Changemaker Lydia Bedford, manager of Calgary Wild FC, eager to grow women's soccer

Calgary Herald

13-05-2025

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They might not know that I ran the London Marathon in 2017, and that's top of my mind because my sister ran it recently and ran it four minutes quicker than I did, and she's two years older than me.
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So I think if I told my players that, they'd be quite surprised. Based on seeing me run around the pitch here, they might not presume that.
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But I think the one that normally catches people off-guard is that I was in a choir in England for about nine months, and I performed with Aled Jones, who — if anyone knows — he's a famous Welsh singer and famous for The Snowman song/movie. I managed to perform on stage of him as like a backing singer. I mean … I don't think I'm that tuneful, but there was no auditions for the choir, so I just really enjoyed it.
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And I think what I've learned as a manager is you have to have things that take your mind off what's happening with the football. And right now for me, that's getting on the bike and cycling for an hour and not being able to look at my phone. And back then, it was going to the choir and bringing the average age down by about 15-20 years and no one ever asking what I did for a job or what my style of football was or whatever. It was just go sing, enjoy it and go home.
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The footballer's journey is 15 years, if they're lucky, and I want the players to play brilliantly for us in their time here.
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But a mark of the work that I do with them will be that, at some point, they could outgrow our program. You know … we've got some young players that are on the brink of senior international call-ups for their country, and that will be an unbelievable credit to what we do here — that they manage that moment whilst they're part of Calgary Wild.
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But if you think about some of the youngsters that we've got in our squad, who are under the age of 22, for them, this is their first pro opportunity, and if they excel in this environment, whilst this league will develop and get better over time, there may come a point where for their journey to go where it needs to go, they have to outgrow our program.
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And if that's the case, at that point, I'll be their biggest fan, and I'll help them to go where's required for them to be the best players they can be, because I want women's football to be the absolute best it can be across the world. And if our players are good enough to get picked up by the top clubs, then although we want them here, we're always going to be planning for that next step to make sure that they can go on and do what's right for them, as well.
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I think just really proud, because I think role models are so important, and I still often refer to my PE teacher that only came into my secondary school after I'd been there for a couple of years and absolutely changed my whole experience of school sport. She's why I wanted to be a PE teacher.
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So those tangible role models, those people see on the pitch, can completely change the destiny of where they go in the future. I hope that there's young girls in these stands that, in six years' time or 10 years' time, are knocking on our door and they're showing us pictures where they were cheering on our players and they've gone on to actually represent this club.
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So I think it's about creating that opportunity for them to really follow their dreams.
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Who's your team?
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I think I'm an anomaly to football. I don't actually really support a team. I just love women's football.
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But if I had to choose a men's team, it will now be Brentford, because I spent years there and I often check their results now. And I love Thomas Frank's work. I think he's one of the best managers that I've been a part of seeing what he does and that I would admire from like watching TV and how he is one of the most genuine people. So I do cheer on Brentford still.
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