We Come Alive 5

Safety Net

Tuesday morning, Mateo adjusted the cuffs of his dress shirt as he walked into the board meeting. He had picked up the work he was going to show them from the athletic building on his way there. Victor, Sam, and Danny all agreed that they wouldn't lift a single pen until Mateo got back with the verdict, since they all assistant him with the paper work of being athletic director.

Mateo sat down in front of the superintendent, Mark Jensen. There were a group of both men and women all older than Mateo sitting at the table staring at him. In the moment, he realized how his players must feel when he called them into a meeting with him and his own colleagues.

"Good morning, Mr. Sanchez." Mark greeted, adjusting a stack of papers. "Your contract is up for discussion after the investigation last month and the findings towards the end."

Mateo let the words sink in as he laced his fingers together. "What findings? Last time I checked, we seemed to be cleared of all allegations."

Mark nodded his head, flipping the page up of the stack of papers in his thick packet. "This entire packet is all the findings Ms. Charlie Shay found afterwards from Nicole Miller when that branch of the investigation opened."

"With all due respect," Mateo begun, "Nicole has constantly lied about me, my co-workers, and my athletes. I doubt that anything she says will hold up."

Mark looked up at Mateo through his eyelashes. "Richard Barnes? He work for you?"

"Assistant baseball coach, former head baseball coach, football assistant coach, Grand Ridge alumni." Mateo rattled off like it was nothing. "What did he do?"

"Daniel Williams? He work for you also?"

Mateo nodded. "Head athletic trainer. He works hands on with all the athletes. Football, baseball, basketball, track, hockey. You name the sport, he does it."

"Daniel Williams sustained a facial injury last fall. Did Richard have anything to do with it?" Mark asked, but sounded more like a stern statement.

"I fired him." Mateo confessed. "Barnes hit him, I fired him until he was qualified to come back. Williams and me worked together on the issue. I wouldn't hire someone back who one of my most reliable employees would have an issue with sharing an immediate space with."

"Favoritism?" Mark wondered.

"Like I said, he's the head athletic trainer." Mateo pointed out. "Also the only one. I don't have another trainer. No one will give me any money in the budget to hire another one."

"But you can hire one of your former football players?" Mark questioned.

"Ricky—Barnes," Mateo corrected, "earns a little over minimum wage. He has to do overtime almost every single day to earn more money. The budgets between the sports are outrageous."

One of the women sitting beside Mark shook her head. "I don't think you know what you're talking about. The sports budgets are plenty."

Mateo went into his briefcase and pulled out receipts of the sport seasons. He pulled out one single piece of paper and a thin packet. "This," he held up the paper, "is the active boys basketball budget including conditioning. Only a little over $20,000. Now this," he held up the packet, "is the football budget from just last year alone including conditioning. Well over $50,000. I asked for a second trainer and the only season I could pay them for is football. Football season, including conditioning, is from three weeks after school let's out to almost Christmas break. The rest of the year Daniel Williams is deep in paper work. Exams, practices, games, tournaments, and being a gym teacher for the school since they're under staffed."