Wherein Karma, That Slumbering Dragon, Raises Its Serpentine Head and Casually Engulfs Me In Flames

I finally yielded to relentless recruiting pressure on behalf of a former student/team captain, agreeing to coach her high school team. We had a few practices, and there was a core group of players, with enough experience that they will learn fast. I spent Thanksgiving reworking my playbook to implement a more complex zone offense and a more layered man offense. I planned out how I wanted our man-to... uh person-to-person defense to play out.

Then I get two awkward phone calls letting me know that the teacher who had previously been doing conditioning with the team has decided that he wanted to try his hand at coaching. I am offered a non-paying assistant coach job that, given this other teacher's lack of experience would end up being a non-paying head coaching job without the title and authority. Thanks, but no thanks. Of course, I've already arranged for E4 to take over the 7th grade boys coaching duties and -- holy crap -- there's a talented, head-up, good footwork point guard and some decent size. Of course. Now I have no team to coach. I used to have two teams, but now I have zero teams. None. Not any. No teams at all.

You have to figure I had this coming: You can't critique and criticize charter schools ad nauseum and then try to coach one of their basketball teams.