Through the Years with Nick and Charlie

Schedule

Nick:

Last night, char and I had a pretty long talk that mainly consisted of him convincing me that he would be okay while I was at training. So, now I'm in the lounge room, waiting for morning meetings.
I've been telling my closest mates why I was out yesterday, not really apologizing because I wasn't sorry, but more so explaining myself. They were all pretty comforting, making sure that everything was okay with the baby which was all nice.
We continued to talk until someone had knocked on the lounge room door, getting all of our attention. "Nelson, with me!!" Coach Singh yells out. I look around the circle I was in, and they all pretty much had the same expression that I did. I groaned slightly as I got up out of my chair to follow coach down the corridors, and into her office!!
She holds her hand out, letting me know that I'm free to sit down. "So, good to have you back today. Any particular reason you decided to not show up yesterday?!?" She asks as she flips through some book "when I left in the middle of training, I had told you what happened, don't know how one would just expect me to bounce back from that!!" "Look Nick, right now, your priority should be this team, we fly out to Paris in less than a month for the biggest rugby tournament ever. I need you here, training for it with your team!" "Respectfully, rugby isn't, and never will be my main priority! I love this sport, and I love being on this team, but I still have a family just like everyone else. My husband is pregnant and was in the hospital, there's no way in hell that I was just gonna sit here and do drills while he's in pain!" I say aggressively "I understand, I have a wife and kids of my own, but you're not the only one who has to sacrifice a bit of family time here and there for this!" Coach says and I want to yell and roll my eyes so bad, but I stay as calm as I can "Here and there?!? The lads and I are here almost 12 hours a day, every day of the week, but it's my job and i love what I do. I know what I signed up for and so does my husband and everyone else, but I never agreed to this part of it. I sacrifice and dedicate so much time for this team, so it's absurd to me why we're even having this conversation. And you can ask anyone out there and they'll tell you the same!" "No one else seems to have the same problems as you, not even me so maybe you just need a reminder of what you came here for!!" She says, and it's just all pissing me off at this point "yea no, how about you ask your wife and kids on how they feel about it all, even your players, and then come back and tell me that I'm the only one with a problem!!" I say waiting for her next response. It takes a while for her to talk, and her facial expression is a bit alarming, so I think I might've hit a nerve. "Nelson, I truly hope all is well..." I scoff in the middle of her statement "but running out of my practice, not showing up the next day, and not notifying anyone before hand was unacceptable. Therefore, you will not be participating in the scrimmage today for open training. Now go get ready for morning meeting!" Coach Singh says, shooing me out of her office.

I walk out of there, going to the locker room first to calm myself down. I wanted to call Charlie, but I knew he wouldn't have been up, so I just sit there until around 8am, just in time for morning meeting.
I sit at my regular table, with the same group of people that I usually do as we watch the line of coaches and other admin come in.
The nutrition coaches do their usual thing, talking about food and drinks that they've set out, and give us a list of things that we should put in our bodies at home. Next, the weight coaches come up, and then the trainers who talk about stretching, and they people they need to see before we start our workouts. Lastly, our head and assistant coaches come up to talk about today's schedule. They tell us we have some yoga group this morning which receives groans from all across the room. The assistant coach, Jeff, comes up to explain all of the drills for today, and then finally coach Singh steps up with the roster for todays scrimmage.
She's gone through everyone, announcing who's on which team. I didn't think anyone would notice that she hadn't called my name, but of course one of my mates James did. "Is Nick not playing, need him on my team for once!??!?" He says directly to coach. Everyone else starts to look at me "no, not today" she says, clearly trying to move on quickly. "Is it because of yesterday?!?" Sai leans in next to me, whispering his question. I just did a simple nod in response, not expecting him to full on blurt everything out "but why, he didn't do anything wrong?!?" Sai asks loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear "erm, that's between Nick and admin" coach says while flipping through the roster "is it because he chose his family over a rugby training?!?" Sai asks and I can feel the tension in the room as everyone starts mumbling things. Usually, I probably would have stopped Sai from causing a scene and getting himself into trouble, but it felt good to have someone stand up for me. "Sai please, it's much more than that!!" Coach says. Sai glances at his watch "ok, well we've got almost 45 minutes". Coach Singh has got a look of disbelief on her face that says it all, even if she doesn't say anything verbally "look coach, with all due respect, punishing someone for missing a practice after their pregnant partner was in the hospital...it honestly doesn't look good on your part." He pauses before continuing after not getting a response "I think I can speak for us all when I say that the schedule gets very, very crazy and we rarely ever have time for ourselves, not to mention partners and families, so if we need to take a day to make sure that their health is in check, no reason that it should be punished!!" Once he finishes, the room erupts from applauses coming from all of the lads. I look over at Sai, shaking his shoulder "thank you!!" I say and he gives me a slight nod.
The room eventually calms down, giving coach the space to talk "I respect you all and the clear love that you have for your families, but like I have said before, we are all making sacrifices to come here everyday and get the job done. I'm not sure if you all have lost sight of the message overtime, but I suggest you find it again" she says, walking off as if she's about to leave. "We want to win the Olympics just as much as you, but we'd rather not lose our families while doing it. So, if you don't have some sort of revised schedule soon, don't expect us to just sit here and be fine with it. But for now, if Nick isn't playing then neither am I!!" Sai says and I look at him "sai you really don't-" I start before he cuts me off with a "shush".
Before I know it, more and more of my teammates start to join in agreement that it's a bit overwhelming, but I'm so thankful. With the room being filled with voices, I can hear everyone's except coach Singh who just sighed and walked out of the room!!