Sophomore Coach at an Advanced Level

Sport School, President's office.

Principal Lü did not look happy. He was dissatisfied with the results of the qualifying test.

40% of students from the sports school training program had passed the test, compared to the 30% passing rate of other high schools. Such results indicated that the sports school had a more advanced training system than the other schools. However, this "advantage" was only data. It didn't help much with the fierce college entrance competition.

In Yuzhou City, there were about one thousand graduates per high school every year. Out of these one thousand students, only thirty or forty were qualified as sports talent. Therefore, the 10% increase of the passing rate meant three or four more students would pass the qualifying test, and be offered with some advantages during the college entrance exam. But the increase of these three or four more students out of one thousand wouldn't make much of a difference in improving the college acceptance rate of the school.

The crucial factor was not the 10% passing rate, but the two admissions for independent recruitment. Sports talent students with this admission could be regarded as having a test-free entrance to college. This advertisement sounded way better than the "high attainment rate."

Consider this: a special secondary school has cultivated test-free college students. Isn't that nice? Even though getting college admissions sounded like a vanity project, it could polish Principal Lü's resume. He had only held the position for two years, and was really in need of some achievements to consolidate his power and enhance his reputation. According to Lü's original estimate, the school could have at least gotten one admission, maybe even two of them, but the cruel fact was that they had gotten none. In other words, Principal Lü hadn't achieved anything.

Feeling defeated, Principal Lü inquired into who had received those two admissions. The answer was a bitter pill to swallow. The two admissions were taken by a coach's two students, and that coach, Dai Li, was once an assistant coach in Lü's sport school, but was later fired.

If Dai Li had quit his job, Lü could find an excuse for himself that Dai Li looked down upon the sports school. But Li had been fired. It looked like the sports school had created a strong opponent themselves. They had shot themselves in the foot.

Principal Lü was unhappy. He immediately called the Personnel Sectional Chief into his office for the ins and outs. Standing in front of the president, the man looked aggrieved.

"Principal Lü, it was not my idea to fire Dai Li," the Personnel Sectional Chief tried to explain.

"It wasn't you? Then tell me, who else could do that? YOU are the chief of personnel!" Principal Lü sounded even more serious.

The chief hesitated. He noticed that Principal Lü was about to flare up. To keep himself safe, he told the truth. "It was Director Zhao from the training department who wanted to fire Dai Li. He said that Dai Li was too good to be in our school. That was why he fired Li."

Lü looked forbidding. What a bad excuse Zhao had found! Even a child would not have believed that. Lü could sense that there might be some private resentment between Zhao and Li. Zhao was using his power to satisfy a personal grudge. Principal Lü could bear Zhao's abuse of his own power, but what he couldn't stand at all was Zhao's damage to the school, let alone the huge loss of his achievements.

Lü then said with a cold voice, "You are in charge of personnel. If there is anything wrong, you report it directly to me. Don't follow other people's commands."

"Principal Lü, people had been saying that Director Zhao would take our retired vice-president's position and would be the future vice-president. That's why I listened to Zhao's command, I did not want to reject him." The chief shifted all the responsibilities of the decision to Director Zhao in order to keep himself free from punishment.

"He wants to be the new vice-president? Humph!" Principal Lü ended the conversation with a snort.

The chief shrunk. It looked like Director Zhao had just lost his superior's support. Zhao was going to have a hard time.

...

While the conversation between the chief and Principal Lü was taking place, Dai Li was on a train to Qingcheng City.

Haiyang Chen, Qingliang Xu, and all the other students were still on his training list, but once they couldn't receive Li's continuous training, they would automatically be cleaned out from the System. This meant that they would not be able to enjoy the benefits of the explosive force halo anymore, but Li didn't care. The students' training goal was to obtain a second-level athlete qualifying certificate, and now all of them had gotten it. Li had finished his job. He got paid to train them, and without further payment, they shouldn't expect him to help them forever.

If one was not aiming to be a professional athlete, the explosive force halo was not very useful. People who chose to be sports talent students were actually looking for an easier way to enter college rather than dreaming of being professional athletes. The certificate they had just gotten could speed up the process and help them pass the big, life-determining exam.

As for the special test the students were required to take before they got admitted to college, as long as they passed the fractional line they would be recruited. Li believed in his students. They could make it even without the halo.

Between Haiyang Chen and Qingliang Xu, one had C+ level talent, while the other had C level. Those two had the potential to become professional sprinters. But to become a qualified athlete, what they really needed was a combination of their talents and a lot of effort rather than a halo. In fact, soon after they finished the qualifying test, Li was no longer their coach. They were passerbys in each other's life. It was time to say goodbye.

...

Qingcheng City was not only a capital city, but a port city as well. Due to its resource advantages, Qingcheng City was economically developed. It was a leading city among second-tier cities, and was about to be in the first-tier. 

As a big city, Qingcheng City had a well-developed sports industry. For physical education, in addition to the Provincial Sport University and the sports school, it had a special ping-pong training school, a basketball training school, and a soccer school, which was rarely seen elsewhere. As for commercial sports, it had a professional basketball team, which was eligible for A-level league matches; it also owned two professional soccer teams for domestic super league matches and First Division.

This city provided a nice opportunity for a coach's future development, but for a newbie like Dai Li, working experience was more important. At the end of the one-month probation after signing a one-year contract, Dai Li became a permanent employee in the Provincial Sport University.

Qingcheng City had a higher living standard than Yuzhou City, but it also offered a higher income. Dai Li spent most of his time on campus. He usually ate at the school canteen, which served cheaper food than the food in off-campus restaurants. He also lived in a 4-bed postgraduate dorm. It was way better than the dorm he lived in when he was in college. As an employee under contract, he was not qualified to live in a single room dormitory like the teachers, but he was satisfied. Dai Li had only left college a few months ago, yet he felt like he had time traveled back to his college days, living in a dorm, eating at a canteen, in and out of classes on time, and playing computer games or chatting with his roommates in his spare time.

As an assistant coach, Li's job was simple. Coach Chen would give him weekly training plans beforehand, then Li was the one who actually trained the athletes. Things like guiding stretch exercises and strength training was also Li's work. Coach Chen was too busy to take care of every athlete, so he only offered crucial guidance occasionally.

Dai Li owned the training System, so it was no wonder why his training was more effective than the other assistant coaches. As time went by, Coach Chen approved of his training, and Chen was willing to offer Li more training tasks.

Dai Li was eager to participate in training as much as possible. In the Provincial Sport University he was able to train some professional athletes who could bring him much more empirical value than high school students. Thanks to these professionals, Li's empirical value had been increasing rapidly. Within only three months, he had obtained the 3,000 points of experience he needed.

Finally, Dai Li had reached the senior phase of third-rate coach.