Almighty Coach

The entire management staff of the U.S. National Track and Field Team, more than a dozen people, were gathered in the meeting room. Among them were the U.S. National Track and Field Team leader cum manager, the team doctor, the physiotherapist, the nutritionist, and even a lawyer. Apart from that, there were also a few assistant coaches.

Affected by the performance-enhancing drug scandal, the coaching team that Sebastian had established had long vanished. As for the second coach, Rivers, he was forced out before he had the chance to develop his team. The current U.S. National Track and Field Team didn’t even have even one specialization coach, not to mention an assistant head coach. The only ones left were the assistant coaches they recruited hastily.

The few assistant coaches were whispering among themselves, some of them seemed a little excited.

“That’s the new Coach Li, he arrived yesterday morning. He shut himself in his office the whole day, he even ordered takeout for lunch. I haven’t seen him till now,” one of them said.

“I saw him yesterday off work. I’ll let you in on something, he’s here alone,” another person said mysteriously.

“Alone? So what?” Another on the side asked, confused.

“Him being alone means that he hasn’t established his coaching team! Who knows, some of us might have a chance to become a specialty coach,” the person answered.

The assistant coaches instantly became interested because assistant coaches were the lowest ranking coaches in the national team. They could only conduct the most basic kinds of the daily training. After the training camp, their work would be completed. It was impossible for them to follow the U.S. national team to the Olympic Games.

If one were to join the coaching team of the head coach, everything would be different. A specialty coach would at least be responsible for a particular event and, as such, would be able to follow the U.S. national team to the Olympic Games.

The others, however, poured cold water on them by saying, “I think you guys should stop getting ahead of yourselves. There are so many coaches all over the U.S. that, even if the new head coach wanted to build a new team, he wouldn’t use us.”

“But the third training camp is going to start soon. Where would the new head coach find time to build a new coaching team? He would still need to rely on us.”

As the U.S. National Track and Field Team head coach, if Dai Li wanted to start his work smoothly, he needed to establish his coaching team. He needed at least two assistants or deputies and, apart from that, he also needed one specialty coach responsible for each of the events. That meant a coach for the sprint, middle and long distance running, the marathon, the high jump, the long jump, hurling, race walking, hurdle, and obstacle course events.

The only thing was that building a coaching team wasn’t something one could accomplish in a short amount of time. Sebastian took several weeks to build his coaching team, and now, with so many coaches being involved in the performance-enhancing drug scandal, Dai Li’s choices had decreased, making it even harder to create a coaching team.

As the assistant coaches discussed among themselves, they heard a lot of footsteps approaching from the hallway.

Looks like a lot of people arrived, everyone thought as they looked toward the direction of the footsteps. A few seconds later, Dai Li pushed the door open with around eight or nine people behind him.

“Why did he bring so many people?” Everyone looked curiously at Dai Li.

Dai Li coughed and cleared his throat before saying, “Hello everyone, I’m the new head coach, Dai Li. The people behind me are members of my coaching team, I will introduce them to you in a moment.”

The initially expectant assistant coaches instantly looked gloomy. No one understood how this happened. Just a day before, Dai Li was alone. How did he have an entire coaching team in after only one day?

“Coach Li, who’d have thought you would finish building your coaching team so quickly? However, I sure haven’t seen the faces of these coaches before,” the one who spoke was the U.S. National Track and Field Team leader cum manager, Donny. He had previously met with Dai Li.

“These are all coaches from my physical fitness training center.” Dai Li pointed behind him and said, “Time is of the essence, so I don’t have time to contact the other coaches. Besides, a new team would need time to gel, so I might brought my people because we’re more familiar with each other. We also established a tacit understanding a long time ago. We’ll save time because we already know each other, which will help us get into the work faster.”

“So that’s it.” Donny thought in his mind how rich coaches were different. Even building a coaching team was so simple. It was a feat that took others a few weeks to accomplish yet, when it came to Dai Li, he simply accomplished it by getting his subordinates to do the work.

…

Under Dai Li’s leadership, the third training camp of the U.S. national team was underway. Training was going smoothly, and there weren’t any accidents or surprises. There was also no instance of athlete disobeying or causing trouble for the management. Everything went according to Dai Li’s plan.

The list of participants’ names for the U.S. national team had already been submitted to the International Olympic Committee, and the U.S. Olympic delegation was officially established. Based on tradition, after confirming the participants, each of the sports association would have to hold their respective press conference.

The U.S. National Track and Field Team had always been the group that had the most members of the U.S. Olympic delegation, so the scale of their press conference would also be more prominent. Every press conference could be regarded as a gathering of stars. However, this time, the press conference of the U.S. National Track and Field Team was a little quiet and dull. Due to the effects of the performance-enhancing drug scandal, too many star athletes could not participate in the competition. As such, during the press conference, only Irwin and a few others forcefully held things together.

Although the number of stars had decreased, the number of journalists and reporters did not go down. Those who were journalists tended to be curious, so they wanted to see the condition of the team that had been baptized by the performance-enhancing drug scandal. Apart from that, there were also people who had ulterior motives that were there to cause trouble.

A male journalist with black-bordered spectacles received the microphone and asked, “I heard some rumors saying that the selection for the current national team lacks justice and fairness. Some athletes whose results were not great during the qualifiers, even those who were eliminated in the first round, were actually brought onto the national team. As for some other athletes whose results were clearly better in the qualifiers, they were not selected. I would like to know if this rumor is true?”

“Someone really asked such a question.” The chief operating officer, Frey, smiled calmly. Composed, he answered, “Before this, our only standard of measure for an athlete was their results during the Olympic qualifiers. However, due to the special circumstances of this year, some of our athletes had become involved in the performance-enhancing drugs scandal and left the national team. As the time to register with the International Olympic Committee was limited, we had to submit the participants’ name list to the committee as soon as possible. That is the reason why some of the athletes were personally selected by our head coach, Mr. Dai Li.”

The bespectacled journalist continued asking, “Then, Mr. Dai Li, when you selected the athletes, how did you ensure fairness?”

The microphone was passed to Dai Li. He pondered the question for a bit, and said, “Regarding the selection of the athletes, I selected the athletes who were better.”

“Then how did you determine whether one athlete was better than the other? What is your standard?” The bespectacled journalist asked with an unrelenting tone.

“There is a lot. For example, body condition, individual talent, sports ability, overall ability, work rate, mental stability, injury proneness, all are taken into account. Even ambition is within the range of my consideration. I will comprehensively review everything before finally selecting a suitable athlete,” Dai Li answered slowly.

“Your comprehensive review?” The bespectacled journalist laughed in disdain, “Then can I assume that you selected athletes based on your personal preferences?”

Dai Li frowned a little. The journalist’s questions were very sharp and targeted. Obviously, the only thing he was afraid of was the world at peace. He was here to cause trouble.

“Of course you can’t assume that, because your understanding itself is a mistake,” Dai Li’s expression became stern. He then continued, “To be selected by me, the athlete’s overall strength needs to be acknowledged by myself. This has nothing to do with personal preferences. To acknowledge a person’s strength and to like a person, these are two completely different things.”

Dai Li spread his hands and continued, “For example, the best actor of the Oscars, you might not like him, but you will definitely acknowledge his acting skills. You can’t say that the actor doesn’t have any acting skills because you don’t like this actor. Or perhaps you are of the opinion that the reason every Oscar winner has won is not that of their excellent acting skills, but it is because the judges liked them better?”

The bespectacled journalist suddenly did not know what to say. Initially, he had wanted to cheat and shift the concept a little. He didn’t know that Dai Li was also adept at this trick.

“Then how do you prove that the athletes you chose are stronger? What if some among them are actually weaklings?” The bespectacled journalist asked in exasperation.

“You’re a journalist, you should be able to tell the value of a news report because that is your job. In the same way, I am a coach, so it is natural that I am able to tell the overall ability of an athlete. It is my talent. A different industry is a completely different world. You are not a coach, so you might feel that what I’ve said is ridiculous; however, if you were to let me, a sports coach, do your job I would also be clueless,” Dai Li answered.

When talking about the professionalism of a sports coach, the bespectacled journalist was clearly not Dai Li’s opponent. Even if it were a sports journalist who excelled in writing sports-related reviews and critique, when it came to professionalism, they could never compare against a professional coach.

The journalist obviously did not admit defeat, he continued saying, “Coach Li, based on what you’ve said, only athletes that you acknowledge are allowed to enter the national team? You make me feel as if you are a dictator, it’s not democratic at all.”

“Democratic? So you think we should hold a vote to see who enters the national team? Then we don’t need the Olympic anymore. We can vote to decide the champion. Would that be democratic enough for you?” Dai Li looked coldly at the bespectacled journalist and said, “There has never been democracy in competitive sport. It’s a dog eat dog world, survival of the fittest. Your democracy won’t help the U.S. national team gain even one piece of medal!”

As Dai Li spoke, he patted his chest and said, “And I am the head coach of the U.S. National Track and Field Team. So my acknowledgment is the standard and prerequisite for entering the U.S. National Track and Field Team!”

At that moment, Dai Li was emanating an aura that resembled an overbearing and robust CEO.