Hello there readers of Chalk Lines. I recently started a new job with the Daily Home out of Talladega, AL, home of the Talladega Superspeedway and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. I'm working out of a satellite office covering straight news, very little sports.
I'm not sure how it's treating me yet. I'll tell you when I'm fully vested in the profit sharing plan.
For real, though, it's good to be at a newspaper where you see a new product every day. There's a little bit more sweat involved than a weekly, but it's still enjoyable.
The funny thing is, for a period of about three months, I sent out resume after resume. I e-mailed, snail-mailed, called and even set up interviews with editors all over the country and got not ONE offer. Not even a nibble. Well guess what happened after I accepted the job with the Home? Offers began pouring in. I was offered a job as the sports editor of another weekly in the same coverage area as the daily I'm at now. I've had enough of weeklies, so I turned it down.
The most interesting offer I received was an opportunity as the head soccer coach at a high school also in the coverage area of the paper I am currently with. It also happens to be my girlfriend Elizabeth's alma mater.
Another coincidence is that the woman who offered me the coaching job happens to be a good friend of my new publisher.
She told me she would have someone speak to my publisher and see if a schedule can be worked out where I could do both jobs, coach the soccer team and work for the paper in the same coverage area.
Can you say conflict of interest? I sure can. Needless to say, I don't think it will work out.
I say I don't think it will work out because I haven't formally turned the job down yet. I would really love to coach this team, but I know it would be damn near impossible witht he schedule I keep. But, I keep having this daydream where I take this bunch of reag-tag out-of-shape soccer players and get to the final championship game against the overpowering, bigger, stronger and more arrogant team who has been champions for the last four decades.
Of course, we win the championship on a header in the driving rain with only seconds to go that just gets by the opposing keeper, getting a millimeter of glove on the ball as it slides into the side netting.
Can anyone say Vision Quest?
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