Almighty Coach

Dai Li was completely confused. He stared at the red seal at the bottom of the document, knowing the appointment must be correct.

Dai Li looked up at Coach Lu for an explanation. Coach Lu smiled with embarrassment and said, "Do not look at me like that. The appointment is correct; you are the chief coach of the long jump team."

"Coach Lu, did you want me to coach long jump team?" Dai Li probed.

"It was not my idea," Lu shook his head, "In my report, I wrote the shot put team. But they decided to let you coach long jump team. It was the leaders’ decision."

"Then what about Coach Zhuang, the original coach of the team?" Dai Li wanted to know what would happen to the current coach of the long jump team.

The long jump team already had a chief coach, Xuexi Zhuang. If Dai Li went to long jump team, there would be two chief coaches. He would have to figure out their relationship, as far as who was primary and secondary.

Coach Zhuang had connections. His uncle was a vice director for the Provincial Sport Department. If Dai Li became Xuexi Zhuang’s coworker, he would probably become his subordinate.

"Zhuang won’t stay. He will become the chief coach of the shot put team," said Coach Lu.

"Then it is like we exchanged jobs," Dai Li sighed with relief. He did not want to work with someone who had connections like Xuexi Zhuang. Otherwise, he would always be the one who worked hard, while the other would sit and enjoy the fruits of his labor.

Coach Lu lowered his voice and said:, "You know that Xuexi Zhuang is Director Zhuang’s nephew, don’t you? He thought that with Director Zhuang’s special care, he would be promoted quickly. He only came to our youth team so he could move up. He was planning to leave once he made some achievements. However, he has been here for two years and still has not made any progress. None of his athletes have succeeded. We coaches are judged by our ability; if we have no good scores, we cannot be promoted. Director Zhuang lacks an excuse to promote his nephew, and he dare not to break rules."

Dai Li nodded. If a sports coach was really outstanding, he could work in governmental institutions. For example, a vice director for the State Administration of Sports would have been a famous coach before.

But being a civil servant meant that one had to obey rules. It was similar to working for a private company, in that one had to strictly follow the boss’s orders. If the boss asked you to be a manager, you could not be an inspector. When working for the government, the higher the level, the stricter the rules were. Especially when it came to appointing officials, leaders had to be cautious. They could never do anything that others could hold against them.

Because of this, Xuexi Zhuang had not been promoted for two years due to the fact that he had not achieved anything. If he could attain even a little progress, he would not stay on the youth team; his uncle would promote him to someplace better.

Coach Lu continued, "To be honest, you should keep leading the shot put team. But Xuexi Zhuang wants your athletes. Jiankang Chen threw 17.11 meters, and Bin Wang got 17 meters, right? For teenagers, those are outstanding results."

"He wants to trade because of the scores?" Dai Li immediately realized what this was really about.

With his uncle’s assistance, it was easy to trade places Dai Li. That was why Dai Li had been appointed the chief coach of the long jump team.

Coach Lu had confirmed Dai Li’s suspicions, saying, "At the end of August, the Provincial Youth Game will start. This game is also a selection period for the National Youth Game. The ones with good performances can represent our province in the national game. Xuexi Zhuang is seizing the opportunity. He plans to lead the shot put team and get some outstanding scores in the competition so he can have a shot at being promoted. Get it?"

"Are you saying Xuexi Zhuang is a freeloader?" Dai Li understood Coach Lu’s point.

"A freeloader? I guess you could say that. Sorry to make things difficult for you. You have been spending so much time and energy training these athletes; it should be time to reap the rewards, but suddenly someone else has grabbed them," Coach Lu sighed pitifully. He tried to comfort Li by saying, "But we can do nothing to change the situation. Do not worry about it too much, you will still have plenty of chances."

Dai Li was pissed off knowing what was really happening. He had been training so hard, witnessing five kids grow up. Now someone else wanted to take advantage of his hard work. It was really unfair.

But he could do nothing to stop it. The youth team directly belonged to the Provincial Sport Department, and because Xuexi Zhuang’s uncle was a vice director of the department, Xuexi Zhuang had strong backup. Dai Li would not dare to complain. He was an ordinary person without any connections. No one would support him.

Besides, there was nothing wrong with the procedure. Director Zhuang had Dai Li to the long jump team, which was reasonable. As an agent coach, being transferred to a new team as a formal chief coach meant being promoted. Everything looked acceptable on the surface.

Leaving Coach Lu’s office with the appointment document Dai Li felt depressed. He felt like a farmer who had been taking very good care of his vegetables and working really hard for months, but when the time had come to reap his rewards, someone else had grabbed everything to enjoy it themselves.

Shxt! Dai Li swore secretly. Leading his athletes through the fight for honor was something Dai Li had wanted to do so much. He deserved it. But instead, someone else had taken his place.

The next second, Dai Li suddenly realized that the reason Jiankang Chen had been able to throw 17.11 meters was because he had gotten the benefit of the explosive force halo and Morale-Boosting Book.

According to Jiankang Chen’s ability, he could not achieve that score without those tools, let alone defeat Xian Su.

If I leave the shot put team, after a while those athletes will be deleted from my training list. They will not be able to enjoy the benefit of the explosive force halo anymore. That means that even if Coach Zhuang leads the team, the athletes will not be this good. When they compete on the field, they will not have outstanding performances, Dai Li thought.

Zhuang, even if you take my place, so what? You do not have a Coaching System, nor do you have an explosive force halo. My team will no longer be special under your guidance! They will return to ordinary people again without me! You wanna earn your fame using them? Think again!

But Dai Li immediately became sad again. He had been working with those kids for so long. He truly wished them all the best.

On the one hand, there was freeloader Coach Zhuang trying to take advantage of his hard work; on the other hand, his students were excited to get some achievements to prove themselves. Dai Li was facing a dilemma.