Assistant pro soccer coach comes out as gay

Connor Natella - Photo by Bournemouth Echo

Connor Natella coaches in a lower-division English league. "I’ve been hugely fortunate in my experiences so far. But I haven’t eluded homophobia altogether."

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An assistant manager for a lower-division English football league team has come out as gay, saying he has received great support from the team and players but been shunned by some family and friends.

Connor Natella coaches with New Milton Town football club in the Wessex Football League and has been with the club since last July. He began coming out at age 20 in December 2013 and told about his journey in a first-person article in the Bournemouth Daily Echo. He said he "fell in love with football before I even knew what love was" and afraid he would not be able to be gay in soccer. Those fears were allayed in a meeting with his now-head coach.

I met with Callum Brooks, who I'd met through working at AFC Bournemouth, and he was manager at New Milton. The meeting went without a hitch. It was clear we shared the same ambitions and had similar ideas in terms of coaching and management.

Eventually, Callum asked the question I'd been dreading, "are you gay?".

For the first time, I felt I had nowhere to hide. I responded with a simple, "yes, I am".

I half expected him to leave, but he didn't. He did the opposite. He asked me whether I was worried if people would react badly and, when I said I was, he told me, "it's your battle to fight and you have to stand up to it if it happens, but you'll do it with myself and the club behind you."

Fast forward to now and we're in the thick of a promotion race. The players have been nothing but supportive and I've never felt more comfortable about my sexuality than I do now and that is largely down to the support given to me by those in the game so far. Full story here!