498 Hard to be a Head Coach

The second training camp for the American track and field team was underway.

"Jimmy, guess what? Our new coach is Rivers," Alexander said with a big smile.

"Rivers who?" Jimmy Aylwin seemed to be a bit confused.

"Don't you remember? He was a 400-meter runner. I remember you competed against him once. I didn't expect he would even become a coach, let alone ours," said Alexander.

"I know this guy. During the last Olympics, he was an assistant coach for the national team. He was at the very bottom," said Aylwin.

"I wouldn't know about that. I was suspended during the last Olympics." Alexander also felt hopeless. "How good is he?"

"Not very good. He didn't even make the national team as an athlete. He hasn't trained a top athlete since becoming a coach either. There's no way he's qualified to coach us. I think I would be a better head coach than him," said Aylwin disdainfully.

...

Rivers was a 400-meter sprinter, but he was never any good. After he was out of his prime, he decided to retire and become a coach.

So far, his coaching career had been better than his athletic one. He hadn't trained any top athlete, he had trained several decent ones. Additionally, he had been able to be an assistant coach for the national team four years ago. Although he was at the bottom, at least he was on the national team.

This year, Rivers had not been satisfied with an assistant coaching position. He wanted to become the second-in-command. Therefore, he applied for the head coaching position, hoping they'd see his potential. However, Rivers was unlucky. He was eliminated in the first round and didn't make it to the interview round.

When Sebastian was head coach, Rivers wasn't offered any spot on the coaching staff. This year, Rivers didn't think he had any chance of being on the national team, not even in an assistant coaching position.

After the drug scandal, Rivers was lucky enough to temporarily replace Sebastian as head coach. It was really beyond his wildest dreams. He had only hoped to be second-in-command. He never thought that he could be the head coach. He accepted the invitation without delay.

When he reached the training camp, he found that there were not enough athletes on the team.

...

An officer of the U.S. Track and Field Association handed Rivers a roster with all the athletes' names on it. There were only about 70 athletes. This was not enough.

There were over twenty track and field events in the Olympic Games, fifty if one divided them by gender as well. As the number one of track and field team in the world, America had a large number of athletes who reached the A standard of the Olympics. Therefore, America could send three athletes to participate in every event. Normally, the American team had about 150 athletes.

Now, there were only 70. Naturally, Rivers had doubts about this list.

"Are there several pages missing?" Rivers pointed to the roster in his hand and wanted the officer to take a look.

"No," the officer responded without looking at it.

"But there are only about 70 athletes," said Rivers.

"Yes, just 70," the officer said.

"Normally, there should be at least 140 athletes, right?" asked Rivers.

"That's all for this year. The rest are banned," responded the officer flatly.

"All of them are banned? How could it be? Why?" Rivers asked all these questions at once.

"Over ninety withdrew from the team and we recruited twenty from the qualifiers that didn't originally make the cut. Don't you understand? The drug scandal decimated the team. I can't even describe how bad of a position we are in. You'll see when you get to the camp."

...

Soon enough, Rivers saw the truth behind the officer's words.

This American team was really terrible.All of the athletes had lost their morale, it was like they had given up before the Olympics had even started.

The drug scandal had lost them almost two-thirds of their team. Everyone else was panicky now. If two-thirds of an army deserted their comrades, the remaining members of the army are put in an impossible position.

The twenty substitute athletes were also in bad shape. Many of them had ranked quite low in the trail so they were nervous about their competition in the Olympics.

Rivers immediately regretted accepting the head coaching job.

When the training began, Rivers met another problem. No one respected him. Some, like Jimmy Aylwin, even ignored him completely.

...

As a legendary athlete, Aylwin was a powerful force on this American team.However, Aylwin had a bad attitude. He gave Rivers the cold shoulder and he looked down upon him.

There was an enormous gap between them. Aylwin had been a legendary athlete for years, the absolute king of the 400-meter event, while Rivers was just a little-known coach without any achievements.

Perhaps Aylwin would have respected Sebastian, who had been famous for years. How could he show his respect to such an insignificant person as Rivers?

More importantly, Rivers was a 400-meter runner with no good achievements. Aylwin competed against him and beat him handily. In fact, Rivers had never even been a threat to Aylwin. Aylwin would not accept him as a coach.

As the king of 400-meter event, how could Aylwin let his defeated opponent to coach him! Therefore, Aylwin ignored Rivers completely and Rivers couldn't do anything about.

Aylwin's attitude obviously influenced the others' as well. Soon Alexander began to ignore Rivers.

Alexander was not as excellent as Aylwin. He was the second-best in the world in his event. However, he had won many world championships and he really didn't care about athletes that weren't as good as him. Naturally, Coach Rivers didn't deserve his respect.

This was a common problem in coaching.A coach had to be strong to gain the respect of high-level athletes. Otherwise, no athlete would accept him and follow his instructions.

In China, coaches had the means to punish the athletes who refused to follow their instructions.In America, coaches didn't have that right. In the four major professional leagues in America, star players were often seen as more important than their coaches.

Faced with this situation, Rivers really couldn't do anything.

When Rivers was an athlete, Aylwin had been great. Now he was still extremely powerful. Therefore, Rivers had to let Aylwin do what he wanted.

As for Alexander, Rivers also couldn't do anything to him. After all, Alexander was also a world champion!

Without the necessary strength, Rivers knew that he could do nothing but tolerate this bullying. Any qualified coach would not tolerate this. However, any qualified coach would not be in this situation.

The situation got worse and worse. As the training went on, more and more athletes began to refused to cooperate with Rivers. He realized that he had lost control of the entire team.

The root of this problem was his relationship with Aylwin.

The rest of the team looked up to him. They followed his example. Many young athletes, therefore, treated Rivers the same way Alywin did.

Western culture praised individualism. There were many stories about superheroes saving the world. They had been popular since the second World War. In this culture, the obedience of the collective was far less popular than the worship of an individual hero.

If one wanted to control all the athletes in this national team, he must deal with Aylwin first. It would be much easier to get other athletes to obey him if he could get the approval of Aylwin. If the best athlete on the team obeyed the coach, the others would follow him.

Nevertheless, Aylwin didn't accept Rivers at all, so other athletes would not trust him.

...

Rivers sat in the corner of the small bar, drinking alone.

"Coach Rivers, I didn't expect to see you here," someone said. Rivers raised his head and saw a familiar face.

His name was Carter, a doctor for the team. They had known each other since Rivers had been an assistant coach.

Carter sat next to Rivers and stated the obvious. "You look miserable. Did something go wrong?"

By this time, Rivers was a little drunk. He nodded and muttered, "I'm a really bad coach."

"Why do you say that?" asked Carter.

"None of my athletes listen to me. They basically ignore me! They pretend that I don't exist at all!" Rivers complained.

Carter sighed slightly, "Coach Rivers, actually aren't a bad coach. You should have stayed away from this team. the national team is a disaster right now. You can't handle it all."

"Why?" asked Rivers.

"Rivers, have you ever wondered why the position of the head coach of the national team fell to you? Do you think you are qualified for this position or do you think you are extremely lucky?" asked Carter with a grim look on his face.

"You know something, don't you?" Rivers was sobering up a bit. He pleaded earnestly, "Doctor Carter, we've known each other for years. If you know something, please tell me."

"The U.S. Track and Field Association chose you because you were their only option," said Carter.

"What do you mean?" asked Rivers.

Carter leaned forward and lowered his voice. "This head coaching position used to be a coveted spot. This year it's different. The team only has half the athletes it needs. No matter who was the head coach, the team would be awful. We'll fail this Olympics, badly."

"We are the number one track and field power in the world. Our people may accept a bad result, but definitely they will not allow a disastrous defeat. Therefore, someone needs to accept responsibility. Who do you think should be responsible for it? The athletes? Or the head coach?"

"I think now you understand why the position of the head coach fell to you. The coaches who are more famous, more qualified and more powerful than you all know that the national team is a mess right now. They didn't want them to fail on their watch. Being the most unsuccessful head coach of American could be a permanent stain on one's legacy!"

Rivers was now completely sober.

"Doctor Carter, thank you! Thank you so much!" Rivers had decided that after he returned home, he would immediately draft a letter of resignation.