A MEETING WITH THE CAPTAIN

It was a new day, the sun is bright and the sunlight is warm and not harsh, the birds keep chirping, and the breeze is so cool, the leaves of the plants are covered from the dew drops. The level of noise pollution in the morning are less compared to the other times of the day, the morning hours best for exercising with some students taking advantage of that to break some sweat by keeping fit while some students tried to make swift steps in order to make it early for the morning lecture. The mower could be seen on his sunglasses earplugs and fashionable leather work boots effortlessly reducing the height of the 6-10 inch grass that made up the ASU Soccer complex. Academic and non academic staffs trooped to their offices, lecture halls and duty posts to kick start another day in the now busy academic community.

David just parked into his new office, the building David's office was in accommodated all staffs that attended to all sports the university participated in at the NCAA level, it contained the sports gym and the physio center, it was called the the ASU department of sports and youth development complex. It was a four storey building with David's office located at the left hand corner of the second floor of the building.

David's new office was a bit touchy with the designing done according to his taste and fancy, there was a walnut bookcase lining the entire left wall, with a leather sofa with a fur rug over the back and an Indian blanket draped over the arm. The far wall had a large fireplace and mantle dominating the center, there were two antique clocks and a painting of his idol sir Alex Ferguson with the inscription of a motivational quote of his which read '_the experience of defeat or more particularly the manner in which a leader reacts to it is an essential part of what makes a winner.'_ There is a television on the shelf to the right, on top of that shelf is another is another painting of the sir Alex Ferguson with an inscription '_you only learn from defeats not victories.'_ The view through the door panes is a southern pine Forest. The side of his desk is a large walnut piece rather imposing with glass over the top. His chair is of egronomic build, to the left behind the chair is another bookshelf atop a matching file cabinet. The energy star ceiling fan keeping the air moving in an otherwise enclosed space. On his L-shaped office desk he had an apple desktop computer to his left and a heap of books that included coaching guides, Soccer drill guides and his tactic book which was on top. He was reviewing the list of the immediate past Soccer team players when he heard a knock on the door "come in he says" curious to know who would make his way into his office, it was Dr Patrick Noah otherwise known as pastor Patrick Noah. He was about 6 feet tall with wavy hair and blood shot eyes, he had a dark spot beneath his jaw but his dark skin made the spot look rather gross, he wore a t-shirt that was tucked in his colourful pair of jeans trousers, his Nike trainers and a big silver crucifix he wore round his neck made this black American who was in his forties look rather fashionable for a man of God. "Good morning sir" said David who was filled with bewilderment, wondering what would make a stranger come into his office so early in the morning. He was not expecting any visitors other than the team captain who agreed to meet with him by 10am "hey hello good morning how's your day?" Pastor Noah greeted back offering his hand for a handshake "uh I am good...u?"

"I am fine" both men exchanged handshakes "surprised to see me?"

# "I mean yeah, I wasn't expecting any visitors this early, you're?" David asked arkwardly "pastor Patrick Noah but you can call me pastor Pat, I belong to the May fair church of Christ ministries" with pastor Pat's introduction and his surprise visit David now thought he was up for a gospel sermon. "Okay nice to meet you" David said. "I heard of your employment as the new Soccer coach and I decided to stop by and say hello." David now felt some ease within him after learning that he wasn't going to receive a sermon. After learning that Mr pat was some pastor he started feeling guilty because he remembered he forgot to pray before coming to school and he hadn't looked at his Bible for over a month and him being reminded of his spiritual growth would probably make him feel he was a son of the devil. "I know you probably wondering what a pastor would be doing at office this early but I want to let you know that I am the spirit head of the Alabama state University soccer team" David became astonished and couldn't think of something to say, he struggled to express how surprised he was "whoa the spirit head of the team!" He raised his eyebrows "uh!" He hid his face in his palms letting out a smile "yes sir...you okay?" Pastor pat chuckled "yeah I jus...I just thought you were some pastor trying to get some audience for the gospel" David was now face up, pastor Pat started laughing "no, no I am not here to do that" he said "but time would come for that though" both men now bursted into laughter "I look forward to that because you look like a very good preacher, like T D Jakes" both men continued their laughter "oh fact I am a really good preacher thanks to the grace of God in it's abundance within me, and just to let you know we got a campus event coming up, here's a flier, if you eager to see me preach you try to make yourself available at the address slated in the flier and I promise you, you'll never be the same" David collected the flier glanced through it and admired the design"okay pastor I'll try my best to be available, thank you"

"Uh that's fine, so tell me how do you feel being a new employee in this University?" Pastor Pat asked "uh...I am so happy and privileged to be working alongside the staffs here at this University, I mean coming to work and seeing people so dedicated to their different duties in other to maintain the excellent standard of the university both academically and non academically, it's kinda motivating you know, also I see this job as a new challenge" David replied. Pastor Pat looked curious "whoa a new challenge, there's something you ain't telling me, you sound like you done this for a long time now." With the way things went while David was the head coach of the red wolves of Arkansas David was not willing recall or even reflect on the details of the story. "Yeah two seasons with the red wolves of Arkansas, didn't work out" he said "oh sorry man, must have been a hard time for you" Pastor Pat now looked concerned. "You know it ain't good experience looking at them ol coaches getting relieved of they duties - especially when you seen how hard they tried to put things together, they try this and try that, nothing works, at the end of the day they let the pressure of handling the job consume them, bad results, players get funny, fans get impatient boom you thrown out" he continued. Now that was a story line that David never wanted to experience for the second time, and to David that sounded scary, scarier than an evil laugh in a horror movie. "Yeah been there before, however what do you mean by the players get funny?" David asked eager to understand what pastor Pat had said. No doubt David had experienced an unpleasant locker room atmosphere but he was curious to know what sort of thing he was going up against in the new environment "uh those dudes they nasty and can get in a bout with each other at the slightest provocation, in morality I give em an E cause most of the guys there are addicted to porno's and some of em mess around with like two, three or even five girls all because they athletes and they famous in college." David grinned "huh I know it sounds morally independent but they are humans and the girls love em, it's not easy to just get rid of em." Now David was very well familiar with his players messing around, it was sometimes embarrassing to have promiscuous dudes on the team, but he never cared about judging them as he felt they were only following their natural instincts. "okay okay fine they humans we have no right to judge them but some of those dudes let their relationships, fame and promiscuity get into they heads and it affects they performance on the pitch in a negative way. Not all of them fall into this category but the dudes that fall into this category I fear for they future cause they lack discipline" pastor Pat expressed pain saying this because many a time he felt horrible seeing players he spent time advising, motivating and praying for doing shit, real shit proudly expressing their promiscuity, attending wild parties in summary showing high level of indiscipline, he knew what the end was like for those kind of dudes, pain, confusion, insecurities, unnecessary pride and ego and worse BAD PERFORMANCES that led to BAD RESULTS and of course STDs. "I have seen a lot of things for the seven years I've been here, and this job you have taken responsibility of, ain't going to be no child's play and pray for God's grace each day you step your foot in here cause you don't want that dark history you experienced in Arkansas here in Alabama cause this as you say is a new challenge for you and this could be your defining moment or the moment you wished never happened" David became daunted by that statement but he understood that pastor Pat was not in any way pleased with the status of the ASU in the S.W.A.C. league and the disintegration of the team making him long for the golden years. "Look man, I don't mean to get you under pressure but this job, my spirit tells me is going to be a big test for you, you are the third coach that have been hired since Mr Lewis Smith left, please do your best to get these dudes back in order cause we all here in the ASU we are concerned about our soccer, we want to get back to the glory days, yes it's gonna be tough, but do your best, you have my support" David couldn't be more grateful getting some advice and support from an influential staff as pastor Pat. "I promise you sir I would give my best to make sure this team changes for the better, I can't guarantee us success but all I can guarantee is my absolute best" David said. "So in any case I'm gonna take my leave, here's my card, if you need anything or you going through stuff just give me a call, I am always available "pastor Pat stretched hand offering David a white card "thanks a lot pastor I do appreciate your kindness" David collected the card and stared at it "so take care and see you later"

Thanks a lot once again wishing you a successful day" David said cheerfully as he watched pastor Pat make his way out of the office with door closed behind him.

David continued glance at the card pastor Pat handed to him and the card made him realize that pastor Pat was not just the spirit head of the soccer team but he was also a professor of social psychology under the department of psychology right there in the ASU. "Whoa this is dope, he sure is the right man for the job" he blurted out.

It was twenty minutes past ten, David looked at his watch and wondered why the team captain had not shower up, he was however concerned but he decided to watch a movie on his i phone to keep himself occupied till he showed up. About ten minutes later the door to the office swung open. A male figure appeared, he was stocky and had a Stern face, his brown hair was still visible even with the white face cap he put on, he wore an Ash muscle fit shirt coupled with a pair of sky blue baggy jeans and a Jordan 4 retro sneakers, he wore a vera Bradley campus backpack and the freckles beneath his jaw made him look too mature for a guy in his early twenties. "Sorry I'm late coach" he grabbed a chair and sat down with his huge hands resting on David's L-shaped desk "I had to attend to some school stuff - it was urgent" the fact that this freckled faced dude did not give a knock on the door before coming in scared the hell out of David "whoa you got me going there for a sec try to use a knock on the door next time, you really scared me"

"Oh that, I'm sorry sir" he let out a grin. "So you said you needed me."

"I'm yes I said so." David appeared like something just downed on him with his eyes wide open for a split second. "I wanted you to give me an update on the situation report of the locker room which includes all the team players and what's your name again?"

"Bryan Donaldson" he replied "Bryan I want you to give me an update on the team starting from the number of players and what players you think are key to the team cause I just got here and..."

# "Firstly the team's made up of eighteen players." He cut in"two goalies and sixteen outfield players and some guys are cool while some of em are dick heads and for the meantime I don't see any one I can call a top player on the team but I know a guy Roger Spencer I think he is a good player"

"Wow eighteen players, don't you think it a bit odd to have just eighteen players registered in the college team" David said slowly trying to be careful with each word. "Yeah we were about twenty seven in number, but four are graduated, three have opted out of the team and the remaining guy he's with the basketball team now, this was confirmed when we had our virtual meeting last Thursday" Bryan said "what! Four players opted out of the team?" He was shocked "you know any reason for them leaving the team?"

"Nothing more than criticisms, bad results and perceived lack of organization within the team I guess, aside that they didn't tell me nothing" David shook his head "do you think they would ever come back?" David asked "given the circumstances the team faced last season, I doubt any of those four would reconsider their decision, I think the best thing to do is to recruit some new players"

"Huh" David sighed "I am quite supposed to hear that four college guys opted out of the team, I mean there's a lotta students out there who would give everything just to get an opportunity to represent this University in one way or another"

"Uh coach as a fellow team player and captain I wouldn't blame them that much, things were pretty ugly around here" said Bryan. "I don't think it was wise to just opt out cause things are pretty ugly, as a team player you are supposed to be with the team in the good times and bad times, anyways since you have doubts those guys would get back to being part of the team, can't force em, I've never and would never beg anyone to be part of my team no matter how talented you are cause as far as I know everyone great and small can and will be replaced cause we don't live forever you know" David said emphatically. "Yeah coach whatever" Bryan turned his head away and looked disinterested

"Well first of all since it's a new season we would need a new training schedule and I am thinking Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Is that fine by you Bryan?"

"Anything you say coach, it's your decision to make, we players are to follow" Bryan replied "okay there it is then, today is Tuesday and tomorrow we'll skip it training starts on Friday" David rested on his chair and drummed his fingers in his desk "tomorrow with the permission of the sports director I'm gonna drop a message on the schools platform on the immediate need for some new recruits that would be tested and screened... So that's all, don't forget training is Friday inform others okay" Bryan stood up heaving a sigh "okay coach no qualms... Uh one more thing" Bryan leaned towards David with his hands on the desk "the locker room's pretty bad and don't be surprised to see lots of fighting, cursing and stuff cause some of the players are short tempered and cannot withstand a fellow teammate's bantering and pranks even joke's, but what's funny is the bantering and pranks don't stop and the fights keep coming on a regular basis" Bryan said looking disappointed. David noticed it "don't worry Bryan I would try my best to maintain decorum among the players... It's gonna be fine" David assured him.

"I pray so too coach, I'd be gone now" Bryan turned back and reached for the door. With Bryan out David prayed real hard for the locker room atmosphere not to be as bad as he feared.