James Kwasi Appiah picked up the Coach of the Year award at the 37th edition of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana Awards night on Saturday.

The 52-year-old was rewarded for his impressive works with the Ghana U-23 team at the 2011 All Africa Games where the Black Meteors won an historic gold medal.

Appiah who was then assistant coach of the Black Stars was asked to take over the team in an emergency call at a point the side was on the verge of being kicked out of the qualification series for the games.

And after expertly dispatching Nigeria in the two-leg ultimate qualifier, the former Ghana captain led his charges to conquer all in Maputo, Mozambique to claim Ghana’s first ever gold medal.

He reverted to his substantive job with the Black Stars where he helped Goran Stevanovic to lead the Black Stars to a semi final finish at the 2012 Nations Cup – a disappointing feat that led to the dismissal of the Serb.

Appiah was then appointed as the substantive replacement for Stevanovic late April and was impressive on his debut beating Lesotho 7-0 in the 2014 World Cup qualifier.