Team Manager 1: SWISH!
Chapter 3
ARDITH JOINED the Enders family for Sunday dinner and to present Dennis with his new smartphone. She’d already activated the SIM and put her own number and that of each of the Armor girls into the directory. He immediately sent her a text that said, “Thank you.” It seemed that even if they’d never had one, this generation automatically knew how to use a smartphone.
“There’s enough data bandwidth on it to send a few photos or use GPS to get us to a game,” she explained. “There probably isn’t enough bandwidth for you to watch movies or listen to much music. But listen carefully to this. It is school property and not personal property. Make sure you follow the rules regarding allowed content. Sending and receiving nude photos or sexting, for example, is strictly forbidden. Not that I think that is something you would do, but you need to know that online bullying is the same in my book as in-person bullying. Be mindful.”
“Yes, ma’am. I will,” he answered politely.
“This seems like a lot more than his previous coach was willing to do,” Will said. “Why are you providing this kind of benefit?”
“I met Coach Rogers and have to say I didn’t like him. I don’t think he really cared about either the game or his players,” Ardith explained. “He was so shallow-thinking that I doubt he ever considered whether his team manager could communicate with the team. If you’ve read the job description I gave Dennis, you know that he will often be required to contact me or our players. In today’s world, I consider a cellphone to be a requirement of nearly any job. Since it’s a job requirement, I felt the school should pay for it. There aren’t really any other benefits.” She laughed at that and the family joined her. Margaret laughed loudest, though it was doubtful that she understood the joke.
The truth was, Ardith didn’t know if the school would cover the expense or not. She’d made the decision and purchase without consulting anyone. She needed to educate herself on what she could and couldn’t expense. If nothing else, though, she’d deduct it from her taxes as teachers could deduct various non-reimbursed classroom expenses. She could bend that rule this far.
“I think you know our concerns,” Dot said. “I’m still worried about sending Dennis into that department. I trust your commitment and integrity, but I know you won’t be able to monitor everything that goes on.”
“That’s another reason for the phone. It’s a safety device. I’ve programmed both my number and 911 into his speed dial. As well as your home number here. This will give Dennis a means of calling for help if the need arises. And Dennis, I expect you to use it if the need arises, not to try and tough out a bad situation.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Dennis was pretty overwhelmed. He couldn’t believe his coach had come through with this. He was determined to do the best job he could. He had just a bit of hero worship going on for his coach.
“Now, how are we coming along with getting people to the board meeting Tuesday night?” Ardith asked.
The Tuesday night school board meeting was one of the best attended in recent memory. Few remembered how Bartley School District had remained independent when so many schools had been consolidated years ago. As it happened, Hugh Bartley, the last of the Bartleys to live in these parts, saw that his beloved community was beginning to die out as people moved closer to the cities for work. His will left his entire estate to the school district to build a new high school and maintain its independence. The school itself had drawn some people to settle nearby. And when consolidation did hit, it was two smaller communities just five miles away that joined Bartley. Among them, they had just enough students to get state and national funding for their schools.
Unbeknownst to Ardith, she owed her job to Hugh’s endowment because he endowed the Language Department with the caveat that Latin was always to be taught at the school. And Ardith’s Latin classes had as many students as either the French or Spanish classes—the other two languages taught there.
The new high school was built according to Hugh’s specifications and on property he donated, anticipating expansion of the larger cities outward to a community that had large developable tracts of land for those who wanted to live in the peaceful countryside instead of the bustling city. That hadn’t really happened much yet. Technically, the school was larger than was needed and the building housed the junior high as well as the high school, though the younger kids were kept well-separated from their older counterparts. The gym, located between the two wings of the school, was big enough to house a game with fans on both sides of the court. Of course, the home section had a few more rows than the visitors’ section. There was a separate practice court for the junior high and the entire gym could be opened up for big events like commencement.
Unfortunately, the gym was underused. There were just too few athletes to be found in Bartley. So, when the board received the annual petition to start a girls’ basketball team, they were ready to deny the motion automatically until they saw nearly a hundred fifty parents crowd into the school cafeteria to support the petition.
“It appears we have people here who wish to speak to this petition. As soon as we get the microphone hooked up, I’ll ask you to form a line over on that side of the room and come forward one at a time to address the Board,” Superintendent Jones said. There was some shuffling around as people lined up and the maintenance man set up the little podium with a microphone on it and brought another to the Board’s table. “When you come to the microphone, please state your name clearly so we can be sure it’s recorded. Try to make your statements clear and concise. We will impose a three-minute limit on speakers but don’t feel you need to use it all. If this meeting goes over two hours, we’ll adjourn and schedule a second meeting to continue. First?”
“My name is Lily Armor. We have presented a petition to add girls’ sports to the athletic department every year for the past six or seven years. Ignoring Title IX mandates, the Board has always told us it didn’t have the resources to hire a coach and didn’t have a person on staff who could take on that position. Now we have a school employee who is willing to take on that responsibility. We would like the Board to approve our petition to start a girls’ basketball team at Hugh Bartley High School.” Mrs. Armor moved away from the podium.
“We have in hand a request from Ms. Ardith Graves that matches the petition and in which she agrees to take on coaching the girls’ team without additional compensation for one school year,” Jones said. “Ms. Graves, would you like to confirm your position and state your qualifications?” Ardith went to the Board table instead of the podium and accepted the microphone from Mr. Jones.
“I’m Ardith Graves, PE and Latin teacher at Hugh Bartley High School. I agree to take on the responsibility of coaching a girls’ basketball team for one school year without additional compensation. I believe we will show the community how valuable having this team can be in building community spirit, enhancing the development of players, and providing a badly needed extracurricular activity for our young women. I have a degree in the Classics with a minor in Physical Education from Winston University where I was a first string player for the Winston Wildcats. In addition, I have coached numerous intramural teams from junior high school on up. I know and understand the game, the conditioning, and the strategy for training a young women’s basketball team.”
“Thank you. Next?” Jones called. “Uh… Ms. Graves, would you stay nearby here, please? Some of the questions to be asked may be directed to you.” He turned his attention back to the podium where Dennis’s mother stood. She had carefully coordinated her statement with Ardith during their meeting Sunday.
“My name is Dorothy Enders. Last year the athletic department allowed a team to bully and harass a younger team member. I’d like a clear statement regarding the school’s policy and preparedness to prevent that from happening again.”
“Is Coach Byers here?” Jones asked. The coach stood and approached. Jones handed him the microphone.
“I’m Jim Byers, Athletic Director for Hugh Bartley High School. Thank you, Mrs. Enders. I’ve wanted to make a statement about this for some time. First, the coach who was responsible for that team was released and a new coach hired for the JV basketball team. Much of that team could move up to varsity this year and will be under my direct supervision. I have established and posted in the athletic facilities, locker rooms, and gym a zero tolerance policy regarding bullying, abuse, and harassment. I am terribly ashamed that this incident was committed and allowed go so far before I was made aware of it. I ask parents to contact me immediately if they hear of any similar acts committed in our program. Once they are shown to be guilty, the player or staff member will immediately be removed from the team and all contact with the other team members. I will not treat victims as perpetrators. As coaches and teachers, we have a responsibility to nurture through athletic activities, not to damage our charges. Ardith?” He handed the microphone to her.
“Thank you, Jim. I’d like to double down on what my immediate supervisor has said. I am committed to good sportsmanship on and off the court. I want to say this to the young women who plan to try out for the team. If I hear of bullying or abuse involving my team or staff, on or off the court, I will immediately disband the team—not just suspend the player. I want to trust you and will not take betrayal of that trust lightly. This is the responsibility not only of the coaches, but also of the team members themselves.”
“Thank you, coaches. Next comment?” A man stepped up to the podium. He was dressed in a tie and sport coat, unlike most of the parents who wore jeans and T-shirts.
“I’m Wilmer Dietz of Dietz Chevrolet here in town. Many of you know me from the Wolverine Booster Club. Even though my own kids are grown and moved away, I’d like to see us start a new Angeline booster club. I’m informed that a female Wolverine is called an Angeline. She’s just as fierce as her male counterpart but has ‘angel’ in her name.” He was interrupted by some laughter. “I’m willing to seed the Angeline Booster Club with a $1,000 starter so the new team can buy uniforms. I’d like to ask the rest of you in the community to join me with whatever you can scrape together. I know you don’t all have a business you can tap for this. Don’t feel like you need to contribute your life savings. But can we get a dollar? Five? This is an effort that requires the support of our whole community.”
There was a rousing round of applause for his little speech and the Board seemed to have its last objection answered. Ardith swung around to where Dennis was sitting with his parents, grinning.
There were another three or four people who spoke up in favor of the move, but mostly, everything had been said. The five board members put their heads together while people returned to their seats and shuffled their feet.
“Ladies and gentlemen, students, parents, faculty, and supporters, the School Board has come to a consensus to approve the creation of a women’s basketball team at Hugh Bartley High School. The Lady Wolverines will adopt the name Angelines. We should all remember why the name change when we start explaining it to our friends and neighbors who aren’t here. Ardith Graves is hereby appointed coach for the team. Now, we do have some other business to take care of.”
There was a lot of shuffling as most of the people in the room left and the Board got on with their meeting.
“Do try not to take me by surprise too often,” Ardith said when they met Wednesday afternoon. “That was quite a shock to discover you had already located a sponsor for our team.”
“It was an accident,” Dennis said. “I mean that. I put all the booster club members on my call list to try to get them to the meeting to support us. Mr. Dietz wanted more and more info. I kept explaining more details about what we would need to get started. When he started talking about the Lady Wolverines, I told him about the Angelines and he really liked it. He asked how much uniforms cost these days. They’re about a hundred to one-ten for a full set. That’s home and away uniforms, two pairs of socks, a shooting shirt, and tear-away warmups. I was doing some online shopping Sunday morning before we met, just so I’d know what we were talking about. I’m sure you already knew that. But I explained to Mr. Dietz that price and that we could have as many as fifteen girls on the team. That’s when he surprised me and said he’d put up a thousand and was sure we could raise any more funds we needed in time. I sure hope so.”
“That’s good work, Dennis. You know we’re going to need some equipment, too. Mostly balls, practice jerseys, and travel equipment. Let’s go talk to Coach Byers about what he has available that we can commandeer.”
The coaches’ offices were on opposite sides of the locker rooms, so they walked down the hall and Ardith knocked on Jim’s door. He motioned them in.
“Are you here to raid the equipment locker?” he asked immediately. He grinned at them and Ardith started laughing.
“Darn it, you’re ahead of me again,” she said. “And no matter what we can or can’t get, this guy next to me was some of the best advice you could have given me. It’s hard to believe how wasted he was last season.” Dennis dropped his head a bit and shuffled off to one side.
“Okay, so you need balls, towels, first aid kit, rack, travel bag, clipboards, and score sheets. Anything else?”
“Tape,” Dennis volunteered.
“Yeah. Seems like we need tape for every sport. You might need knee and elbow pads, too, but I recommend you have each team member furnish her own. There’s a team manager workshop over at Perry in two weeks on Saturday. I plan to take all the boys’ managers with me. You two should come, too,” he said. Dennis had his laptop open making notes and jotted down the date and time of the workshop.
“How do we stand, Jim? I don’t have much budget to work with. Hopefully, the booster club will get enough contributions to handle the basic expenses.”
“I’ve got basketballs back there that date back to the fifties. I think we can get you enough practice balls and a rack for them with no trouble. We have a towel service that picks up and delivers weekly. You just need to make sure they are all in the laundry bags and stacked at the loading dock. I think we can slip in an increase in the number of towels we need without it being noticed officially. We cover gym classes, so adding enough for your team shouldn’t be a problem. Let’s go back to the equipment locker and see what we can round up.”
They went to the cage where equipment for the sports the school participated in was kept. The school didn’t have a football team. If they drafted one out of every three boys in the school to play football, they’d only just make the forty recommended for the team. Baseball and basketball were a different case altogether. They usually had full fifteen-member varsity and junior varsity basketball teams and some kids played intramural ball. The baseball season usually filled out a full team roster as well. Track was the other major sport. It required starting blocks, electronic timing devices, shot and discus, and a chalk machine shared with the baseball team for marking lanes and foul lines. Stored overhead, were crossbars for the high jump plus an inflatable landing bag for it. Dennis knew there were weights and mats in the training room.
“You know, Ardith, if you’re successful with the basketball team and there’s enough interest, you should consider starting a girls’ track team, too. Keeps them interested and in shape after the season.” From that point, the coaches went over the equipment, handing Dennis balls that he put on a rolling rack and marked for the Angelines. When they thought they had everything that could be provided Dennis spoke up.
“Coach, last year I saw a stack of practice jerseys that didn’t look like they were used all season. It will be helpful to have those for scrimmages. Girls can’t exactly play shirts and skins.”
“Where are those?” Coach Byers asked.
Dennis crawled to the back of the locker and brought out a box with lightweight jerseys intended to be worn loose over a T-shirt.
“I’ll be. I wonder who ordered these and when?” Jim said. “Well, I think this comes under the category of finders-keepers. You win the practice jersey contest.”
Coach Byers handed Dennis a new Spalding basketball, still in the box.
“Coach?” Dennis asked as he looked at the new ball.
“Every team needs a game ball. Just for games, got it? And make sure all the balls are properly inflated before tryouts, I know that one I handled was soft.” They laughed and left the locker to return to the coach’s office. He rummaged around in his desk and brought out a key which he handed to Dennis. “You know the lecture on keys,” he said. “No unauthorized use. Don’t lose it. Turn it in at the end of the season. Sign here to indicate you got your key.”
“Can I check it first?” Dennis asked. The coach nodded and Dennis ran to the locker to try the key.
“I hope you really use him,” Jim said to Ardith. “That boy has potential. I wish we’d been better at keeping track of what was happening last year and I’m thankful that he’s willing to come back.”
“Me, too,” Ardith breathed. “He’s golden. I just hope he’s strong enough to not get walked on by the girls. So far, they’re accepting, but I’ve only talked to the Armors and a couple of others. I don’t want to be a mother hen watching over him, but I’ll keep an eye out.”
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