Page 22 of My Brother's Enemy
So that meant…
Tyler: You from around here, Slick?
She didn’t reply, and after a full minute of silence, I had a feeling she wasn’t going to. I put my phone away, feeling somewhat odd.
“You good? Who the fuck were you texting?”
Crap.
I forgot Shetland.
16
RAIN
My methods were simple. I watched the players, got to know them, and I tried to let them get to know me. That was mostly it. So much of the focus was on winning, and that was the first obstacle for my job. If the pressure was off, if the guys were having fun, if they were focused on doing the best they could against themselves, then the body relaxed. Muscle memory took over. The focus got clearer. It always depended on the player, the team, and the coaching.
Some of the newer guys sought me out to ask questions, but the veterans were more resistant. I’d learned that was part of the job as well. Management had hired me. Not the team. Not the coach.
Except I stopped caring about that, because in a meeting, I made the observation that Sunny was holding back.
The meeting came to a halt, and all the coaches looked my way.
“What do you mean?” Coach Hines asked.
“He was trained to be the left winger, and somewhere in his mind, I’m guessing that means he thinks his job is just to assist the center. It’s not. You all know that, but when Bruge was thecenter, Sunny matched him, every step of the way. When Bruge moved, Sunny was beside him. He’s doing the same thing with Griffin, but Griff’s faster. He’s better than Bruge, and yet Sunny is still beside him the entire way. I think there’s potential in Sunny that’s not being tapped, and I also think it’s an easy fix.”
They were silent.
Coach Hines cleared his throat and leaned forward in his seat. It squeaked under his weight. “A simple fix?”
I tried to gauge Coach Hines to see if he was going to be offended if I continued on this pathway. I decided to proceed. This was my job. “He needs to be told that he can find openings, make openings,” I explained. “He needs to be told he can also be the star, and then it’s classic conditioning. Tell him, then give him a chance to do it. Reinforce when he does it and repeat. Eventually the lightbulb turns on. You’ll know when he’s broken through the old way of thinking because he’ll walk into the locker room differently.Thenwatch how the team reacts to him. He’s your first building block to changing their mindset.”
I was half lying because the coaches’ mindsets were also an early building block. They needed to change alongside the team.
“Griffin—” Coach began.
I shook my head. I knew where this was going, and this was part of their problem. “There can be more than one stand out talent on the team. Griffin is very aware of this. He’ll be the first to get excited about this change. He’s used to winning. He wants to win. Griffin is another tool to use to start changing the team’s mindset. He wins. Do what he does, and when you find yourselves wanting to hold back and put up some resistance, come to me. You have two winners on your team right now, Griffin and Brick. Bothexpectto win.”
As I looked around the table again, I could see they were listening.
“I’d like to spend one-on-one time with the players, and some of that might be on the ice. Benoit assured me I’d be allowed freedom for my methods, but you’re the coaches. I’d like to make sure you’re okay with that.”
The assistant coaches looked puzzled, but one by one they turned to Coach Hines, who just continued to watch me as if I mystified him. Eventually he realized they were waiting for him to say something, and he cleared his throat. “Yeah. Uh, that’s fine. Just not for extended periods of time. I don’t want them over conditioning.”
I smiled, giving a nod in thanks. I was aware they were going on blind faith here. They’d been told about my success with American football, but they hadn’t a clue about my knowledge ofthisparticular game.
It wasthe end of the day’s practice when I saw that Brick and Meester had stayed to talk to the goalie coach.
I waited until they skated off. “Brick.”
He turned to look at me.
The goalie coach glanced over, so I held his gaze, trying to remind him of the meeting this morning. After a moment he gave me a nod and continued, leaving us.
“Can I shoot on you?” I asked.
Brick had taken off his helmet, so I could see that my question caught him off guard. “Uh.” He looked beyond me, probably seeking out the coach before agreeing. “Yeah. Uh… You just want me in the crease?”
