ACADEMIC STATUS OF THE COACH AND TEAM PERFORMANCE IN THE KENYAN NATIONAL SOCCER AND VOLLEYBALL LEAGUES

Purpose: The study sought to establish whether academic status of the coach predicted team performance in the Kenyan national soccer and volleyball leagues. Methodology: The Cross-Sectional survey used a population of the 53 head coaches handling team in the Kenyan soccer and volleyball leagues in the 2020-2021 season. Census sampling was used to pick the 53 coaches for the study. Data collection instrument was a self-administered questionnaire. The Leadership Scale for Sport questionnaire (LSS) was used to capture player’s perception on coach competence. The coaches’ questionnaire was divided into sections which captured demographics and academic background. The study used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 22) for data analysis. Information was organized and presented using descriptive statistics and was analyzed at 0.05 significance level. Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact test was used to predict coach academic status on the team’s performance. Data was projected in figures and tables and relevant discussions were made. Findings: Chi square and Fisher’s Exact Test results showed that coaches academic status had a significant effect on team performance (χ2 =18.419, 0.031 ≤ p 0.05 9df). The fisher’s exact test had a p value of 0.016 which was also less than 0.05 confirming that there was a significant relationship between coaches’ academic status and team performance. Conclusion and Recommendation: The study concluded that coaches’ academic status had a significant effect on team performance. Team managers, owners and other stake holders in sports need to take up educated coaches. This is because educated coaches learn a diverse way of communication including humor, which in turns benefits communication between coaches and players which enhances team performance in the long run. In addition, coaches that are not educated need to go back to school and further their education. This will enable them to gain more skills that will be help in their teams’ performance.