Almighty Coach

Dai Li looked at Weidong Chu inexplicably.

During my recent stay in the United States, I didn’t make mistakes or cause offense to somebody, did I? My training level ranks the top in the track and field team, so Weidong Chu has no reason to throw me out. And Weidong Chu also doesn’t have limitless empathy to send me to make contributions to the table tennis team out of nowhere.

As Dai Li thought of these things, Weidong Chu made his explanation, "The physical trainer in the table tennis team is quite a cushy job, which is being chased by many coaches."

"Is it a cushy job?" Dai Li asked questioningly.

Weidong Chu nodded, "The administrative rank of Mr. Ma is First Officer, and he is enjoying the treatment of the section chief rank. Now you should be able to understand, right? The Sports Bureau will give an administrative rank to the one who would replace Mr. Ma. Otherwise, it will be difficult for the replacement to do the job. Therefore, it is indeed a cushy job. You have been working in our provincial team for several years. I guess you will be promoted to Second Officer, if you could replace Mr. Ma temporarily."

Second Officer! He is making me an official! Dai Li figured it out immediately.

In the cadre system of China, the first and second officers were not leading positions. Although they could also enjoy the treatment of the section chief rank, their functions and powers were definitely no match for that of the section chief and deputy section chief, who both held a leading position.

However, in the sports system, the second officer could be regarded as a low level official. Many coaches couldn’t be promoted to second officer in their whole life.

In the domestic sports system, the General Administration of Sport of China of the highest level was a minister-level unit. Although addressed as "Director", the official-in-charge of the General Administration of Sport of China was indeed a minister-level official.

The administrative centers, which were affiliated to the General Administration of Sport of China, such as the Athletics Administrative Center, the Aquatics Administrative Center, and the Table Tennis Administrative Center, etc., were all department-level units. The principals of these administrative centers were addressed as "Director of XXX Administrative Center", but they were indeed department-level officials, who had reached the level of national high ranking cadres. Their ranks were equivalent to the mayor of Prefecture-level city. Some ignorant people might think the principles of those sports administrative centers were just "low level directors", by equating them with the workshop directors in enterprises.

In the provincial-level administrative system, the provincial sports bureau was a department-level unit. The training teams, which were affiliated to the provincial sports bureau, were normally division-level organizations. The head coach and deputy head coach of the training teams were division-level cadres and hold the leading positions.

However, the training teams were not administrative organizations with real powers. Therefore, under the division-level cadres, instead of setting section chief and deputy section chief, who held the leading positions, the first officer and second officer, who didn’t hold leading positions, were set.

Of course, there were also department-level cadres and division-level cadres, who didn’t hold leading positions. For instance, the "Inspector" was a department-level rank, while the "Investigator" was a division-level rank. In the system, these titles were prepared for cadres who were going to retire. The in-service cadres would not act as inspectors or investigators.

In the systems of science, education, culture, health and sport, the promotion of the officials was different than that of the administrative organization with real powers. It was very difficult for the frontline positions to get administrative promotions, such as the scientific research personnel, the teachers in schools, the doctors in hospitals and coaches in the sports bureaus, most of whom could not get an administrative rank.

Examples of this would be the famous doctors, who might be Directors of the hospital departments. Another example would be teachers in schools; the normal teachers didn’t have any administrative ranks. The president and vice president of the schools normally would not give lessons to the students for a whole year, and this was what the reality was.

Meanwhile, in the systems of science, education, culture, health and sport, the administrative ranks of the staff were relatively low. For example, the president of a county or district level key middle school might manage several hundred teachers and several thousand students, but the president was actually a section-level cadre. Imagine if the president of a school was just a section-level cadre, then how could the ordinary teachers be promoted as cadres?

The sports coaches were just the same. The possibility for ordinary coaches, who didn’t have the background of a famous athlete, to be promoted to an official, was just a little bit higher than zero.

After graduating from the university, Dai Li started his career as a coach. It had been years till now, but he still had no administrative rank. Dai Li also didn’t consider something like being an official in his life plan. After all, the possibility for the frontline coaches to development their official careers was very low, and required not only personal efforts and capabilities, but also good luck. Only very few lucky ones among the sports coaches might obtain some harvest in the official careers.

Now, it seemed Dai Li had a stroke of luck.

Mr. Ma was a first officer, so his replacement should not be an ordinary coach without any administrative rank. People who were in management positions without administrative ranks would have difficulty in work. Moreover, for this kind of temporary transfer, no one would like to go without some "bonus". Otherwise, the replacement would not work hard, even if the replacement was assigned forcibly.

All training teams were more or less shorthanded, so the head coaches of the teams wouldn’t accept the temporary transfer easily. After all, it was a selfish era.

The helpful and generous people, like Feng Lei (a famous soldier in the People’s Liberation Army and a communist legend in China, who, after his death, was characterized as a selfless and modest person devoted to the Communist Party and the people of China) were very few.

However, a second officer was definitely a great temptation for ordinary coaches. After becoming a second officer, the coach could enjoy the treatment of a deputy section chief. Although the powers in hand were not changed, and the salary was only increased by roughly RMB 100 or 200, it could stand for the first step in one’s official career.

For Dai Li, this was also a good issue to consider. He had no reason to refuse it. So he nodded immediately and expressed his interest.

"OK. I will recommend you to Head Coach Ping Wang of the table tennis team." Weidong Chu continued to say, "This time, a lot of people were interested in this position, among whom were many ace coaches of other teams. Therefore, Ping Wang will definitely organize a selection, so the final result will be up to your personal capabilities."

...

As Weidong Chu said, a lot of people had signed up for this position, not just the physical trainers, as there were even some technique trainers that had signed up, too. Apparently, a lot of people were unwilling to be an ordinary and nameless coach for a lifetime. Although the second officer was just in the lowest level of the bureaucratic system, it would still provide room for promotion, as well as more chances in the future cadre selection.

Thanks to the great influence of the table tennis event, a temporary replacement could be given a rank of second officer. For other sports, especially for those lesser-known sports, it was absolutely impossible, as the provincial sports bureau might just ignore the appeal for replacement.

However, the table tennis was the national sport of China, which enjoyed great popularity and attention among the public. Leaders of different levels also attached great importance to it. Especially some cadres were fans of table tennis, and therefore, a good basketball player or soccer player might be forgotten by these cadres, but a good table tennis player would definitely be remembered by them.

The same could be said of the ordinary people. Almost all middle-aged people aged 30 to 40 years old might be able to name the table tennis champions in the recent two decades. However, if they were asked to name the players of the National Football Team, who used to participate in the World Cup 2002 that was held in Japan and South Korea, most of them might have forgotten those names of those players, especially if they were not soccer fans.

This was the power of the "national sport"!

Therefore, even it was just for showing off in front of high level management, or being remembered by the leaders, the table tennis event deserved great investment!