The Coach's Weakness

A chipped coffee mug sits on the conference table, its handle repaired with blue electrical tape: diagonal wraps, no overlap wrinkles, edges pressed flat. Declan O'Rourke stares at it instead of at the six faces across from him. Somebody in this building cares about fixing things that are broken, and that matters. He has already counted the ceiling tiles. Seventeen, one water-stained. Asked about his philosophy on player development, he says he believes in teaching grown men to tie their skates properly so they do not break an ankle in the first period of game three of a playoff series, because that is what happened to him and it cost his team the series. The room goes quiet enough to hear the fluorescent hum. Declan has been chasing this interview for three weeks. His system got him fired from an ECHL team after seventeen games. His system put a player in the hospital with a concussion during a drill he designed himself. He has spent six months waking at four in the morning in hotel rooms, doing arithmetic on how much longer he can afford to keep applying. At the end of the table sits the other candidate. Julian Vasquez has a tailored navy suit, a watch under his cuff, five years as an associate coach where his teams won two division titles, a degree in sports management, and the hands of a man who has never taped a stick in his life. He also has a father who owns thirty-seven percent of the franchise, and he says so out loud, in the room, like it is a credential. Sofia Reyes tells Declan the truth afterward. The head coaching job went to Julian weeks ago. The interview was a formality. What she is offering is the seat beside him. So Declan's first day in the league is spent running water bottles while the roster snickers, taking orders from a man whose spreadsheets keep telling the team to do things the ice does not support, and being reminded that an associate head coach is an assistant. His younger brother Aidan plays on this roster, which is most of why Declan wanted the job and all of why he cannot afford to lose it. Aidan is also lying to him by omission, and Ruby Chen, the rookie equipment manager with a roll of tape permanently in her back pocket, is the reason. An MM sports romance set around an AHL team and a Calder Cup run: a coach with a system that hurt somebody, a rival who was ruined by his own father, and two men who cannot be seen doing this. The romance is closed-door.