KAS moves to turn school sports talent into professional careers

The Kenya Academy of Sports (KAS) is stepping up efforts to transform school sports into a pipeline for professional athletics by equipping teachers, coaches and referees with the skills needed to identify and nurture young talent.

The initiative seeks to strengthen the sports pathway under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system, giving learners with sporting abilities a better chance of progressing from school competitions to elite performance and professional careers.

Speaking at Eldoret National Polytechnic in Uasin Gishu County , KAS Head of Talent Development James Theuri said schools remained the most important starting point for discovering future sporting stars.

“All our young athletes are in schools. If we focus on teachers, they will assist us in identifying talent at an early age and guide learners through the pathways of developing them into elite performers,” Theuri said.

He revealed that teachers accounted for approximately 90 per cent of the participants, but the training had exposed gaps in their technical coaching skills despite their active involvement in school sports.

Theuri said the academy had exceeded its initial target of training 60 athletics coaches after attracting 73 participants. For football, volleyball and basketball, KAS had planned to train 30 participants in each discipline.

The five-day programme covered introductory coaching skills in athletics, volleyball and basketball. Football coaches who had already completed basic training were undertaking a 10-day course leading to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) D coaching certificate.

The training was organised as part of the build-up to the 2026 Mashujaa Day celebrations, scheduled for October 20 and to be hosted by Uasin Gishu, Nandi and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties. Related programmes were also conducted in Iten and Nandi to expand sports development opportunities across the region.

The academy is working with the Ministry of Education and sports federations to identify promising athletes during school competitions before enrolling them in holiday camps, where national team coaches can provide specialised training.

Theuri said the long-term ambition was to make sports a viable source of livelihood for talented young people rather than an activity pursued only for recreation or school competition.

“Our interest and mandate as an academy is to ensure that young people can live on their talents. We want to take them from amateur performance to the elite level so that eventually we have professional athletes who earn a living through sports,” he said.

The training is expected to expand the pool of skilled coaches and technical officials available to support school tournaments and grassroots sports programmes as the CBE sports pathway develops.