“But…”
“Yes, I know the start of the season and all that. Apparently, I have staff who’ve been handling things since school started. They can continue to handle things until I get there. I’ll be in touch with your secretary to arrange for someone to accept delivery of my furniture.”
After that, I hung up. I had shit to do. Which began with digging through the mess Muncy had left behind.
Several hours later, I looked up and sighed. It was just as I suspected, James was on the outs with the school and probably on the verge of losing his job, if what I found was known by the president and provost. Muncy wasn’t the only guy gambling. James was right there with him.
Luckily, the team seemed well managed thanks to the assistant coach. Will Grigor had been an amazing player, and from what I could see from the film I watched and the paperwork I found in Muncy’s files, he made an even better coach. Picking up the phone, I dialed his office number, praying he was still there.
“Coach Grigor.”
“Will, this is Sasha Storm.” The name felt like a pair of old hockey skates that fit like a glove but weren’t nearly as comfortable as the new ones you’d been wearing.
“Sasha! It’s been a while.”
“It has.”
“Is it official? Will you be coming on as head coach?”
“Yes, but I need you to answer me a question. Why didn’t you take the job? I’m sure it was offered…”
“My parents just moved in with us. My dad has early-onset Alzheimer’s.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll keep you all in my thoughts. So… is the staff around? I’d like to hop on a quick video call since I won’t be there until the weekend.”
Moments later, I sat staring at a screen filled with the faces of the coaches and staff for the Maulers Hockey Team. Intimidated shouldn’t have been how I felt, but I’d never coached before, and they all knew it.
I decided my first act as coach, after having them all introduce themselves, was to offer the job to whoever on the staff wanted it.
“Anyone want the job? It’s yours if you want it.”
Crickets.
Finally, Will Grigor spoke up, “Coach Storm, I feel comfortable saying we’re all willing to step up and help out, but none of us wants to take the lead.”
“If you’re all sure?”
Every head on the screen nodded, and I sighed.
“Alright. Let’s get to work, but I have a request.”
They all stared at me silently until Will asked, “What’s that, Coach?”
“I want a rundown on the team, not individual players. I wanna know where we’re weak, where we’re strong, where we need to tweak things, and what needs overhauling. If you do bring up an individual player, I don’t wanna know who their parents and family are. If they have a hockey dad, brother, uncle, cousin, etc,… I don’t wanna know.”
Brows furrowed across all their foreheads, but they nodded, and we got to work.
Over the next hour, they brought me up to speed on everything I needed to know going into the season, which started in less than two weeks. And I kept my promise to Mikal. I didn’t do a damn bit of digging into who his kid was. A few of the names on the roster were hard to miss. One in particular stood out. Trey Malachek. Mikal and I played against his dad. It was what it was. I wasn’t a fan of his dad, but the kid would be judged on his own merits. As would all the others.
“Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the extra effort. As for now, we will stick to the schedule that’s already in place and see how things go from there.”
That last bit was met with a lot of shifty eyes and fidgeting bodies. Then came the question I dreaded the most.
“What will you be changing?”
I looked down at the square on my screen of the guy with enough balls to ask the question, I could see on the others’ faces.
Dane Weller.
