Altona North’s new soccer coach Vince Loschiavo understands the financial constraints most Football Federation Victoria men’s state league 4 clubs operate under.
But he’s confident he can help lift the club up the divisions on a shoestring budget.
“I take great satisfaction in helping build a club and seeing it progress,” he told
Star Weekly.
“In these lower leagues, it’s always tough.
“If some clubs decide they’re hellbent on getting promoted, they might start throwing a bit of money around, whereas Altona North is a bit different – there’s no money to throw around. We’ll work with what we get.”
Loschiavo is the right man to take North to the promised land of promotion because he has faced a similar challenge in the past.
The 35-year-old was the inaugural coach of Essendon United and got them promoted inside two years.
What United may have lacked in transfer funds, they covered with total commitment from the players.
But it was not always the case at United in his first pre-season.
“We got promoted in the club’s second year in existence from the old provisional 3 league,” Loschiavo recalls. “To be honest, when I initially went down there and signed and agreed to the position, we looked to start pre-season nice and early, [but] we were getting only half a dozen players so I actually resigned at that point.
“Four weeks before the season, they rang me and said they had 40 players, and we got a really good squad together and were able to get them through to promotion.
“We were successful because we had a committed group and a great culture at the club. If everyone is willing to commit, I can’t see why we can’t be successful this year.”
North is a more established club, founded in 1975 from Duanne Reserve. But it has struggled to get out of the lower rungs of the state leagues.
An outside influence was needed, and Loschiavo’s wide-ranging coaching roles proved attractive to North, which handed him the job 24 hours after his first interview.
“The guys at Altona North are really ambitious and want to see the club move forward and get promoted,” Loschiavo said.
“They do have some established squad members and, once pre-season comes along, we’ll assess what’s there and what’s available and hopefully bring in a few new faces to achieve what we want to achieve, which is promotion next year.”
Loschiavo has coached longer than most people his age after a workplace accident ruined his playing career. At 21, he fell off a ladder, putting him in hospital and ending his run as a goalkeeper.
“I had three bulging discs in my back, I fractured my coccyx bone, tore every possible ligament in my left knee and tore the medial in my right knee,” he said. “I lived and breathed for soccer back then, so it was a big shock.
“Coaching was a way to stay involved, and I always found myself to be a bit of an on-field leader and that stemmed into a natural progression into coaching. “With the experience I’ve had in coaching and being involved in clubs in the higher leagues, I’d like to think we can bring some of that knowledge down to Altona North and help build the club to, hopefully, one day become a powerhouse.”
