His grin spreads across the expanse of his wide face. “Excellent!”
Before he can walk away, I add, “But only because they practiced against the girls last night. They had to work hard not to be shown up.”
Johnathan’s face crinkles in confusion. “What girls were they practicing against? We don’t have a girls’ team.”
“The girls I told you about yesterday,” I remind him. “The girls thatwanta team.”
“Ah, yes. Well, we still don’t have a coach for them.”
“Allie Rogers is coming in to talk to you today,” I remind him. “She’s the one I recommended for the English teacher job.”
“Good, good! I’d like to fill that position ASAP.”
“She also played basketball here at Elk Lake High back in the day. She coached the girls last night.”
Jamming his hands deeply into his pockets, Johnathan asks, “Did the girls take a horrible beating?”
For the life of me I can’t figure out why this man is so resistant to a girls’ basketball team. We’ve had them in the past and they’ve done well. “They beat the boys by two points,” I tell him.
The look of surprise on his face could be a meme for a super strong laxative taking effect at an inopportune moment. Seriously, the man looks like he’s about to explode. “They did? Well, how about that!”
“The boys played harder than I’ve seen, which makes me optimistic they can improve.” I’m not ready to promise they’ll be contenders for any important wins, but last night was certainly a step up from where they’ve been.
“You say Allie’s coming in today?” It seems that he might finally be getting on board with giving the girls an equal opportunity.
“That’s what she told me.”
“Would you mind being part of the interview process?” he asks me.
Being that I recommended Allie for the job and now have more faith than ever that she’s right for it, I tell him, “I’d love to. Just call me when she gets here.”
I head into the gym after Johnathan walks away. My class is already there so I blow my whistle before instructing them to start warming up. When the freshmen are running around the court, Leah Flynn breaks ranks and jogs over to me. “Hey, Coach,” she says expectantly like she’s waiting to hear some good news.
“Leah,” I say. “Nice job last night.”
“Thank you.”
After a few beats, I ask, “Is there something you need?”
“Are we going to get a team or not?” she demands.
“I don’t know yet. But I’m working on it.”
“You mean with Miss Rogers? We really liked her.”
I like her too, but I don’t tell Leah that. Instead, I say, “She’s coming in to interview for Mrs. Bailey’s job today. We’ll see how that goes.”
Leah jumps up and down like I just told her that she’d been drafted by a division one university. “That’s great! Then I’d have her for Englishandbasketball!”
I watch as she runs back to join the rest of the class. Allie has made quite an impression, which after last night’s game appears to be well-earned. The girls were already good, but having an encouraging coach is make or break for how well a team performs in competition.
The rest of the day flies by and at three o’clock the office calls over the intercom, “Mr. Riley to the front office.”
I practically skip there like a schoolgirl. I see Allie before she sees me, and I stop dead in my tracks. She looks so happy and hopeful, I almost don’t recognize her as the same person who was in my upstairs hallway yesterday.
“Allie!” I call out as I approach her. When she turns her head in my direction, I ask, “You excited?”
Her expression shifts from surprise to pure sweetness. “I don’t have the job yet, Noah.”
