Our Coaching Team
We are a team of professional coaches. Each team member is screened, trained and developed through a standardized process.
Storm Patterson - Co-Owner & Coach
Storm is the kind of person who walks into the gym and can’t resist the urge to greet or joke around with every soul in the space. He cares about people, is endlessly curious and will be the very first to celebrate your wins. If there is one movement in the gym to describe Storm it’s definitely the bicep curl, because he’s the ultimate pump-up guy.
With a name like Storm, it’s not surprising to hear that he grew up with infinite energy. As a kid, Storm was drawn to sports of all kinds and by high school, he was competing at the national level for sprinting. In university he was on the track and rowing teams when he was first introduced to CrossFit by his soon-to-be roommate, Callum. It was 2012, CrossFit was still on the fringe of popularity and Storm was absolutely taken by it. This novel approach to training offered this already-incredibly-fit human a range of new challenges including gymnastic skills, olympic weightlifting and the kind of intensity any competitor lived for.
Storm and Callum saw an opportunity to share their passion for fitness with the university community, and in 2013 started a not-for-profit student club at Queen’s called CrossFit Tricolour. Laura (Callum’s wife) was the very first member, and the club quickly grew in popularity offering a friendly introduction to CrossFit to anyone who shared an interest in fitness.
In the summer of 2014, Storm and Callum found a space off-campus to house their passion project and CrossFit Queen Street opened its doors. Still in their last year of university, Callum and Storm balanced their studies with nurturing their business, developing their coaching team and sharing their love of fitness with the wider community.
Since 2013 Storm has worked toward developing and refining his coaching skills to help more people experience the magic of physical training. Over the last few years, Storm’s focus has shifted from purely group coaching to working primarily with clients 1-on-1 which has created opportunities to help clients with their specific needs, goals, and ultimately share his love of fitness with individuals who wouldn’t have found the same magic of training in a group class setting.
The knowledge and skills that allow Storm to help his clients resolve long-standing back pain, or recover the ability to tie their own shoes are the same knowledge and skills that support him in his own competitive pursuits as a CrossFit athlete. By focusing on assessing his joint-by-joint mobility, flexibility and strength-balance Storm has been able to train more effectively and perform closer and closer to his greatest potential (more on this, here).
For Storm, the best part of working with clients is seeing the impact on their day-to-day lives.
Callum - Co-Owner & Coach
Callum is the quieter counterpart to Storm’s big energy. Like a cat-camel, Callum is calm, methodical and always pushing the limits of what’s possible.
In high school Callum was looking for ways to improve his fitness for martial arts when his cousin Tobias introduced him to some bodybuilding movements, and eventually to CrossFit. Fascinated by the feeling and results that came with the methodology, Callum became an early adopter. He saved every article posted on CrossFit.com and taught himself how to snatch in the basement of his family’s home.
Callum loved seeing the physical changes he was making through exercise and wanted to share that with other people. He started training some friends and family members (basically for free), and then continued to get more practice in university by training with workout partners, participating in the Strength & Conditioning program at Queen’s and eventually by running the CrossFit club. Callum began coaching full-time when he and Storm opened the doors to CrossFit Queen Street in 2014.
Callum sees the gym is both a place to push the limits of performance and develop the capacity to do what you love outside of it. This perspective came about early and in response to his own injury. In his late teens, Callum significantly injured his back while lifting, it felt so severe that he questioned whether he’d ever exercise or play sports again. He sought out help from a variety of practitioners and was left with incomplete solutions; certain treatments would help for a short period of time but no approach offered him a clear path back to exercising the way he wanted to.
Unsurprisingly, the kind of person who teaches himself how to olympic lift is the same person curious enough to experiment with the principles of rehab- gradual progression, regaining range of motion and strengthening for resilience. What ultimately helped the most to recover his full abilities was progressive movement and full-body strengthening. Excitingly, Callum returned not only to the level of function and fitness he had prior to injury, but also set the foundation for continued growth. In the months and years following his recovery he lifted many of his lifetime bests.
Fast forward to present day, Callum still loves to experiment with his own training and share the most effective solutions for clients. Callum believes that done properly, training should make your body stronger, more mobile and more resilient to injury all at the same time.
Callum especially loves working with clients who are looking to overcome pain and injury, and want to be put in the driver’s seat of their own health. He finds it fulfilling to equip his clients with the education and tools to not only manage their present injuries but to thrive longterm.
Laura Sawula - Coach
Laura was sitting in a second-year Statistics class when a certain dynamic duo walked in late. She- along with everyone else on campus- knew one of them to be Storm Patterson but was entirely unfamiliar with his cute, taller friend…
Unlike Callum and Storm, Laura came upon coaching the long way around. As a studious, self-proclaimed bookworm, she explored a few different paths in the realm of human movement before arriving at the version she’s found to be the most fulfilling. After finishing Kinesiology, Laura dabbled in graduate school, first in muscle physiology research and then in physiotherapy. She worked clinically in private practice for a few years before recognizing that the way she wanted to be able to help her clients and the model of care she was working within weren’t always aligned.
Laura is now a full-time coach at Queen Street and uses her formal education, clinical experience and years of training experience to help clients develop the capacity to do more of the things they love. There’s little that fires Laura up more than working with clients who are eager to learn, receptive to coaching and committed to the process.
Inside the gym, you’ll find her working on her single-leg strength and nasal breathing during conditioning pieces (likely to the sounds of Taylor Swift throwbacks).
Outside of the gym, you’ll find Laura and Callum playing trucks and dinosaurs with their very sweet three year-old.
If Laura was a movement in the gym, she’d be a tempo back squat, she’s patient, persistent and a fair bit tougher than she might look.
Ashley Casella - Coach
Ashley is also a young mom, and at this stage of life with a one-year-old, she’s like a burpee- when she gets knocked down, she gets back up twice as fast. She has been coaching at Queen Street since she and her husband moved to Kingston from Victoria BC in 2022.
Ashley’s start into fitness came through competitive dance and group fitness. From yoga and pilates, to spin, strength training and CrossFit, Ashley has been sharing her love of fitness with others for the last twelve years. Ashley’s favourite parts of coaching are being able to help people get out of pain, find physical freedom and be able to accomplish things they never knew possible.
Ash is approachable, kind and incredibly supportive. She sees the greatest value of coaching in being able to meet clients where they are and hold space for all the pieces of the puzzle. Helping clients improve their sleep habits, fuel their bodies well and manage their stress are just as, if not more important to Ashley than the physical exercise piece of the puzzle. Ashley’s ability to hone in on a specific step-by-step plan for habit building has been instrumental for her clients’ success and sustainability in lifestyle change goals.
Inside the gym, you’ll find Ashley training to the sounds of early 2000’s hip hop and pop. She’s currently working on full body strength, building up to her first postpartum pull-up and training for a half marathon.
Outside the gym, Ashley can be found hanging with her family and dog, enjoying long walks, hikes and exploring around Kingston.