Keighley’s Andy Bray has been named National Young Coach of the Year by the English Table Tennis Association (ETTA).

The prestigious award comes after he was named Young Volunteer of the Year just over 12 months ago.

His commitment to coaching players both young and old is what marked him out for both honours.

The 21-year-old said: “A lot of people in sport work hard and get very little thanks for it. It’s a real privilege to be recognised in this way. To be presented with the award at a big ceremony was brilliant.”

As well as studying for a sports development degree from Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, Bray is head coach of Haworth Hawks Table Tennis Club.

The former Parkside pupil played the key role in setting up Hawks as a 16-year-old and the club has gone from strength to strength.

Bray helped establish the Keighley Table Tennis Centre in South Street, which became the new home for Hawks in 2009.

The club now has a team of eight coaches and seven league teams, running coaching sessions for all ages.

Bray, who plays in Keighley and District League Division One for Hawks, was inspired to take up the game by his grandmother, Kathleen Bray.

She first took him as a ten-year-old to play at her club and he had the added advantage of being able to practise with his parents in the games room of the B&B they ran in Oakworth.

Bray is largely self-taught, having developed his own strokes by observation, and admits learning the hard way was a strong motivation for him going into coaching.

“It’s why I’m keen to make sure other youngsters get more of an opportunity,” said the Hawks coach, who has help attract around 50 juniors to the club despite admitting it was tough competing with more popular sports.

He said: “Table tennis is a minority sport and it is a lot harder to get people to want to play it. We have to really put ourselves out there.”

Bray is one of only three UKCC Level III coaches in Yorkshire, being among the first to take the year-long course to qualify when it was inaugurated by ETTA in 2010.

It means he can now coach at county standard, as well as at club level, and has already been helping out with regional sessions.

But Bray, who works three days a week on placement at Oakbank School for their sports partnership, has no plans to go into coaching full time.

He said: “I see my coaching as enjoyment seperate to an occupation.”