I wonder if I jinxed myself again in my previous post, because when I got back to my school (E-City) after summer vacation, there was a message from the Dean of Students at the N-City school. To refresh your memory and to save you from going back thru previous posts, he was the contact in that school that informed me that the new AD had chosen another coach for the X-C program.
He wanted to know if I would be interested in coaching there again. It turns out that the new AD and his new coach had left the school after only a few months and I didn't ask for details. A new AD was in place and they were looking for a new coach. I told my contact that I would like to come in and discuss it. And that is what I did today.
When the new AD came into the room, I said to him, "I know you!!" So let's rewind back to the 2008 N-City X-C season. We practiced in the park near the school, and there was always a guy, who lived near the park, walking his dog nearby. He got to talking to me while the team was running the loop. It turned out that he was a former athletic trainer at I-City (that will be an easy one to figure out) school who was involved in some injury related lawsuit or something. Anyway, he is a scruffy old guy who likes to grab your ear and talk incessantly about himself and his life. I'm sure you all have met some guys like that before. It got so bad at times that I was asking some of my runners to come over and "save" me if I couldn't get away from him. While he was out of work he had asked me if N-City was doing any hiring, especially athletic trainers which was his specialty. I was never able to help him but it now appeared that he had gotten a job there.
It was supposed to be an interview for me and the X-C job, but he spent most of the time talking about himself and his situation at N-City. He was athletic trainer, was teaching Health classes, and was the new Athletic Director. He told me point blank that he wasn't too happy about the last one but he more or less had to do it as part of his hiring.
So long story short, he is also going to interview a friend of his, but I know that my contact, as well as the principal, like me for the job. So I told him that I would be interested in the job again if 1) he can get runners signed up (the program is inactive right now so we don't know how much interest there will be), 2) they get their required physicals (that was the hardest part for the AD last year--these kids took forever to get the physicals), and 3) my fee would be the same as last year.
Now I'm about 90% sure I'll be coaching there this fall but when will be the question. Based on this guy not thrilled about being the AD, I can envision him taking forever to get kids signed up and physicals turned in. So I'm predicting that our first practice will be September 24. And then once that happens I will be totally shocked if he goes out and gets us a meet. The time before we start practice will come in handy for having softball practices at E-City.
So why am I doing this? Two reasons: 1) the coaching stipend will offset my expenses incurred during the summer (see my personal blog), and it will give me a good place and time to get my own running in. Last year I was always able to beat the team in the 2 mile loop except for one male runner (that gives you an idea of what we had last year).
As for personal running, I am into week 4 resting my hammy and it feels almost 100%. So tomorrow I will be testing it after school.
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