‘PUT YOUR NAME IN THE HAT FOR THAT JOB’ - CARMELINA MOSCATO’S THREE TIPS FOR TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR COACHING CAREER
1. SET PERSONAL BOUNDARIES
“I’m probably run a bit thin sometimes. I’m spreading my time everywhere and I need to be better at that. I think as women – and maybe men too – we have problems with boundaries. I think getting to know yourself, having boundaries, learning your own learning potential and maximum, and continuing to be your best in your sphere of control is what gets you through.”
2. GIVE IT A SHOT
“Put your name in the hat for that job that you don’t think you’re good enough for. We all have this area of doubt and I think we need to explore that. Because if we let that govern our world, I probably would have never left Mississauga.”
3. DEVELOP A SUPPORT NETWORK
“I’m proud of myself for what I’ve done. It comes with hard yards and it’s very painful at times. I think you need a bit of resilience, but also a big support network because you can’t do it alone. I have a great group of people supporting me – family, friends and colleagues – that got me through some of those really hard periods, where I wanted to probably exit the sport.”
“I really despise the question ‘What are you going to be doing in five years?’”, she explained.
“If women’s football had that luxury, a lot of us would be in a position to say ‘here’s my planned pathway, this is where I’m going’.
“I’ve taken the clues, I’ve taken the breadcrumbs, I’ve learned more about myself and I have said yes to almost every opportunity that has come my way because I don’t have the luxury of turning them down.
“I’m lucky to still be in women’s football and still fighting and getting clarity on where I feel I can make the most impact for girls and women.”
The desire to make that impact was what led Moscato to taking up the director of women’s football role in the Bahamas, where she was able to learn more about the multitude of challenges facing the female game in that part of the CONCACAF region.
She said: “There’s a view of women in sport in the Caribbean where it’s not really celebrated. It’s not really this thing that girls should be doing.
“Maybe they have different roles in the home, where they have big responsibility, plus school and family. Anything extracurricular is a lot to ask in some cases.
“Where sport is accessible, I think some haven’t got to a place where there’s a really clear pathway for players, coaches and match officials; it affects all roles.
“They’re trying to get to the States because they don’t have a pro league in the vicinity which they can graduate into.”
“I haven’t maximized my potential as a coach. I really want to explore that…”
Moscato has now moved on, making a return to coaching with ambitious Danish club FC Nordsjaelland. But despite only being in the Bahamas office role for a few months, she has nothing but positives to say about the experience.
“I think the readiness and integration of the role was premature,” she said. “But now I know better what some of the challenges and barriers are in the region.
“I think we all learned from the experience: the federation did, CONCACAF did, I did. And I think we can better service the countries moving forward.”
Moscato ensures she takes learnings from each of her experiences, something which she would advise other coaches to do, too.
“There’s always perspective that you can have.,” she said. “For me, even going away and coming back to Canada, I get to see our pathway in a different way. I see why they’ve done, for example, club licensing the way they have.
“If you don’t get a chance to scan out, compare, contrast and make it your own, you probably get caught up in what you see. And what we see is not always truth. I think it’s important to expand horizons.”
Moscato’s next expansion of her horizons takes her to Denmark.
“I’m laser clear,” she said. “I haven’t maximized my potential as a coach. I really want to explore that.”