The Carleton Ravens football team has hired Nadia Doucoure as their offensive assistant and receivers coach, making her the first female coach in team history.
Doucoure, who moved to Canada from France seven years ago, has been working in football since 2001. She has coached a local football club in La Courneuve, France, as well as several community clubs in France and a high-performance team in Bordeaux.
Doucoure also has experience as a player in high-level flag football and rugby, and as a football referee.
“Football is a place for everybody,” Doucoure said. “It gives me hope that football is no longer a boys’ club. Everyone can be involved in any way—it will pave the way for more women in major coaching roles.”
Doucoure said she hopes her hiring will influence other Canadian universities to take similar steps to diversify their coaching staff.
“I know that there are a lot of women coaching football in Canada, but nobody was really involved at a high level,” she said. “I hope I won’t be the only woman in football after 2021.”
In Canada, she said she’s been involved with coaching a U16 flexible football program and U18 football team. Doucoure has also worked with the Ontario Football Alliance.
At Carleton, Doucore will be working closely with wide receivers coach Youssy Pierre, who joined the Ravens’ coaching staff in October 2020, and head coach Steve Sumarah.
“Having Nadia join our staff has been a great addition to the program,” Sumarah said in a press release. “She has extensive coaching experience in the high-performance program in her native France, as well as playing and coaching experience in Saskatchewan.”
Roberta Drummond, a women’s rugby player and spokesperson for the Carleton Athletics Gender Equity Committee, said in an email that she is thrilled the university is taking steps to diversify their coaching staff.
“I’m not sure I can even put the importance into words,” Drummond said. “Women making moves in a male-dominated sport are always monumental, though I hope one day we get to the point where they are the norm.”
Drummond said she hopes other schools will take similar steps.
“We never question men coaching women’s sport,” she said. “Nadia joining the football program helps to send that message that women belong in every single environment that men do.”
While Drummond said the move is a step in the right direction, she added there’s still more to be done. One step she said she would like to see is implementing gender equity policies in U Sports.
“University sports, Carleton included, still has a long way to go to address gender equity,” Drummond said. “A large part of the imbalance comes from funding, lack of resources and a lack of development opportunities for players and coaches.”
Drummond said she hopes Doucoure’s hiring will help encourage young female athletes to pursue coaching and play sports at high levels. A 2020 report from Canadian Women and Sport found one in three girls who participate in sports drop out by their late teens, compared to only one in ten boys.
“I hope other young women and girls see this as an encouraging message that they do in fact have a space in these traditionally male-dominated environments,” she said. “They need to be able to see a place for themselves in sport beyond adolescence, or else we lose them.”
“You need to know that opportunity exists and have the confidence to knock on the door,” Doucoure said. “I think it’s better to knock at the door and get no response than staying in your apartment, not taking a chance.”
Doucoure said she is excited for the challenge of coaching at the university level, which she hasn’t done before. She said her goals are to get to know the team, the coaching staff and get back on the field.
“We really need a season,” Doucoure said, explaining that some players haven’t played in two years due to COVID-19 and are in their final year at Carleton.
“I’m really looking forward to being on the field during practices and games and seeing how we can handle adversity and any situation that is thrown our way,” Doucoure said.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
