Hercules and Smartt honoured with NSC’s Coach-of-the-Year Award for 2024

National cricket coaches Ryan Hercules and Tremayne Smartt were jointly named Coaches of the Year for 2024 at the National Sports Commission (NSC) annual awards ceremony on Saturday evening at the Pegasus Hotel.

The duo played a pivotal role in delivering major regional titles across both the men’s and women’s age-group circuits, cementing their status as two of the most influential minds in the country’s talent pipeline.

The awards recognise the impact of both coaches, highlighting Hercules’s sustained dominance in First-Class cricket and Smartt’s achievement in securing a historic first-ever regional female youth title for Guyana.

Hercules, a former national cricketer with 16 years of coaching experience, including stints abroad in Yorkshire, England, has firmly established himself as one of the most effective thinkers in West Indies cricket.

As Head Coach of the Guyana Harpy Eagles, the senior men’s national team, Hercules has translated his focused philosophy into silverware immediately upon taking the helm in 2022.

The pinnacle of his 2024 success was masterminding the Harpy Eagles to yet another regional Four-Day title. This victory marked his second consecutive championship as Head Coach and the team’s seventh overall since the inception of the Cricket West Indies Professional Cricket League (PCL) in 2014.

Hercules’s influence wasn’t confined to the longest format; he also held a pivotal management role with the Guyana Amazon Warriors, contributing significantly to the franchise’s strong run to the 2024 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) final.

The direct result of his dedicated work is evident in the number of top Guyanese players who have earned maiden call-ups or recalls to the senior West Indies squad, underscoring his vital contribution to the national talent conveyor belt.

On the other hand, Smartt, a decorated former Guyanese and West Indies player, was honoured for her role in achieving a watershed moment in women’s cricket.

Operating in the critical dual capacity of Assistant Coach and Manager, Smartt helped Guyana win the Cricket West Indies’ Rising Stars Female Under-19 T20 title for the first time in history at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Guyanese unit, captained by Realeanna Grimmond, displayed remarkable dominance throughout the tournament, losing only one match en route to the historic championship success.

Smartt’s commitment to female development was further recognised locally, as the Berbice Cricket Board also adjudged her ‘Coach of the Year’ for her continuous work with female cricketers at the domestic level.

Her achievement, alongside her long-standing coaching duties in Berbice, marks a significant boost to women’s cricket development, providing powerful inspiration for the next generation of female players in the country.