Meet the Team

Rebecca joined the team at the Bradby Club in December 2015, after volunteering and raising money for the club whilst at school back in 2010. She has worked part time as a tennis coach since the age of 15 working with children and young people, and collectively has spent over a year volunteering in various schools. In 2015 Rebecca graduated from De Montfort University with a 2:1 in BSc (Hons) Psychology before returning back to Rugby. As the Bradby Clubs Safer Relationships worker, Rebecca has completed sexual health and consent training, as well as training surrounding child protection, domestic violence and youth mental health first aid, which allows her to deliver sexual health and safer relationship education to children and young people in Rugby and Warwickshire. She also runs the young parents group at the Bradby Club with the help of Barnardos. Outside of work Rebecca enjoys playing sport (particularly tennis and rounders) and baking.

• Email Rebecca Thomas

Suman joined the team in October 2017 as a Substance Misuse Youth Worker. With a strong academic background and over 2 years’ experience Suman is passionate about supporting young people to build resilience and lead happier and healthier lives. Suman graduated from Aston University with a BSc in Human Psychology and worked as an Honorary Assistant Psychologist for the NHS Mental Health service in Birmingham. Following this, she graduated with an MSc in Health Psychology as her interest was more in healthy lifestyles including drug/alcohol use, healthy eating and illnesses. Suman worked as a Sexual Health Outreach Worker for young people in Coventry nightclubs and bars as well as a Project Manager for a youth engagement specialist organisation in Birmingham. Suman is a qualified Stop Smoking Advisor and trained on Drug and Alcohol awareness to deliver workshops on these issues. Outside of work Suman enjoys travelling to different parts of the world as well as cooking and spending time with family and friends.

• Email Suman Kooner

Youth Worker / Level 1 Amateur Boxing Coach

Curtis joined the Bradby Club in January 2020 as a youth worker. He has been boxing at the club since 2000 and has been volunteering at the club since 2015. In 2016, Curtis graduated from Coventry University with a 2:1 in BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy and has a strong sports background. He also works at Rugby College as part of the Sports and Public Services team. Curtis has completed his England Boxing Level 1 coaching qualification, safeguarding and first aid training. He regularly coaches 1 to 1 and small group sessions that benefit the young people that attend the Bradby Club. In his spare time, Curtis enjoys travelling, CrossFit and spending time with friends and family.

• Email Curtis Banton

Darron Began attending The Bradby Club as a young person and has now been volunteering here for over 23 years. Darron has worked with and trained many young people over the years most notably through his passion for Kickboxing. He himself has had 119 fights with 88 wins, 5 draws and still holds a number of national Kickboxing titles. Adding to his huge experience Darron has various youth work certificates to his name including NVQ’s and a community sports leadership award. Darron is a very practical person and so delivers many of the woodwork and building projects that we offer here which young people very much enjoy. He has been a part of a number of residentials and challenges here including; 24hr peddle cart race, 100 mile canoe test, camping at Hind Leap Warren and even exchanges with a youth group in Rugby’s twinned town Rüsselsheim in Germany. Darron is a well-known and respected member of the community and he has seen young people grow up and whose own children now attend The Bradby Club. If you ask Darron why he does it he replies “I get to be a big kid all over again” but in reality he likes to make a difference in the lives of young people, which he has in no doubt done for many years. A word of warning, eyebrows have been known to go missing when Darron is on a residential.

Byron is our long serving boxing coach here at The Bradby Club. Byron began boxing when he was 12 years old and had roughly 30 fights as an amateur boxer winning 25 of those fights. Byron has always done some level of coaching throughout his boxing life but he has been our Head ABAE Coach at the club for nearly 30 years. As well as being an accomplished boxer and coach Byron is also; a black belt in Karate, 3^rd dan black belt in Taekwon-do, 4^th dan black belt in Kickboxing, a black belt in Filipino martial arts and a Silat practitioner. With this list of combat sport accomplishments it is clear that Byron is dedicated and when asked what the key to success in these sports is, Byron would answer “dedication and hard work”. Byron gets a buzz from training and coaching but what really makes him feel good is seeing the improvement in young people’s ability and mentality through their training and hard work.

• Email Byron Banton

Owen Batchelor, Mackinley Carlton, Dan Glover, Steven Glover,
Lynda Gray, Brandon Hopkin, Dylan West, Jenni Windle