Brian Jelley

I started playing American football way back in 1990 for the Newmarket Hornets as both a Defensive Tackle and Offensive Guard. After a couple of years the Hornets folded and I moved to the Cambridgeshire Cats. After breaking my arm playing in 1993 I returned for the 1994 season where the Cats won the National title in the British National Gridiron League division 3.
Following promotion to division 2 the Cats repeated the feat of the previous season and won the division 2 title. I continued to play for the Cats until 2005 when I moved to the East Midlands Saxons as a player and started my coaching career as the Offensive Line Assistant Coach.
After 2 years with the Saxons my very good friend and mentor Coach Bob Shaw decided to accept the Offensive Line coaching position with the newly formed Cornish Sharks based in Newquay! Bob persuaded me to play for the Sharks for the 2007 season and I clocked up thousands of miles playing in every game. At that time the Sharks became the first team to qualify for the playoffs in their first year in the league.
In 2008 I played for the Bedfordshire Blue Raiders and continued to develop my skills and knowledge as the Offensive Line Assistant Coach.
In 2009 I returned home to the Cats as the Offensive Line Coach and continued to play in that position. In 2011 had the privilege of becoming the Head Coach of the Cats. I had 3 seasons as H/C while continuing to play until injury forced me to retire in 2014 at the grand old age of 55! After taking some time out I have been the Offensive Line Coach for the last 2 years.
I stepped down as Head Coach of the Anglian Ruskin University team after 5 years with the team at the end of the 2017/18 season. I’ve been privileged to have played with and been coached by some of the best athletes in both the UK and America where I was fortunate enough to be selected to play in 3 Minor League Hall of Fame All-stars teams in Las Vegas, Miami and Dallas.
I’m still passionate about developing players to play on the Offensive Line, because without an effective Offensive Line you don’t have any offense and you won’t score. If the big guys don’t win their battles in the trenches then our Running Backs don’t have holes to run through and our QB doesn’t have the time to pass the ball.