I’m irritated that our page isn’t as… lively as hockey’s. Especially after I check out the other teams’ pages. The men’s soccer team and the field hockey teams have running galleries of their new sponsors too. All of their pages have stories about things happening with their team. Even if it has nothing to do with the sport.
More annoyingly, every last one of them has a list of their events. Not just their schedule, but an interactive calendar where you can click on events and learn more about them, including how to sign up.
I hate this.
Pushing from my desk, I grab my laptop and storm out of my office and down the hall until I come to the converted conference room where my team hangs out. My favorites are here as well as a few others.
They fall silent when I walk in. “Why aren’t our events on our webpage?” I ask, sitting my laptop on the table that they’re working at.
Eli leans across the table and taps on my computer. “I don’t know, Coach. I’ll see who we need to talk to.”
“While you’re at it, maybe see how we can make ours as… loud and annoying as the other teams’.”
Peyton chuckles.
“Sure, Coach,” Eli says.
“Please,” I add.
He grins. “No problem, Coach. Really. We’ve been talking about our page for a few days now.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
Winston shrugs. “You’ve never cared about our webpage before. Usually you focus on things that take place in person. You’re a physical presence. As is the team. So I guess we never really thought about it until recently.”
“Until the other teams made theirs obnoxious?” I ask.
Eli laughs. “Yeah.”
“Speaking of other teams… I keep getting emails about corporate sponsors. What do you know?”
“The football team has always had the most,” Winston says. “I think they’ve come naturally because you do great things with us. The other teams have always had a few, but this year, Coach Hansley has made a movement to get the town involved more in our teams, so all the other players are hitting up local businesses for sponsorships.”
I’m feeling slightly smug that ours have always come organically. We haven’t had to lower ourselves to asking for them. But I have a feeling that I’m not lying when I claim I keep getting emails about corporate sponsors. I bet if I lowered myself to checking my emails, I’d see that there’s a bunch of emails wasting my time with other so-called accomplishments.
The thing is, the entire school knows I have the best team. We should be in emails. We should have the most emails!
“Let’s make some changes,” I declare. “Study the other pages and let’s come up with a way to make ours even better. We havea lot of players andI knowyou’re all doing great things. Not just in football. If they can be loud and annoying, so can we.”
“You mean loud and proud, right?” Winston asks with a grin.
“That’s what I said.” I wave my hand. “Of course, don’t take away from your schoolwork or football. Keep your priorities straight.”
“Of course, Coach,” Eli agrees. “We’ll get our page amazing! No problem at all.”
Feeling better, I leave them to do their thing. As I’m walking out, a few more of my players walk in with smiles and a chorus of “hey, Coach” on their way by.
I love my team. There’s no one else in the world that makes me as happy as they do. I love that they chose this little room as their spot to hang out. They have the entire campus, the whole town, and they choose to hang out here.
I’m proud of that.
I bet the other teams don’t have this.
CHAPTER 12
HANSLEY
The dodgeball tournament is going well. It turned out a lot bigger than I anticipated. There are local food trucks here that are donating half of their proceeds at the end of the event. Face painters. My players even got some merch whipped up with a logo on the front and a ‘tour’ on the back, listing everyone’s names who are participating.
