Dan Lewis, who spent seven years as Deputy Director of Sport at Durham University before leaving to set up his own business last year, is now General Manager heading Newton Aycliffe F.C.’s off-field affairs.
The 34-year-old, is managing director of the Soccer Factory a company looking to build a new £1.7m football complex on Aycliffe Business Park, as reported in the Newton News recently. He is tasked to bring more business to the Northern League club.
Chairman Gary Farley said: “It’s a fantastic appointment and with his experience in business and local sport, Dan promises to be a brilliant acquisition”.
Dan, who lives in Aycliffe, has also worked as a part-time fitness coach at Hartlepool. He has already got to work on a number of exciting new projects for Aycliffe.
“Hopefully I can help the club off the field to take the next step forward and to try to professionalise things a bit,” he said. We’re organising a Sportsman’s Dinner and hopefully attract a high-profile speaker, which would be a nice event to bring people through the door and hopefully raise some money so we can continue to bring in the type of players the management is after.
“If we can get things right off the pitch then we can get the players we want on the pitch and hopefully everything will work hand-in-hand.”
Mr Lewis, an Aston Villa fan, is originally from Shrewsbury and after his A-levels came to the North-East to study a BA (Hons) in Sport in the Community at Durham, where he gained a 2:1 in 1999.
He was Director of Sport in Action Ltd from 1999-2000 before taking up a strength and conditioning role at Durham University, becoming director of high performance sport in 2003. He was then appointed deputy director of sport at the University a year later.
From 2004-8 Dan was selected to play cricket for Shropshire CCC, from u11-senior Minor Counties squad, and also selected for national cricket representation with England Schools u19, Midlands u19, and National Association of Young Cricketers.
