CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- Recently, I interviewed Rosalind Joseph, SIU Director of Track and Field and Cross Country. I realized I could not tell a good story in just a three minute sportscast. So I decided I had to revisit with Coach Joseph as she had great responses to topics regarding leadership, recruiting and her first job, being a mom.
"Really has misconceptions about who can do it best or things like that or based on what people have seen," Joseph said when asked about interaction with student athletes and parents when recruiting. "Based on experience. The more women that are getting into sports and into coaching it's not just the men and their sons, there's women and girls who have always been, 'I always had men coaches.' Even as a girl in sport, I don't know what that interaction is like, so it's definitely something you're battling to change. But the more time that goes by, the more the parents and student athletes are to see that I'm a coach, the more they are able to get past the gender or realize it's not a big deal, realize it's something they want to do, because a lot of the student athletes that are women student athletes I recruit start to say things like, 'I want to be a coach,' so whether a recruiting tactic or not, if you want to be a woman in coaching, you want to have somebody that's doing the job you're saying that's what you want to do and that you can at least look at and model or say that you don't want to do it that way but you have representation."
On paper, and through the eyes of the NCAA, Coach Joseph oversees six sports - men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field and cross cross country teams. The teams are made up of various cultures and genders. They have learned to come together as a team, have difficult conversations regarding diversity, and want to take that knowledge and spread it to other teams on campus.
"This is what we do, but we have to continue to do it, and we have to be aware that it's something that, to be honest, it's something we talk about in our sport because of our team dynamic, but we have a responsibility socially, globally to do the same things. But what I really think, what the conversation becomes, is you are all really good at this because of the sport you are in, so it's your responsibility now to go out and not necessarily talk with one another about it, but we are to at least go out and challenge and talk to other sports about it, and I think that's where with everything that is going on, that’s where I am now. I've written an open letter to my athletic department, everyone there spoke to accountability within the department. It's a great department. I've reiterated I'm not asking for change because I've been respected there, I love it there, and there's a great history of a lot of diversity at SIU, but I also realize I can't rest on that and stop there. It has to be something I just can't build. I may have to be visible at softball games and be able to have an open dynamic with golf coaches, and so it's things that I have to continue to do outside of my sport. We can't get so locked in and say we do it well and forget we have a responsibility to the whole."
Rosalind Joseph is not just a coach, she's a mom, and that is her first job.
“Kind of show for our student athletes to see both sides of what their mothers were doing. They were working and trying to care of you. If you have that love and respect for your mother, and you realize, gosh, she was going to work and cooking dinner. They get to see that there are women that are trying to do both and can do both well, as well as it's good for my children to see. They see mom in a job she loves and she's happy and them to come to a meet, they can't believe I get to play in the sand all day. Yup, that's what I get to paid to do. So they get to be around young people and make connections, for me, is important to bring them around. I have young people that want to be teachers. They may be my child's teachers one day. I have young people that want to start a business, they may hire my children one day. So really trying to keep them connected. You see me as your leader, there's going to be a point where these are the people you are leading."
A coach, a mother, a leader, a voice that is heard. Coach Joseph understands the power of her platform and is doing her part to bring a community together.
“Great things can and will happen on top of what's been done. I just want to be seen as an ally to that. That people understand if I'm fighting the fight that between the two of us collectively, or between all of us collectively, we can do some great things. It's tough to know exactly what that is. That's where it's tough to answer, 'What do we do next?' Where do we go from here? I don't know, but at the same I know it's a responsibility to kind of see one another. That's why it's important for me to make sure I identify and say, 'Yea, I know I'm a black woman, but it's ok.' I still have things I want to see in this world for my student athletes, for the department, for the university, for myself and for my children.�
