A NATIONAL hockey coach from Barry has received a prestigious award to honour his successes coaching school pupils at Christ College, Brecon.

Chris Marriott was awarded the Hockey Wales' Teacher of the Year Award for 2016-17 at a ceremony in Cardiff earlier this month, after successfully guiding two of the school's teams to national titles and two more to a silver medal.

Mr Marriott also led Wales Boys Under-16s to a gold medal at the European Hockey Championships in Lithuania last July.

"It's nice to receive recognition in this way," said Mr Marriott.

"A lot of hard work over the course of the season has gone into this and it's a real reflection of the work that myself, the kids and a lot of the other teachers have put in."

No less than seven of the school's pupils are presently involved in Wales national squads in a variety of age groups - something undoubtedly boosted by Mr Marriott's involvement in establishing a centre of excellence at the school.

"Since I arrived we've tried to set up a good talent development programme here to help identify the good kids and foster their development into the national team," he said.

"Previously, the kids couldn't get involved in the national sides because, being boarders, they couldn't get to Cardiff to play. There was an artificial ceiling for them.

"After speaking with Hockey Wales we managed to get approval to set up the '360º centre' here in Brecon, which has really opened up opportunities for them."

Mr Marriott, a former sports development worker for the Vale of Glamorgan council, hopes that recent successes in British and Welsh hockey can continue to inspire the next generation to get involved in the game.

"It had a massive boost last year after the women's gold medal at the Rio Olympics. Club membership has gone up and it makes it easier to recruit kids to come and play.

"It's a challenge in Wales as it's not a traditional school sport. I don't think it's given as much attention in other schools either, which isn't the teachers' fault. It just has to compete with rugby and football which is a big challenge, as is the funding," he said.

"But at the same time it's a nice, family sport. It doesn't have the negative connotations that some others may carry with them.

"Right now there is a huge opportunity for hockey to take off and I think we're in a good place at the moment that we need to take advantage of."