Christen's Pov.
I stepped out of my Toyota highlander and looked at my new workplace. I knew it would be rough for a change of scene, but I knew I had to do it to start over. I grabbed my duffel bag, box of things for my office, and backpack and started to walk to the doors of the high school.
I was parked at the Staff Parking lot so I didn't see many students, but as soon as I stepped in, they were everywhere. The hallways weren't packed, but it wasn't easy to get around. I was already here before for teachers to get ready for the year and what to expect etc etc so I knew where to walk to.
I had to walk down to the Southside of the building, where 'athletics' were located, and found my little office that was near the door to the fields. I walked in, and found a desk, desktop, couple of storage cabinets, and a desk chair. I set my stuff down and started to get unpack my things.
"Well, seems like you are settling in," said a voice I recognized. I turned around and saw my best friend from college.
"Hey Kelley!" as I walked up to hug her.
"Nice to see you here, I was hoping I would find you here."
"Where's your office?"
"Just down the hall, I was here for about a half hour, and still haven't unpacked a single thing. Too busy seeing people."
I rolled my eyes, but smiled, "would you like help?"
"Would you please? I'll let you finish your office of course, its just since this is my first year as Athletic Director, I get a bigger office which means I have more stuff," she complained.
"Well that's good you got a promotion," I pointed out.
"Did you know I was the soccer coach for the girls last year? I loved it when I could wear soccer pants and a sports zip or something, but now I have to wear the school's shirts, and nice pants, or just nice clothing all together," she complained.
"Really? That sucks it must be destined then," I joked.
When Kelley left, I went back to work to fix my office. I put up some posters like a Nike one, a USWNT one, and a couple of others. I then put some files in order, and my desk and sat down.
I had to get a sense of what it would be like for god knows how long, so I needed to use this space to it's best use. I walked down to Kelley's office, and when I walked in, she had already started to unpack her things.
She looked up from what she was doing and smiled, "perfect timing, I just started to put some pictures up, could you put these files away?"
"Sure, I can do that."
We were working for about 45 minutes, when Someone knocked on Kelley's door, "excuse me ladies, I just wanted to let ya'll know there's donuts in the athletic lounge," said a woman's voice.
I turned around to see a woman with brown hair wearing the same clothes as me. Adidas soccer pants, and a zip with a hoodie.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Christen," I said as I stuck out my hand.
"I'm Carli, nice to have a new face down here. What sport?" As she shook it.
"Soccer. Girls soccer."
"Oh okay, well I'm glad to meet you then, I'm part of the SIPG and Medical staff and I'm working with you and your team."
"What does that stand for may I ask?"
"Sports Injury Prevention Group, sorry, should have told you."
"Oh no that's fine. This school can afford that though?"
"Even though we are a public school, we have a lot of money saved in our bank from mostly donations. This school is known for its education and athletics," stated Kelley.
I nodded, "so do you guys want a donut?" Carli asked.
I turned to Kelley who looked at me, and just shrugged her shoulders, "why the hell not?" I said. The three of us headed to the lounge and found three big bakery boxes of donutes, and already there were others hounding the area. When we were there, I met Julie who would be assisting me in coaching the team. Her specialty was defense.
When we grabbed our donuts, we walked back to Kelley's place because the room was already filled up. We chatted how the soccer world was doing, how the school's athletic goal was to win the finals, as they lost last year to penalties against Columbus Academy High School, our biggest rivals.
Carli asked at one point as to how I found this place, and told her I moved back from Sweden and Kelley was able to find something that would still have me do what I love and left it at that. I didn't want her to know why I was back in the states because one, it was too soon to talk about anything, two, I had just met Carli, and three, I wanted to go the whole day without thinking about it. She didn't press on after that, so we went on with a story from her summer. The only person who knew the whole story was Kelley and only her.
"Christen, you know your scheduel yet?" asked Kelley, who finished up with her donut.
"I think so, I'm supposed to have a meeting after noon, and then practice after school with the girls."
"And did you post who is on the Varsity Team?"
"Yes, I posted that a week ago," I moved back here two months ago, and I had already seen all the girls who were trying out. I had others who would help me on who was in Varsity last year, and who seemed have excelled in their skills. I would of course have the final say, but I trusted the others on their inputs and ideas.
"Alright good, your first day is pretty easy, but soon you'll be having to go through papers for your players and other crap I don't miss doing last year," Kelley smiled.
"Sounds like fun," I said sarcastically.
I decided that I needed to get a better feel for the campus, so I first walked around the hallways, and by this point they were empty. It wasn't a maze, but there were a couple times I had to double check as to where I was. I then walked back to the athletic part of the school, and headed outside. I saw the football field a little ways, baseball fields, tennis courts, and then the most beautiful field, soccer.
I walked to the fence that was surrounding the field, which was grass and I exhaled. I would have hated to have turf. There was a track that went around the field, and bleachers on either sides. There were sports lights, and a room up top where commentators could talk over the speakers. The goals have already been set and netted, but the only thing missing were the lines.
I was about to walk back, when I heard a door to a shed open and close. I turned around and saw a person with a soccer ball and going out to the field. I gave a closer look, and saw it was a girl and she started to juggle. She started off with one touching it on either foot, then started to do around the worlds and a few other tricks that were quite impressing.
She had dirty brown hair, but couldn't see her face cause her back was towards me. I didn't want her to turn around and see me watching and thinking I was a creepy person, so I turned around and speed walked back to the building.
I went to my office, and looked at the roster for my team. I scrolled through and read some of their names. Since I was a teacher, I was able to have access to their overall grades and their past grades, but that was all.
I clicked on some, and was either impressed that they were able to stay on top of their academics, and also their team or I frowned at some others. I wasn't going to give one person a better experience over another because of their grades and I knew we would work on that.
I saw who were captains last year, and it said, Becky Sauerbrunn and Tobin Heath. Tobin Heath. That name seemed it had that natural ring to it. I'll definently keep my eyes on those two to see if they would be captains this year too.
After School
It was almost time for school to end, so I changed into a pair of soccer shorts, a Swedish shirt I always wore when I workout and some soccer socks and cleats. I walked out to the practice field and was the first one their. I set my bag down, and went over to the shed and grabbed the bag of soccer balls.
Soon came down Carli in her soccer outfit as well Julie, "I didn't know you played soccer," I said to Carli.
"I did in college, and then played a little after, but I know enough I can past Julie in a game," she teased.
"In your dreams striker. Last time I made a perfectly clean slide tackle and I left you to eat my dust."
"I literally was eating grass once I fell. I remember walking home and Brian thought I jumped out of my moving car. We all laughed as the conversation grew more into funny stories.
We then set up some drills with cones to warm up, and once that was quickly done, I looked around to see if everything was all set. I looked at my watch, and it said 3:10. We had about ten minutes until they were supposed to be down so I killed some time by taking some shots.
I took shot after shot, until I saw some girls walking down. I stopped and walked over to the bench and grabbed my clipboard and pen and I put on my rayban sunglasses.
"Are you guys on the Varsity team?" I asked.
"No, we're on the JV team," said one, "I think your on the wrong field."
"What.. I thought this was the field for varsity?"
"Nah I'm just messing you, yeah we're on the varsity team," she said laughing with her friends.
"Bench warmer," I mummbled as I pretended to write down a note on my board. I saw the look of shock on her friends' faces and the girl who was kidding opened her mouth and it hung from there.
"I'm just kidding with you," I finally said. Now everyone was laughing, and I was glad we cleared the air.
Others started to come down, and once everyone was here, there was a total of 20. "Okay ladies, I'm going to start off by saying I'm your new Coach. My name is Coach Christen Press, but you can just call me coach or Coach Press. To know me a little more, I went to Stanford until I moved on to play semi- professional soccer here and pro in Sweden, until I moved back. For me my goal is to have girls soccer become something more, and I believe coming here was the best decision. But I think we'll start off with practice now."
I directed their warm-ups which was a half mile run, and then some stretching and quick easy passing. I watched as they were practicing. Most of their touches were spot on. A couple were just small mistakes but nothing that would question their skills.
We then moved on to more specific drills for the students. Julie took the defence players and half of the midfielders while I took the forwards and the rest of the mids.
We practiced small space posession skills and then some crossing. There was this one girl in particular who really outshinned the rest in the small space possession skill. She breezed past the others and would fake them out. I was really impressed by this girl's footwork and how she was able to hold the ball. She wasn't a ball hogger, instead she would hold it just enough to have someone get into open space until she'll give it to them. She didn't give crappy passing nor did she ever stop running and walk out of lack of air.
Once that was done, we swtiched the midfielders who were working with the forwards to the defense and vice versa.
After about an hour, it was time to scrimmage. We divided the people up and when I blew the whistle, we started. The girls played tough against each other, and our goalies were like a brick wall whenever a shot was taken. They did everything they learned and put it in the scrimmage, just how anyone would have wanted. I blew the whistle after, and asked if everyone could pick up some cones and come gather by me.
"Great practice today ladies, I was really impressed by what I saw. They'll be practice tomorrow same time and I should have asked this before, but who were the captains last year? "
Two people raised their hands, and when I looked up, I saw one who had a dirty blond hair that was up in a braid and pink pre wrap on. The other one had dirty brown hair that was in a ponytail, she had a a Pinewood soccer shirt and shorts, and her shin guards looked as if they would fall off. But her hazel eyes were what stopped me.
I realized I was looking too long at Tobin, and cleared my throat, "okay thanks you too, and you guys are Becky and Tobin?"
"Yep, I'm Becky, she's Tobin," Becky confirmed.
"Alright, thanks ladies again, recover from the day and I'll see you down here tomorrow."
"Thanks coach!" they all said almost in unison. I smiled and started to pack my bag and talk to Carli and Julie, when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
"Excuse me coach, but you dropped this," and it was the cap for my pen, but who gave it to me I stopped.
"Thanks Tobin, good work out their today," I said.
"Aw thanks, I'm glad I played well," she smiled. Holy shit that smile. Holy shit what the hell is wrong with me?!