Page 27 of Off Side
SAM
I’m standing on the players bench watching our team run through drills before we have a final scrimmage in preparation for our first of three pre-season games that start tomorrow in our home rink. I have my notes on line ups and make sure I’m watching every player to see how they are progressing. I’m going to make a line change for the scrimmage and see how it plays out. Michael isn’t going to like it, but he could deal with it.
The boys are very happy to have me coaching. There are absolutely no distractions for them with me being here. They’re mostly excited and a few even knew some of my background with playing and officiating, which shocked me, to be honest. Why would a teenager care about my career? I honestly expected a bit of attitude from them about the whole woman coaching bullshit but they have been surprisingly refreshing and upbeat. The captain, Austin Maloney, or Baloney as his teammates affectionally call him, was the first to come up to me and say how excited he is to come back for his second year as team captain.
“Coach Sam, I’m super pumped to be back here with the Bandits! We have a great group this year and I really hope you might be the extra spark we need to take us all the way. I’m sorry to hear about Tom; he was a great guy and we will miss him in the locker room. He really kept Michael under control, you know?”
“Aw, thank you, Austin, that means so much. I really hope I can fit in here and give the team what it needs to make a good run. I’m excited about it and I already have some ideas on changing things up.” I notice Austin wince at my words. “What did I say? What’s wrong?”
Austin glances around like he’s making sure no one is listening. “It’s just that Coach Mike resists change. He makes it hell in the locker room taking it out on us a lot. That’s what I meant about Tom keeping things under control. He kind of kept Michael distracted enough that he wouldn’t take things out on the team. It’s hard to explain. If he’s giving you a hard time already it’s because he’s freaking out about how you are going to change all his hard work and what not. The man only likes things one way. His way.”
It is my turn to physically wince. “About that, I do have some line changes we are going to try, heads up on that then. Not to mention a new approach to practice.”
Austin huffs out a breath, nodding like a bobble head. “I’ll try to warn as many of the guys as I can beforehand then. I better get on the ice.”
Austin ran the practice, I noticed, and the coaches didn’t get too involved which I didn’t really like. I mean, why were they there if they weren’t going to coach? I also notice him talking to each player as he skates around or breaks from a drill, talking to a few at a time. I was starting to wonder how ballistic Michael was going to be when I not only changed a line, but also brought forward my changes for practices going forward.
I had dressed casually, jeans and a hoodie today and my favourite bunny slippers. Next time I was going to get my skates on and join them on the ice. I think that’s important to do that and a way to bond with the players. As we get close to time for the final scrimmage, I raise my fingers to my mouth for the loud whistle to catch their attention. It works, but I forgot to warn Nixon and Michael and both of them give me glares, although Nix laughs after clutching his chest, Michael does not. I call the players over to the benches and give them my run down.
“The drills are looking good, but at next practice I’m going to have myself and the other coach’s working on the ice with you in small groups. I feel like we have some areas to improve on if we want to be a threat this year.” I can see Michael glaring in my direction, but I’m soldiering on with this. I know I said we’d talk as a coaching team but I’m running out of time and the opportunity is here.
“Let’s get the scrimmage started. Break yourselves up evenly, but I want these two player line ups together, so listen up. Austin, Brooks and Logan I want you three to try things out together. Jordan, you’re going to take Logan’s place with his two usual line mates which is Travis and Scout, if I’m correct?” The team gives a collective nod and grunts to signal their understanding. “Okay, let me see what you’ve got!”
The players break up as needed in even groups and make sure the line combinations I asked for were put together. They start the play and we watch. Michael and Nixon haven’t said anything yet, but I can sense it there. As I watch Logan play with his new line mates, I can see a change. I smile, knowing I put him with a center that I thought he could work better with. Call it intuition, but I felt his personality was going to mesh with Austin a bit better on the ice and morph into what I hoped would be an epic line. As we continue to watch the players do their thing out there, I take my note pad from my back pocket and make a few notes for myself.
I feel him before I hear him. Michael decides to join me at the bench. He makes no effort to hide his displeasure. “I thought it was a team approach to the coaching, Sam, and we were to discuss things before any changes were made.” He spits out the words and his face is reddening.
“Yes, we will approach things together, in fact we do have things to discuss after this practice is over. This was a change I wanted to try out now.” I nod towards the ice, “Are you seeing how much more in tune Logan is with Austin than Travis? It was a hunch, and I wanted to try it out. What is your problem with that, Michael?”
“My problem is you didn’t give us a heads-up first, and you just went ahead and did whatever you wanted!” His voice is getting louder and he’s absolutely seething at me. “This team was functioning perfectly as it was without you meddling! Why are you even doing this? What are you trying to prove here? That you still belong? Because the last I heard you were stripped of your officiating credentials and left in disgrace. One can only imagine how many players you slept through to get to that point!” He was so loud, the players stopped and were watching in shock. My instinct was to slap him. He was so close he was spitting on me with his fury, but for whatever reason I held back. Nixon made a move and took Michael by the arm to move him away from me but he swatted him off.
“I didn’t realize you thought so poorly of me and believed all the gossip you may have heard. This is going to be the only warning you get from me regarding your blatant lack of respect. Do it again and you’re fired.” I glance at the clock and seeing our time was almost up I motion for the players to wrap it up and hit the showers. “Show’s over, get cleaned up and see you at the game tomorrow. Great job, guys.”
Michael is still sneering in my direction, and Nixon seems very concerned with his behaviour. He’s reluctant to leave us alone.
“We have other things to discuss besides this outburst. I have some concerns. Let’s meet in the conference room in fifteen minutes. That work for you both?”
Nixon is on board with that and Michael gives a nod as well as they go on their way. I pull out my phone and call Drew because I need his comfort. I didn’t show it on the outside when Michael was yelling at me, but on the inside, I was both furious over his disrespect and doubting my skills all at once. He had been with the team a long time and had a tonne more experience coaching than I did. Was I just playing dress up here? Did I really know what I was doing? Drew would back me up here, I knew he would.
His phone didn’t even get finished ringing through once before his deep sexy voice greeted me.
“Hello, beautiful, what do I owe for the pleasure of this call?” I could feel his smile through the phone and it lifted my spirits immediately.
“I just wanted to have a bit of a pep talk before I go hand Michael his ass.”
“Is everything okay? Do you need me to go down there?”
“God no. I can handle it, I just need some reassurance that I’m doing the right thing. He got pretty angry in front of the players and said some nasty stuff. We’re going to have a meeting in about ten minutes and I wanted to hear your voice and just feel some validation.”
“Listen to me, baby. You are brave, strong and beautiful. You were gifted with a talent that you bring to the sport of hockey from all angles. You have the resume to prove it. Don’t let him bring you down, but just be careful around him. He’s a loose cannon, I never did understand why Tom kept him around and coddled him. Nix will be there, right?”
“Thanks for that, that’s all I needed to hear, and yes Nix will be there. I won’t be in a room alone with him after today’s freak out. I need to get going to the meeting, are you coming by later to flood the ice?”
“No, I’ll wait for the morning. There’s nothing else on the ice tonight since they want to get the rink ready for tomorrow. I will see you when you get home, beautiful lady.” There was a pause on the line. “Sam, you got this okay?”
“Yes, I do. Yep, I can do this. Thanks for being there. See you soon.”
“I’m always here for you, baby. Go kick his ass.”
