Volleyball: Mokua chasing dominance with Prisons after league victory

As the Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) playoffs got underway last week, Prisons Kenya had just promoted former Kenyan International Denis Mokua to the head coach position as they looked to reclaim a title they had missed out on for five consecutive seasons.

Mokua, who had served as the team’s assistant coach for several seasons took over from renowned tactician David Lung’aho and was thrown into the deep end of guiding a title-hungry Prisons reclaim the national title.

The tactician who called time on his active career in 2016, the same year Prisons had last won the title, led his side to victory, winning all three of the matches to dethrone Gideon Tarus’ General Service Unit (GSU).

As the 42-year-old delivered the side’s first title since his exit as a player, he remained hopeful that the rebuilding process for the warders is over and the 2023 title they won on Wednesday 4 October is the beginning of another golden era, just like the one he was part of when they delivered six titles between 2009 and 2016, missing the 2011 and 2015 editions.

“We had a game plan for each match of the matches played during the playoffs and I am happy my players delivered. The fighting spirit from the get go was evident and we maintained that to the last game where we won 3-2 against the defending champions.

It is a great achievement for the new crop of players. We have been on a transition and the rebuilding process is now complete after breaking GSU’ dominance. The target now is to continue with the trend,” Mokua offered after the side’s victory.

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The tactician is, however, keen not to write off the title being wrestled from them in the coming season as he maintains that all the four teams that made the playoffs this season are good and more teams are getting competitive with each season.

“We would really like to reclaim the dominance of yesteryears but the other teams are equally good and we now have a target on our backs. We will, however, keep working and improving to maintain the title-winning streak,” Mokua added.

Prisons finished ahead of Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) who came close to clinching their maiden title, 16-time champions GSU and Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).