to possible divisional or international rugby honours.

All this, and his work as a RFU staff coach for the Worcestershire Rugby Development squads, was achieved while Adam maintained a high pressure position as the sports editor and presenter for BBC Northampton and more recently for BBC TV Six Nations Championship team, working along side former-England captain Will Carling.

Adam's award came on the eve of his Malvern squad's tour to Limerick and was just the tonic the squad needed to set themselves up for matches against Shannon and Young Munster over the coming weekend.