Declaration
Declaration
After hanging up Coach Swendel put his phone away into his pocket before running his hand through his blonde hair, which at this point he had let grow out a bit as it now went a bit past his brows, before letting out a long sigh.
"All these reporters are just a bunch of vultures, I swear. The only decent one out of all of them seems to be Gloria."
Since the news first broke with a written online article after the national tournament seedings and matchings were released he had been slammed with call after call.
He then recalled the lone text that Gloria had sent 'Saw the news, you and the boys taking it okay?' "I should probably get back to her soon."
Dressed in a nice white collared long sleeve with the sleeves rolled up to just above his elbows and a pair of denim jeans Coach Swendel sinks into the new leather chair behind his desk.
In the midst of leaning back into his chair with his right leg crossed over his left and rubbing his temples, a knock on his door catches his attention "Come in."
As the door opens the figure of Principal Morris walks in. "Coach, I was hoping you'd be in. You got enough spare time on your hands for a quick talk?"
'You know damn well that I'm up to my neck trying to clean up this PR shitstorm.' But despite his inner thoughts Coach Swendel put on a polite smile.
"Of course sir, for you I always have time haha." He couldn't exactly complain too much as Principal Morris had been more than generous with pay raises and refitting his office with new furnishings.
'Four hundred dollar leather upholstered chair, three-thousand dollar mahogany executive desk.' "Take a seat sir, make yourself comfortable. Should I get some coffee going?"
Principal Morris let his rotund body sink into the chair in front of Coach Swendel's desk before pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe the bit of perspiration that was beginning to form on the glossy surface of his forehead.
"Sorry to take up your time like this. I know you must be a busy man as the Coach of the state champions haha."
'Jesus, just get to the point.' "Busy for sure but I can't say it's been all bad. With all the praises that have been coming my way I almost feel as much of a star as my players are haha.
But I'm sure you didn't come all the way down to hear about me bragging. What brings you to my office Principal Morris?"
Putting away his handkerchief Principal Morris looked Coach Swendel straight in the eyes, the polite smile on his face making his mood somewhat ambiguous and hard to read.
"Well as much as I would like to indulge myself listening to your well-deserved boasting you are correct that I did have some business in mind with today's visit."
For a moment his eyes wandered over to the tablet on Coach Swendel's desk where one of the articles discussing Jeffersons' seeding issue was open.
"You see Coach, as happy as I am with the team's astounding success this year I can't help fearing that this most recent bit of publicity may hurt the team's image.
And you have to understand that all of our increased funding has come from the boon in the team's reputation.
With this being the last year that we'll be having Jason on the roster we really can't afford to have any damage done to the team's reputation. At least not if we want to continue with this level of funding in the future."
Coach Swendel began to rub the back of his neck with his right hand as he returned Principal Morris' gaze.
"I understand sir. And as someone who has benefited pretty nicely from the school's increased funding, I definitely want it to continue even after Jaya moves on to high school.
This seeding debacle is not going to be a problem for the boys or the team. With the amount of talent that we have with the 7th and 6th graders, we'll be doing all right even without Jaya."
"Not that I don't trust in your judgment or the boys' abilities. I just wanted to see if you knew anything about this whole situation.
As far as I know the state champions out of California have always been seeded. A benefit that would have helped us greatly not only in the tournament but with our image going into next year as well. Is there anything we could do about this situation? Any possible wheels we could grease?"
Coach Swendel kept a polite smile on his face as he thought back to the talk he had with Jason. He had been told about what had occurred between him and a member of the association.
When he first heard about it his blood was boiling with rage. But seeing how calmly Jason had recounted the incident he knew that he didn't have to worry.
'That kid isn't the type to take something like this lying down. I'll let him handle it the way he wants to.' Coach Swendel shook his head.
"I wish there was Principal Morris. But it's probably just as the association had said. Our school is making its very first appearance at the National Tournament.
We have no track record and the rest of the schools in the tournament have appeared on the national stage multiple times in the past.
The seedings were given out with that in mind. I'm sure that after this we won't have any similar problems going into the future.
Especially if we do as well as I believe that the boys will. Even without the seeding we'll perform as normal.
If anything this will just give us more opportunities to play on a bigger stage and show just how good we are."
Principal Morris gave a sigh before nodding his head "I'll take your word for it then Swendel." He then got up from his seat and left.
Coach Swendel let out a sigh of relief as he finally allowed his facial muscles to relax, the smile instantly dropping from his face.
'Damn, I'm used to lying to him but this one got me more nervous than usual. But then again this lie was a bit bigger than taking an extra ten during my lunch.'
He then pulled his cellphone back out from his pocket as he opened up his text log that showed a bunch of one-sided conversations.
'Hello Ms. Yuller, how's your day going? The boys are still resting up so no practice today. I'm pretty free and I just so happened to have an extra ticket to a movie tonight.'
He kept on deleting and retyping as none of the drafts seemed satisfactory enough for him.
- - -
Jason wore a pair of black basketball shorts that went a bit past his knees and a white tank top and his standard black headband, befitting attire considering the bright hot sun that hung overhead.
He was walking around a neighborhood with Kyle, DJ, Vince, and Nick, as Javier and Greg followed them camera in tow.
The camera seemed to be recording as from behind the shot Javier spoke out "So it's been a few days since the state tournament came to a close and you guys have a little over a week left until the national tournament starts. How are you guys feeling so far?"
Vince took a swig from the clear gallon jug of water that he was holding before answering "Maaan, we were startin to get tired from all this rest. We spent way too much time with Jaya, we almost the same gluttons for punishment as him."
DJ chuckled "Yeah, almost. But we still feel the pain. At this point I think Jaya be feelin like he gettin a massage everytime his body's sore."
Kyle smiled as he nodded his head "For sure, every time we finish up practice I see Jaya with the biggest smile on his face."
Jason just shook his head "I don't know if you guys actually like practice as much as I do or if you guys just started joining me to get out of studying. I told y'all that you could rest up still."
Nick rolled his eyes before tilting his head to the side to stare at Jason "Bro, you can't even call it rest if you have us studying until our eyes fall out."
Kyle and the rest of the boys began to laugh as they all jumped in to agree with Nick. Javier smiled from behind the camera.
"Seeing how you guys are in such high spirits I take it that the seeding news didn't do much to bring you all down."
Jason turned around to look straight at the camera as he smiled "Bring us down? Maybe if we were a different team.
But anyone that knows anything about us should know that this news was nothing but great. A chance to start playing earlier and against more teams? All that means is more chances for us to shine."
Javier continued "And how do you feel about the comments saying that your team's lack of seeding is a fair evaluation of the team's abilities?"
Jason chuckled as they continued to walk along, he didn't even bother to look back at the camera "Is that comment coming from online casuals? Because you already know what I think of them."
Javier shook his head "Although there were some comments online that followed that train of thought there were also some coaches and players who shared the same sentiment when asked about the oddity of California's state champs not being seeded for the first time in years."
His steps came to a stop as he turned around to face Javier "Can't be too upset. I get it, we're a no-name school making our first appearance at the national level.
We don't have the same history of success that Golden Oaks or other state champions have had. Want us to fight and prove our worth? That's a fair take.
Just don't say you got blindsided when we beat you. If you're one of the seeded teams that think that we just got lucky making it this far you better be ready. Because Jefferson is aiming to take it all this year."