Peter DeWit had the honour of meeting up at the Cassette Café with Nathanael Koehler who began an incredible football project in Paris with homeless refugees. Each week under the tutelage of coach Nate close to 25 refugees come together to practice, train and play. Recently they have started playing weekly as well in a well known night league and hold their own.
Peter: When I saw your name I assumed you were German, but when I heard you speak, I knew you were not. So Nate, where are you from?
Nate: I’m from Tampa Bay, Florida.
Peter: Oh, I’m a huge hockey fan, and I sure hope you don’t cheer for the Tampa Bay Lightning? They keep beating my Maple Leafs! (chuckles)
Nate: Absolutely, I am a hockey fan! And a Lightning fan.
Peter: (a small grimace) That surprises me, how do you get to know hockey in a hot place like Florida?
Nate: Well, I love all sports. I love hockey and though we don’t have snow, I played street hockey back in the day. I’ve been lucky enough to get some free tickets from a Lightning player named Cory Cross to see the team play. Sadly the seats were in the nosebleed section!
Peter: At least you got to go. So, what did you study in Uni? Athletics and coaching?
Nate: Actually not. I went for a degree in business.
Peter: Really? That surprises me.
Nate: Yeah? Well get this, my favorite course was actually in creative writing! During my studies I was able to go for a year in Barcelona and that opened my heart to the world. It was amazing. Afterwards I spent seven years working at a large insurance company and climbed the ladder quickly. At the same time I loved sports, and studied coaching, and got to be a competitive football coach.
Peter: So here you are now in Paris, how did you end up leaving Tampa Bay?
Nate: Well, I guess just before turning 30 I had a bit of an epiphany. You could say my soul wasn’t entirely fulfilled by life in the corporate world. So, I knew I needed a reset, and decided to start when I discovered a special mother of one of my players who had started an orphanage in Nepal. It was the perfect time to discover Asia. That was Fall 2019 just before the pandemic hit. And so I went, and was there for three full months. And it was life-changing for me.
Peter: Fascinating Nate. I know that part of the world and have been to Kathmandu. I loved it, and wanted to go to Base Camp, but it was not in the cards. So, after the three months were over did you go back to the corporate world?
Nate: Actually, no. The whole experience got me thinking about sustainability. I wanted to make a contribution to the world, so to speak, and decided to do a masters in the Governance of Sustainability. It was a two year commitment and I did it in the Netherlands.
Peter: What? That’s my birth country, man! (laughter.) Okay then after that you came to Paris
Nate: Nope, not yet, but… I met a special girl named Camille in my program who was French.
Peter: Woo, the story just keeps getting better. (laughter) and then you came to France and lived happily ever after.
Nate: Nope, not yet. We decided to go to Nepal for another three months and help at the orphanage again. And while there, Camille says to me, “Hey, we can work in Australia, wanna try?”
Peter: C’mon! From handling insurance claims to becoming a world traveler. My, my. And did you stay down there long?
Nate: Not really. We were there for six months. Funny thing though, it was there that I heard about Serve the City Paris for the first time. I met an Aussie who said he did some volunteering when he was in Paris. And he mentioned Serve the City. Not that it made a huge impression at the time… (laughter.) So when we finally moved to France, I was feeling out of place, kind of low, empty. And Camille says to me, Nate, you need to get out there and volunteer. And I remembered Serve the City and went to an “Intro to Save” night. You know, the program called Save. I started volunteering for Food Distributions. But deep down I wanted to do something football related. And when I started asking people on the streets if they’d be interested in playing football, they were gungho. So then I had to do some groundwork.
Peter: This is all so fascinating Nate. I love hearing about how people got started on a project. For you it was like, “I have this ability and I want to share it with the most vulnerable.” And was your first event a success?
Nate: You know, I started taking names of people interested in football and made a WhatsApp group with the names collected. Then I went searching for a place to play football. Got that. And then I planned the first event and… and get this, about 20 people showed up. They were pretty well all from West African countries, either homeless or staying in gyms, and wanting to play. And we have been doing it ever since, in fact, it’s our one year anniversary on March 2nd.
Peter: Man, this is impressive and I have to go to another appointment right now, (grimaces again) but before I do, let me say I feel so happy to meet you and hear your story. Can I quickly ask you this, because I am fascinated by what inspires people. Do you have someone in mind that is like an inspiration for you?
Nate: Thanks, Peter, that means a lot. Hmmm, inspiration, yeah, I do think of someone. He’s a Basketball coach, Tom Izzo. Coach Izzo has stayed with the same team (Michigan State) all his coaching career. His goal was to pour into young men, make them better men. And what inspires me most is that he had such little ego in play. What mattered to him the most was building a culture of kindness, loyalty to one another, and care.
Peter: I’m nodding now in reverence, that’s beautiful. Every leader should aspire to that. Before I go and pay for the coffees, (Nate begs to pay…and does), one last question, what’s the greatest compliment you have received from one of the participants in the football program?
Nate: One young man said to me, “No one has ever gone out of their way to care for me since I’ve been in Paris. That is until I met you coach, you cared for me.”
Peter: Wow. I really got to go now, but I’ll take that one with me, “You care for me…” And thanks again Nate for taking the time to meet me here at the Cassette Café, do you think they recorded our conversation?
