MEET THE COACHES
Harry (left) and Bryan (right) - taken on
Crave Athletics' open day back in November 2020.
BRYAN + HARRY
Crave Founders
Just prior to opening, we started cheer teams at the Orewa and Silverdale primary schools in October 2020 which was a great success. Crave Athletics opened less than a month later in November with a 'gym-warming' to commemorate the beginning of this incredible new journey, with our first try-outs in December.
Term 1 of 2021 started our first competitive season, with 5 teams. In August the country was put into lockdown due to the pandemic and we adapted by holding classes on Zoom, later moving to outdoor classes once restrictions had lifted.
2022 saw the gym's first Grand Championships, and multiple Grand Champs wins - Crave has just kept climbing since!
BRYAN
2005
2013
to
2014
2015
2016
2018
2019
I was just 10 years old when I started cheerleading at the local gym in my hometown of Tallmadge, Ohio.
When I left home, I packed up and moved across the states to California where I competed with The California All Stars - Cali Coed for 2 years, where we won both 2nd and 3rd place at the 2014/2015 USASF World Championships.
I then started coaching for The California All Stars, where I trained multiple prep teams and tumbling classes, as well as Junior 3 for the 2015 season.
The next year, I moved to New Zealand where I coached teams who would then go on to win the National Championship and Grand Championship.
Alongside Harry, we formed New Zealand's only cheerleading choreography, music production and consulting company - The Islands Elite. We travelled across New Zealand and Australia working with cheer gyms and supplying music. We operated The Islands Elite until 2019 to focus on building Crave Athletics.
I was honoured to have coached the first ever Team New Zealand Junior All Girl Advanced (Jiwis) in 2018, landing an incredible 3rd place win at the ICU World Championships in Orlando, Florida - their first ever competition!
The same year I coached Team New Zealand Coed Elite to a 3rd place victory, which was their first top 3 placement since 2014.
In following year I took an incredibly talented team to the Global Games Grand Championships!
HARRY
Like Bryan, I got the cheerleading bug young at only 11 years old, and at 13 became the youngest boy on Team New Zealand in 2011.
Just a year later, I won silver at the ICU World Championships and started coaching for my home gym at 14.
A few years later, we became the ICU World Champion at the 2014 competition. I was then offered a position on The California All Stars - Cali Coed, and also coached J2 - their Junior Level 2 team. This team became 2015 NCA National Champions - one of the (if not the biggest) competitions in the USA.
I stayed in the USA for another year where I cheered on Cali Coed again, and coached Commanders - Senior Coed 3, which went on to claim gold at the most prestigious international competition for non-worlds teams - The Summit Championship.
I finally returned home to New Zealand, this time with Bryan in tow! I continued to coach multiple Champion and Grand Champion teams.
I had the great privilege of taking over as Head Coach/Gym Manager of the gym I started my cheerleading journey with. Later, I also took over as Gym Manager at an additional location, and further down the track became Gym Manager for a third gym.
In addition to managing three gyms, I was invited to take on the role of Technical Director, where I was in charge of program development, and assisted in the creation of the now popular competitive recreational programme, CheerSPORT.
As an athlete, I was a member of the Team New Zealand Coed Elite which came 3rd place in 2018.