diane's pov
"hey girls thanks for meeting with me on such short notice." our athletic director jeff said to our basketball team. jeff emailed me and my teammate abbi the previous day asking us to get the team together for a meeting with him. he didn't tell us what for but we hope he found a new coach since our last coach left so suddenly at the end of our season last year. abbi and i are the only two seniors this year. we have a small team of 10 people total but we're good so the amount of people isn't a huge concern for us.
"no problem. what's going on? did we get a coach?" abbi asked eagerly.
"yes we did." jeff said excitedly smiling, which was weird because our ad is one of the most emotionless people i've ever met. i don't think he's ever laughed before.
"who is it? when can we meet him?" i asked.
"he is almost here. don't freak out when he gets here please. he's just a normal person. remember that." jeff said making all of us even more curious. then jeff's phone rings.
"hello?" he says into the phone.
"okay, i'm coming." he said before hanging up.
"i'll be back ladies, i'm gonna go get him." he said before walking out of the gym leaving all of us sitting on the bleachers confused.
"who is this dude?" bella, a junior, asked.
"girl that's exactly what i was wondering!" abbi said. we continued to talk about who our coach could be while we waited. dababy, adam levine, micheal b jordan? after a few minutes of waiting we heard on of the gym door and jeff walks in with dwyane wade.
"wait what?" abbi questioned
"holy shit."
"language." jeff said to me. i didn't even realize i said that out loud. we all sat there star stuck that one of the best basketball players to ever play was walking into our gym to be our coach.
"what the fuck." a sophomore rachel said.
"ladies!" jeff said scolding us for cussing.
"hi i'm dwyane wade and i'll be your basketball coach this year." dwyane said smiling. all of couldn't even speak.
"okay i'll let you get to know them, let me know if you need anything." jeff said before leaving the gym.
"we should introduce ourselves." i said trying not to fan girl. "i'm diane, a senior, and i'm a combo guard." i said.
"i'm abbigal or abbi, i'm a senior, and i'm a shooting guard."
"i'm grace, i'm a junior, and i'm a post."
"i'm bella, a junior, and i'm a power forward."
"i'm rachel, a sophomore, and i'm a point guard."
"i'm tasha, sophomore, post."
"i'm carter, a freshmen, and a guard."
"i'm alexis, i'm a freshman, and a small forward."
"i'm rae, a junior, and a point guard."
"i'm q, a freshman, and a shooting guard."
"diane, abbi, grace, bella, rachel, tasha, carter, alexis, rae, and q." dwyane said pointing at each of us when saying our name.
"your good at names." q complimented him.
"thank you." he said smiling. "i'm dwyane wade i played a little basketball before so i kind of know what i'm talking about. i haven't had a whole lot to do since i retired until i saw a basketball coach opening at your school and decided to take it. to tell you the truth i miss basketball a whole lot. i'm excited to be your coach and teach you all some stuff and maybe even learn some stuff from you." he said excitedly.
"a little basketball? my first ever nba game ever was when you, lebron james, and chris bosh played the spurs in the finials in 2013. you were my brother favorite player and we went to the games for his birthday. you're amazing" i said letting myself fan girl for a moment. i'm originally from san antonio but moved when i was 13 right before my freshman year of high school.
"yeah my dad would go to every game you played in la. you're like god in our house." abbi said. we continued to talk as a team for around 20 minutes. asking him about his basketball career, coming up with practice times, days, etc. then it was time to leave.
"abbi and diane stay back please." dwyane said as we were walking out of the gym as a team. abbi and i gave each other a look of nervousness before turning around and following dwyane towards the coach's office.
"abbi first please." dwyane said as him and abbi went into the office and shut the door. i decided to go see our athletic trainer sam. sam is good friends with a lot of the athletes at our school because he's close in age to us. his first job and year at our school was my freshman year so i've known him for a while. he played college basketball at wake forest before deciding to come back home to la.
"hey sam what's up?" i asked walking in and sitting on one of the treatment tables.
"hey diane not much. are you excited for basketball to start?" he asked looking up from his computer.
"yeah, guess who our new coach is." i said to him and he walked towards me and stood across from me.
"lebron james?" he asked jokingly.
"no but close. dwyane motherfucking wade." i told him star stuck still.
"your fucking with me, ain't no way." he said surprised.
"yes way!" i told him.
"that's insane!" he said excitedly. we talked for a few more minutes about basketball.
"diane your up." abbi said popping her head in the room.
"okay i'll see you later sam." i said as we did our simple handshake before walking out. dwyane waited at the door of his office. i walked in and took a seat while he closed the door behind me before taking a seat behind his new desk.
"so i may or may not have looked you up ms. number 19 and i'm impressed by you and haven't seen you play in person yet." he said chuckling and mentioning my ranking on espn.
"thank you, i try not to think too much about rankings they can mess with someone's head." i said to him.
"my son says the same thing. your gonna be captain this year as of now, just like your ranking your gonna have to fight to keep it. do you have any goals this season?" he asked me.
"i want to get scholarships and improve my game." i told him while he wrote something down.
"do you have any schools in mind? have you got offers already?" he asked me.
"i've got a few from some smaller d1 schools. my favorite teams are uconn, unc, kentucky, and stanford. it would be a dream to play for them." i told him while he wrote more stuff down.
"i think we can get you those. you're going to do well at any school you go to. you're a very talented and obviously a hard working player seeing that your where you are today. you do have a lot to learn though but every basketball player does. those women at uconn and at the la sparks still have a lot to learn but i think i can help you." he said to me.
"thank you, i can't wait to learn from you. i'm very excited for this season. i think we have a really good shot at the state championship." i said smiling. his compliment meant a lot to me.
"me too. i can't wait for practice to start so we can get this season going. i'll let you go home now but thank you for talking with me." he said standing up. i stood up as well and he reached his hand out for me to shake it, which i did. he walked to the door and opened it and i left. i grabbed my bag off the bleachers and left the school. i got into my car and started it. i sat letting the ac start up and cool me down from the hot la sun. i turned on the 'this is lil baby' playlist on spotify and drove home.
