Chapter 300 Using a Coach as an a.s.sistant 6
After returning from cla.s.ses Jake did the training with the basketball team and got a call from Tiffany, he perked up thinking it should be about the coach he was expecting.
"Hi Jake, I called to let you know that I was able to talk to that coach I told you about, he said he would get to university today to talk to you."
"So fast, did you check him for me?"
"Yes, all is well with him, this coach has trained several universities without complaint and seems to have traveled around the state and even abroad to improve his coaching skills."
"How does someone so qualified need money?"
"I checked that too, his reason is legitimate, but it"s very personal so I"ll let him tell you in person, but I think it"s very likely that you will eventually decide to hire him unless you are very picky."
After talking to Tiffany, Jake didn"t have to wait long hours to see this coach she spoke so well, he appeared to be a healthy 5-foot man, black hair with a few white strands, was probably wearing a social s.h.i.+rt because he knew that He would find Jake, black eyes and a common face.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Smith, my name is Frank Davis, I spoke to a woman named Tiffany on the phone and she told me that I should come here to talk to you in person."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Davis, I think we"d better go to a restaurant to talk better."
After a few minutes they formed a restaurant near the university, Jake had not eaten anything early and Davis also did not seem to have eaten and seemed tired from the trip as soon as they ordered the food to the waitress again.
"What you said is right, I asked you to come here through Tiffany, I"m looking for a qualified coach and I think you might be the right person, but I know you have some personal situations that may be involved, so I would like to know some things about you."
"That"s right, I"m 40 years old, I have a degree in physical education and I did some muscle recovery ma.s.sage courses, then I did a few more specializations and even sought to improve my ability abroad."
"I worked at some universities for a few years, but I was not satisfied with their investments in athletics and athletes, in many places athletes had difficulty even paying for travel to compete and even for basic living expenses."
"So athletes had to look for sponsors.h.i.+p to compete, they had a lot of problems with that, so I decided to open my own gym with the money I had received."
"In that time I coached a lot of athletes, but none achieved outstanding performance in sports, the best ranking was eighth in a marathon that didn"t have good athletes competing."
"But I could still support my family and have a good standard of living, and I knew it would take years to prepare good athletes and had to be lucky to find someone talented, so I was pleased."
"The problem was that my 6-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a rare disease, the disease could end up killing her and there was no cure, so we had to pay for a series of emergency surgeries."
"After she was out of danger we found that we had to pay for expensive medicine every month for her to stay healthy and have a normal life when she grew up."
"But at that point, I had sold the gym to pay for surgery costs and my wife had quit her job to take care of our daughter, now I need a job that pays better than I can expect to earn to pay for my medicine daughter and support my family."
"This situation continues for a few months, I have a job and I still have money left from the sale of my gym, but I don"t know how many years we can afford my daughter"s medicine, and I found out from a coach friend that you were looking for a coach."
Just as Tiffany hoped Jake felt touched by the life story of coach Frank Davis, someone capable but unlucky in life, he remembered him in his past life who also went through some such situations.
Also, just as Tiffany had said Mr. Davis was more than qualified to be his coach, so Mr. Davis also needed money so he should accept some demands from Jake.
Jake had no problems with money, in fact originally the money he received from sponsors.h.i.+p was precisely for him to pay a coach and devote himself to the sport, Jake never needed it and was always successful and so his sponsors never charged anything like this.
"Well then, Mr. Davis, I was really convinced that you may be the person I"m looking for to train me, but I first need to know how much you need to pay for these drugs to get an idea of how much you need to get paid."
Even if Jake had a lot of money he could not pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a month as salary for a coach, so he should know how much he could offer a salary for coach Davis.
"My daughter"s medicine has a monthly dose that costs $ 10,000."
A monthly dose for $ 10,000 meant that he would have to pay $ 120,000 a year, which was not too high for Jake, but for a lifetime remedy it was a considerable amount, and Coach Davis would have to receive more. $ 15,000 a month to support your family and still pay for the medicine.
"I understand your situation, I can offer you a salary of $ 20,000 a month, should be enough for you to take care of your family."
"Thank you, Mr. Smith, I appreciate the opportunity very much."
"But before we agree to that, I have some conditions involving the training."
"Sure, you can tell."
"As you may know I"m studying at UNC University and playing basketball on the Tar Heels team, so I play once every two or three days for several months a year, and in the future, I plan to join the NBA so it will be harder to find time available."
"Still, whenever I can, I do my private training, but even if you are my trainer, I probably won"t be able to have any training schedules and you will have to adapt to my free time to organize my training."
"I know it seems weird to think like that, but I managed to get everything I have in marathons by doing things that way, so it"s a reality you"ll have to accept."
Frank Davis thought for a while what Jake was talking about, that would mean that he would have no coaching authority and would only have to follow through with his training plans when Jake was available.
Normally this would be unacceptable for a coach who had to have authority over his athletes in training, but he understood that Jake"s situation was different as he had many things to do and was still a basketball player and intended to continue as a professional basketball player.
Also, just as Jake had said he was only 18 now and already an elite and best marathoner in the world, so it was clear that Jake didn"t need to change his training, so it seemed that Jake just intended to improve his training methods and not the time he spent training.
"I understand, I agree with that."
"Great, there"s one more thing, everything that goes through our training including my physical condition, my training method, my physical and medical exams has to be kept in secret, I want a confidentiality contract for that."
"Of course, I have no problem with that."
"Another thing is that we will not have a normal coach and athlete contract, so you get no commission from my sponsors.h.i.+ps or from the rewards of the compet.i.tions I win."
"I agree with that too."
Jake was doing this to make sure there was no way his secrets could be uncovered. Athletes usually take several exams of all kinds so that coaches can do the best training programs that fit only the athlete and the athlete to have the best enjoyment.
Jake knew that well, but he usually s.h.i.+ed from taking these full exams, he just took the exams to prove that he had not ingested any substance that would improve his performance in official races.
But Coach Frank Davis would definitely ask for all sorts of exams often, and once he won a few more major marathons he would greatly improve his overall stats and surely something would change.
There was no way anyone could be suspicious that he was back in time or that he had a system in his body, and even if they were suspicious no one would believe it and they would have no way of proving it, but the more accurate exams and performance tests would surely have big changes with these improved statistics.
So to avoid problems it was better to ensure the secrecy of coach Frank Davis, as to why the coach was not ent.i.tled to partic.i.p.ate in sponsors.h.i.+ps and the rewards of compet.i.tions he wins in the coming years was another situation.
The sponsors.h.i.+ps Jake received were more from basketball than from athletics, and when he joined the NBA he would receive tens of millions every year from basketball, so it was normal that he didn"t want to mix things up with his athletic coach.
While partic.i.p.ating in the rewards of compet.i.tions he won was because he didn"t want coach Frank Davis to keep insisting that he partic.i.p.ate in multiple marathons during the year just to receive a commission from the races Jake won.
That was a reality so it was better to be forewarned, for Coach Frank Davis it just seemed like Jake was being stingy if it went on like that he would not be a coach but an a.s.sistant to Jake who was just taking orders.
But as he needed the money he had to accept all the demands that Jake made, besides training Jake he would be training the best marathoner in history, for sure in the future he could work elsewhere and get a good salary to take care of his life daughter in a few years.
"So it"s all settled, from now on Mr. Frank Davis will be my athletic coach, after you sign the contracts my lawyer gives you, you can come here to talk to me again."
"Call me Coach Davis instead of Mr. Davis, in a few days I"ll be here."