Page 32 of Courtside

David nodded.

“Of course you are. It’s your first year as a head coach, and you’re back at Southeastern. It’s a lot.”

“How’d you do it?”

“Transition to being a head coach?” Chuck shifted away from the fridge, reaching in and grabbing a beer. He looked to David in a silent offering, but David shook his head.

Cracking open the can, Chuck seemed to think over the question for a minute before answering. “It was probably different for me because I stayed on after graduation, transitioning right into being a graduate assistant with the team. I learned how to coach here, got to know the staff, and so moving up to being an assistant was easier. I didn’t have to adjust to a new system or culture.”

It made sense. David could only imagine how it would have been different if he’d stayed at Southeastern to coach.

No. He couldn’t have done it. He’d needed time to repair his relationship with the sport, to learn to love it again. He’d needed the space, and he liked to think that he was better for it.

“What about becoming head coach? What changed?” David asked Chuck.

Chuck shrugged. “Honestly, by that point I’d absorbed so much as an assistant that I was ready to put my ideas to the test. Fewer ideas about actually coaching the mechanics of swimming, but more about training and motivation and how to be on a team.Thatwas what made me so hungry to lead.”

“I get that,” David said, thinking of the legal pads full of notes he’d taken on all of the motivational speeches he’d heard coaches deliver over the years. What’d worked, what hadn’t. He finally had the chance to put it all to use. “How long did it take the new team to adapt to you and your style?”

“It was rocky at first, but by Christmas we’d found our stride,” Chuck admitted. Swimming had a similar season to basketball, starting at the beginning of the school year and going through March. “It took a while for them to trust that my ideas worked. Once they made that connection, they were bought in.”

David huffed, turning to the bag of groceries he’d brought over. He began to unload the things he’d picked up from the store that he knew Chuck used frequently. Why the man ate so many damn olives he’d never been able to understand.

Chuck looked down at the spread of food on the counter. “I really didn’t need anything, you know,” he said, but there was a fond smile on his face as he shook his head at David. “But thank you anyway.”

He felt the back of his neck heat, self conscious at being thanked. It was just something that he did whenever he came over here, not wanting to come empty handed. It also felt like a way to gradually pay his friend back for all the years of putting up with him.

“Thanks for the advice,” David said, balling up the bag and stuffing it into Chuck’s trash. “Now how about those burgers?”

“Grill is already hot,” Chuck replied, thankfully picking up on the change of topic. “Grab that spatula for me.”

They spent the rest of the evening in the comfortable lounge chairs out on Chuck’s back patio, catching up while they ate the homemade burgers with potato chips.

Chuck was busy coaching too, but his practices were typically in the early morning, leaving his afternoons free. They tried to hang out at least once a week. Their group of guy friends usually tried to go out to dinner or happy hour at The Grove one afternoon a week as well, but David could admit that he valued the time spent with Chuck differently than the hang outs with the rest of the men.

“Anything new on the dating front?”

David grimaced at the question. “Nope. You?”

“Nah. I kind of turn into a hermit during the season,” Chuck replied. “I mean…I’ll occasionally hook up, but nothing serious.” He shifted in his seat, looking over at David with narrowed eyes. “When was the last time you dated someone?”

“Uh,” he started, thinking back. It was definitely in Chicago. “I think it was Fatima, so maybe a year ago?”

“What ever happened with you two?”

David scratched at his beard, tilting his head back to look at the dark tree branches spreading overhead, the sky a dim blue behind them. “I…well she…” He sighed. “I like taking care of people. Especially whoever I’m with. She didn’t like that.”

Chuck frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could, and I think she thought it was excessive. I just…you know how I am about drinking, and she went out to bars with her friends a lot. I get that I can be too much, but I don’t know how the hell I’m supposed to shut off the part of me that needs to make sure the people that I care about are okay.”

“Caring about the person you’re with isn’t a bad thing,” Chuck said, his voice kind, even patient. “But maybe give your partners some credit, Hughes. There’s a difference between being caring and controlling. Most women probably like to know that their partner is looking out for them, but maybe it felt like you didn’t trust her to take care of herself.”

David considered Chuck’s words. It made sense — he just couldn’t figure out how to let those things go.

“Just don’t give up on it all,” Chuck added. “The dating thing. It can be really good to share your life with someone else.”

David turned to stare at his friend, incredulous. “Like you’re one to talk,he who is serially single.”

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