[Fiction] The Coach

[Central Park]

This is my first story. It will take a little time to develop, so please be patient.
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As a 24 year old, second year teacher at a small town school, I was in trouble…deep trouble.

Two years before I had graduated from state university hoping to help make the world a better place by teaching. I was your typical idealistic college graduate ready to change the world one student at a time. The job market was tough for teachers near the university and my hometown, so I accepted a freshman world history teaching position at Ridge Crest High School in a small town. I was unsure how I would do that far away from my friends and family, but during my first year realized how much I loved the school I was teaching at. I had met a few friends, had lots of freedom in teaching, and more importantly had become of the of the teachers all the kids liked. Yes, as Mr. H. the history teacher I loved my life.

In the summer before my second year, the school district had to make several budget cuts, including four teaching positions. I was scared I would lose my job. My principal, Mr. Leer called me into his office one day during the summer and said he had some good news and some bad news. He said the good news was that he wanted to keep me on staff since I was such a good teacher and had such a great repo ire with the students. I was relieved to say the least.

However, he then said that the condition of him keeping me would be that I would have to coach the high school girls’ basketball team, since the teacher who had coached it before was offered early retirement. Now I knew a little bit about basketball, I had coached a YMCA boys junior high team while in college. But I was a little nervous about coaching girl’s. Never-the-less I had to keep my job. So I accepted the position and vowed to do my best.

The school year had started off really good. I enjoyed all of my classes for the most part. The students seemed to respond to my energetic teaching, and I felt like my teaching was making a difference. However, there were two students I had struggled to engage, and who had really had caused me a little bit of grief.

Macy and her friend Samantha were in my first period homeroom class as well as my 8th period world history class. Macy was an athletic and slim blue eyed blonde who was a very self-confident in your face 9th grader who from day one let it be known she didn’t like authority. Samantha was slightly taller than Macy, a little more filled out than Macy. She also had blonde hair, but had green eyes. Samantha was a straight A student who though not as outspoken as Macy, definitely had an edge.

Throughout the first six weeks these girls, especially Macy, set out to prove that they were in charge. Finally one day in September I had had enough of her attitude and ended up giving her d-hall. This also meant I had to make a phone call home to her single mom. Her mom fully supported me and told me she would take care of it. I found out later that her mom had received a few other calls from teachers earlier and had warned Macy that if she got another one there would be grave consequences. After my call Macy’s mom had confiscated her car keys and cell phone. Macy was livid.

The next day in homeroom, I could tell Macy was mad. However she didn’t say a word to me. Soon enough I forgot all about it…Little did I know that she didn’t, and this was the start of her plan to bring me down.


In the middle of October I started planning out how I would juggle coaching the girls’ basketball team. It wouldn’t be easy, and would require some late nights. Because guy’s basketball was king at our school, they got to practice after school from 3:30-5:30p.m. That meant the I couldn’t start the girl’s practice until then, which meant I wouldn’t leave school till almost 8:00 p.m.

The girl’s team had never been a big one at RidgeCrest. So when tryouts came, and only 10 girls showed up it wasn’t a big deal. There were 2 returning seniors, 2 juniors, 1 sophomore, and 5 freshmen. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Macy show up. Although there had not been any issues since the rocky start, I was glad that I would have an opportunity to try to repair our teacher-student relationship.

The first two weeks of practice I wasn’t easy on them. I was a strong believer in being conditioned, and therefore 90% of practice was running. The girls hated every minute of it, but I continued to press them. If we were going to only have 10 girls on the team we needed each of them to be in great condition.

One of the things that I had requested from the principal was that I get a student manager who could help me out. This would also be someone who could go into the locker room ahead of me and make sure it was okay for me to go into along with other duties such as laundering the team uniforms, keeping track of statistics, etc. I had inquired about a few responsible students who could do this but was getting nowhere. So one day at the end of practice I told the girls that I was looking for a responsible, mature student who could help me out. And that if they knew of anyone to let me know.

The next day Samantha came up to me and said she was interested. She wasn’t my ideal choice, as I really wanted a more mature junior or senior. However, I didn’t have many options and I at least knew Samantha was a straight A student. So I told her I would let her do it and in three weeks we would see if it was working out.

Little did I know this would be my second mistake.


In our first game we got off to a great start. At halftime we were leading 24-14 against a fairly weak St. Vincent’s team. Our star center, senior, 6’3” Kat Williams, had scored 15 of those points, and it looked like our conditioning had paid off big time. I had went with our older kids to start, and had decided that I would rotate our younger players in a little more in the second half to give them some playing time. I had gotten to all of our freshmen but Macy. Truthfully Macy wasn’t a great ball handler, and was turn-over prone. About the time that I was going to put her in, St. Vincent made a 10-0 in the final 1 minute of the third quarter run to pull within 36-33 . I couldn’t risk putting her in now, and so I put all my starters back out there. Kat quickly scored two baskets giving her over half of our 40 points and I was filling little more comfortable, when our season changed. After St. Vincent missed a three pointer, Kat went up for a rebound. As she came down with the ball she tripped over another player and landed hard. The sound of a “crack” went rippling through the gym. I knew instantly she had broken something. After getting her off the court her parents took her to the hospital. She had broken her ankle and would be out for the rest of the year. What was worse is that we ended of losing the game. We were down to 9 players, and I couldn’t afford to lose any of the other girls.

Later that week progress reports came out. I had told the team that I would be checking on their grades. All of the girls had decent grades with the exception of Macy. She had two D’s and an F in math. Clearly if she didn’t get them up in the next three weeks she would be forced off the team. Even though she wasn’t great, I still needed her on the team.

I decided to talk to her after our 8th period class. She said that she had always struggled at math and was struggling because she had no one at home to help her. Her mom, who had been helping her, had taken a night job to meet ends meet. Being the idealistic teacher that I was, I told her that she could start coming to my room after school before practice and I would help her.

The next day Macy came and I helped her with some basic Algebra. As she was working I would also grade papers and such. For the next couple of weeks this worked flawlessly. In addition to helping her with her school work, I was also able to help her with some other issues in her life. I was thrilled to see that a student who at one time hated me was now doing well. Little did I know this was all just a rouse.

After starting the season 1-4 we had managed to win three games in a row against some week teams. I was feeling more confident in my coaching, and my practices continued to be rather pushing on the girls. One day before practice Macy had come to my room, but didn’t have any homework, so we headed to my coaching office to get ready for practice. Samantha, the team manager and Macy’s best friend was already down there doing laundry. As I set down in a rolling chair at a table in the laundry room Macy started talking to me about how she felt like she was fat, and couldn’t attract guys. I responded to her by saying, “Macy you are a beautiful girl who has a lot going for her. And if I was a teenage boy, I would love to date you. You need to quit being so down on yourself. “

At that moment, Macy came over straddled me on the chair grabbed my shoulders swung me around so my arms were around her, and embraced me in a full-blown kiss. It took me a couple seconds to realize what was going on. I quickly pushed her off of me and tried to regain my composure. Macy blushed and said she was sorry…and begged me not to tell anyone. I didn’t know what to do but told her she needed to go the gym.

I barely made it through practice and then quickly left for home. I knew I had to protect my teaching career, but I was pretty sure if I took this to the principal it would blow up in my face. I tried to sleep that night but couldn’t. In the morning I decided I had no choice but to tell my principal. I got to school early the next morning, but found out Mr. Leer was out until after lunch. I went to my room to get ready for the day, and when I walked in, there sat Macy, Samantha, and a lap top. My already sick stomach now got even sicker.

Immediately I said, “you two need to leave NOW. We will deal with yesterday as soon as Mr. Leer gets back.” Macy and Samantha just looked at each other and giggled. “No” said Macy, “Mr. H we think you will want to see our video before you go and talk to Mr. Leer.” My head started spinning. Video? What have these girls done? Samantha turned the computer towards me and hit play.

On the screen was the scene from the day before. Right before the kiss. Me and Macy in the laundry room. However,someone had taken my words and parsed them so it had me saying “Macy you are a beautiful girl and I would love to date you.” On the video Macy then comes and kisses me. However the angle of the tape made it appear as though I was kissing back.

I stood there stunned. After a moment, Macy said, “I don’t think you want to go to Mr. Leer now do you.” “You can’t be serious…He will never believe you,” I forced myself to say. Macy and Sam busted out laughing. Sam said, “But he will believe me the eye witness…and it will be two against one… then you will lose your job, and go to jail.”

I couldn’t believe what was happening. They were right. I had been careless, at best my name would at least be dragged through the mud. I’d never teach again. “What do you want”…I said almost in a whisper. Macy walked over towards me…looked straight into my eyes and said, “You….We own your ass now. Everything you do, say, and think we be controlled by us. You are our puppet….our bitch boy to do with whatever we want.”

I couldn’t believe it. Two 15 year old freshmen girls had blackmailed me. I was at their mercy, in their hands…with no control.

Macy interrupted my thoughts by saying, “Tonight bitch, we will be at your house after practice. You will learn then what it means when they say Paybacks are hell. We are your hell bitch.” With that her and Sam walked out of my room.

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Let me know if you think I should continue.

[rebster]

Definitely continue!!

[Komodo Jones]

Wow blackmail that's an unoriginal topic lol, I'm just kidding I'm using that in my story as well. You have a pretty good story going so far as content goes. You don't rush into things and you're taking your time developing the story which doesn't make the story feel like an obligation. Having said that I do have a few concerns. You may want to re-read your submissions before posting them as there were some mixed up words, a few mechanical errors and some things that didn't seem realistic despite it being fiction. For example freshmen in high school usually don't have cars, hence Macy's car keys being taken away but the cell phone is legitimate. Also since we are dealing with underage girls taking advantage of an older man I think that this story would be better suited under the Mature Stories section. Other than that you have a good story going and I think by all means you should continue it because it would be kind of lame if you just left it where you ended it. So best of luck as you continue to write this.