Since joining Banbury United as a community apprentice, Liam Ashby is now six months into his stint with the Club. He is a familiar face around the ground as well as local schools and sports facilities, where he supports community coach, Ryan Jones, in delivering Banbury United’s local schools sports programme.

Liam is doing a one-year Level 2 Community Activator Coach Apprenticeship through Ignite in Oxford, for which he gets time off to study alongside his new day job. He was previously part of the Banbury United Academy, studying for the Sports Level 3 qualification at Banbury & Bicester College through Activate Learning.

Explains Liam:

Over the past six months as a Banbury United apprentice, I have been able to gain so much knowledge. All the people within the club have been so welcoming and supportive by helping me and answering any questions I’ve had.

Since starting for the club, I have been taught everything I have needed to know from how to effectively run sessions on my own to things such as the importance of communication. I’ve also learned about the importance of teamwork and working with people you may not have spent much time with before.

This role at the club has really helped with gaining more confidence. Because of this, I now feel much more positive when carrying out sessions on my own. I am able to get much more involved in the sessions I run. These include a lunchtime club at Orchard Fields Primary School which takes place on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. This involves going into the school during their lunch to encourage them to get involved in lots of different sports. The aim is to help them all be active and play games with their friends.
I also help with an after-school club every Thursday at Orchard Fields where we help children develop their football skills through fun games. Ultimately, we are there to make sure they are all enjoying themselves. I have also been helping with other after-school clubs at William Morris Primary School, Hill View Primary School and Hanwell Fields Primary School.

I assist the Banbury & Bicester College football team, which is the Banbury United Academy. I help to set up their training sessions at the ground and also help on match days with warm-ups. As well as this, I am at every first team match day to help with mascots and to support the club wherever I’m needed. We take the mascots on a walk around the pitch before kick-off, showing them the first team training up close and allowing them to sit in the first team dugouts and then of course, they walk out with the players at the start of the match. The special day is then finished off with a penalty shootout at half time.