Meet The Team…

Jamie Haynes

Director
Year Joined Crossbar: 2008

What I love about Coaching: I am very passionate about “making a difference” with the schools and children that we are working with through PE & School Sport. Having been with Crossbar since day 1 I have had the privilege to see children who I have coached from a young age grow up and then have the opportunity to work with them again in Further Education, seeing and hearing about the positive impact Crossbar had with them during their Primary School years is one of the most rewarding parts of what we do.

Interests/Hobbies: Spending time with my family, keeping fit and enjoying my role as First Team Coach for AFC Telford United.

Luke Hughes

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2010

What I love about Coaching: I’ve been with Crossbar for 10 years and I love how each day is always different from the rest. I have a passion for giving children the best opportunities by going that extra mile to make PE fun and adapting my sessions to suit every child’s needs. Being a senior Crossbar Coach allows me to be a positive role model to the children and also the new Apprentices / Coaches by showing them the “the Crossbar way”

Interests/Hobbies: Going to the gym / Ownership of a Clothing brand.

Kevin Sandwith

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2011

What I love about Coaching: Coaching has provided me the opportunity to pass on my experiences in sport to help develop young people and their athletic potential. Working in primary schools gives you the chance to shape the physical and mental well-being of young people as well as preparing children to compete in team sport with and against their peers. Seeing these individuals progress over time makes the planning and delivery worthwhile along with job satisfaction.

Interests/Hobbies: Trail running, Golf, Squash & Family.

Phil Trainer

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2013

What I love about Coaching: What I love about coaching is the satisfaction and pride we get as coaches seeing children achieve there goals and targets set with the smiles on their faces.

Interests/Hobbies: Football, tennis, badminton and watching my children participate in sport.

Sam Griffiths

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2014

What I love about Coaching: I love the healthy competitive edge it brings out in children that may not be noticed within any other environment. The desire to want to work to the best of their ability and thriving in physical team situations is a joy to behold.

Interests/Hobbies: love to spend time with my family and playing golf at the weekend. I also play semi-professional football for Hednesford Town FC

Calum Bennett

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2014

What I love about Coaching: Sport has always been my biggest passion since I was a young lad. I feel very fortunate to pass on my knowledge and share my love for Sport with children around Shropshire. Playing Sport is amazing on a personal level, but coaching/teaching is just as enjoyable. Whether it’s seeing a gifted and talented pupil progress on to bigger and better things, supporting a pupil who doesn’t necessarily find PE easy, or turning a child’s perspective on sport and exercise from a negative to a positive, it’s such a rewarding job seeing the children I coach at Crossbar develop as sportsmen & women as well as human beings.

Interests/Hobbies: Playing Football, watching Sport, spending time with family & friends, travelling, going to the gym, listening to Music & Podcasts and reading.

Josh Green

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2015

What I love about Coaching: I love seeing a child develop and progress through each topic I teach. I am very passionate about helping children understand and gain new knowledge on every sport we deliver. With being at Crossbar now for 5 years I have also really enjoyed going to different competitions with the different children from school. Crossbar are also helping me go down the route of teaching full time in a school by putting me on my level 5 degree which has been great so far.

Interests/Hobbies: I have a huge interest in spending time with my family and playing semi professional football along side my job at Crossbar.

Josh Morgan

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2017

What I love about Coaching: First of all being able to put a smile on the faces of the children we teach is always great to see. I am also very passionate about being able to help each and every child develop their Physical Education as a Sports Educator.

Interests/Hobbies: I like to go to the gym regularly during the week to stay active whilst playing football on a Saturday and Sunday.

Jack Gibson

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2017

What I love about Coaching: The things I love about coaching is that I am able to see the children’s development and how much they enjoy having Crossbar Coaches teaching them their favourite sports.

Interests/Hobbies: I love playing Hockey and Working out.

Jack Foggin

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2018

What I love about Coaching: I enjoy seeing the children progress not only in there physically development through the PE lessons but also grow as people both socially and emotionally within my sessions also.

Interests/Hobbies: I enjoy going to the gym as well as watching various sporting events, mainly football as I have a season ticket at Wolverhampton Wanderers and I also quite enjoy watching Basketball.

Jake Thomas

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2018

What I love about Coaching: Being able to make a difference to children and to teach different skills that they can use inside the classroom as well as outside such as teamwork and using initiative on certain situations. Pe has always been my best subject and now to coach children during sessions is a great feeling.

Interests/Hobbies: I am football crazy whether lt means me playing or watching it on Tv I just can’t get enough!

Daniel Simpson

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2019

What I love about Coaching: I love passing on my knowledge of PE and school sports by delivering high energy and enthusiastic lessons to allow school pupils to enjoy PE and learn new skills and knowledge from my lessons.

Interests/Hobbies: Doing my favourite Sports and fitness such as Bouldering, Football, table tennis and going to the gym!

Arlen Birch

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2019

What I love about Coaching: I enjoy coaching within schools as I like to be able to try and make a difference and help kids develop not only physically but socially as well. With me previously being a professional footballer I’m lucky enough to have seen the benifits and opportunities sport can give you so I try everyday to inspire and help the kids achieve their goals, no matter how big or small.

Interests/Hobbies: My interests are playing football, going to the gym and spending time with my family and friends.

Marc Wardle

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2019

What I love about Coaching: I enjoy my coaching as I love football and sports. I aim to pass this on through a fun learning environment.

Interests/Hobbies: coaching youth football, Shropshire FA referee.

Beckie Shaw

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2020

What I love about Coaching: I am very passionate about “the arts” and how they contribute to a child’s growth in confidence and their understanding of emotions and feelings. Being able to express yourself and working within a team is important and helps to bond friendships and self development.

Even though i am a new member of staff to the Crossbar coaching team, I have been coaching Dance & Gymnastics for 8 years within the cirriculum and 11 years within my own Dance academy. The most rewarding aspect to my job as a dance practitioner, is that we have the privelege to be apart of the childrens development and creativity, within the PE & Sporting workshops that we host. Seeing the children grow and enjoy what they do is what makes our jobs so easy.

Interests/Hobbies: Spending time with my friends and family, Being the head coach at DDUK, Competing with my teams all over the UK, including huge sporting events to include the Grand prix and going to music concerts.

Sam Berquez

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2020

What I love about Coaching: I love being able to make a difference seeing each child progress physically and social and seeing all the children with a smile on their face. Helping them be the best they can be by setting targets for them to achieve and also helping them in the right direction. I also love that I’m learning myself so I can make a difference to others. Coaching is also very rewarding it gives all children the chance to develop their skills in and out of sport to use in everyday life.

Interests/Hobbies: I love spending time with my family and keeping fit. I also love to play football.

Stephen Halford

Staff
Year Joined Crossbar: 2020

What I love about Coaching: The chance to support kids and pupils through their development and making a lasting impression on them. When I was at university one of the things I thought was crazy was that on average 7 out of 10 kids that leave school stop regularly taking part in some form of activity. Being a coach I now have the opportunity to work with them and make them enjoy sports and keep going with them. The reason I love sport was because of how fun it was through my schools. I now am really enthusiastic about making every session fun and enjoyable whilst developing their skills. The more they enjoy it, the more fun it is for me to coach and hopefully it creates a lasting mindset to keep them in an active life.

Interests/Hobbies: Love cycling and hiking because they’re a great way to clear your mind and relax, playing team sports like 5 a side or basketball with friends, big fan of films of all kinds.