#and beth basically runs the team until this new coach who’s really good and is gonna lead the squad to victory shows up | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

quirkykayleetam · 4 years

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Coach Daniel Wei

Check the tag #High School AU if you want to see how our other Broken Pieces characters fair in this setting. Beth seems to be the most overwhelmingly popular. Many thanks to @stoic-whumpee and @burtlederp for their inspiration. Apologies, I have a lot of feelings about public school gym classes and this got long.

Coach Daniel Wei’s gym class seemed normal for the first few weeks. Or at least, it did for most students. The only real difference was that he joined in with the class for 80% of their exercises and dressed out when they did. He never asked anyone to do anything he wasn’t willing to do first.

The whispers began when people started talked to the Gym Abstainers, the folks in every class who refuse to change into anything other than skinny jeans, sit on the bleachers gossiping through class, and wear their Fs with a badge of pride. For them, the first week was anything BUT normal when, instead of ignoring them or bellowing at them, Coach Wei approached them with a smile.

“Fantastic! I’m glad we’ve got so many folks to work with this semester.”

The group of students exchanged awkward looks as he pulled out a list.

“I get that failing gym is kind of a tried and true thing. If that’s what you really want, fine. But I’d rather ask you, is there any sport or other physical activity you’ve ever wanted to learn more about?”

“How about kicking your ass?” a voice from the back said to a chorus of laughs. Daniel grinned with them.

“I’ve got more martial arts certifications than you can count. I’d be happy to teach you, but I would caution you NOT to make that your final exam.”

The group quieted and he turned back to the paper in his hand.

“This is a list of all the sports in season right now. I’ve talked to the coaches and they’re looking for strategists. That means going to all the games, learning the rules inside and out, and figuring out where the teams can improve using stop action reply, statistics, basically anything we can get from the VR club. I’ll have laptops in here starting tomorrow for anyone who is willing to give it a shot. Any takers?”

Slowly, the list got passed around. He got back a lot of names plus a folded note with some scrawled initials reading: “Can you really teach me martial arts. I don’t want to fight you, but I’m really into Mortal Kombat and think it might be cool.” Daniel smiled.

The whispers increased two weeks later when Daniel showed up to class in full army fatigues. Sure, most of the kids new he was ex-military, but he had never gone out of his way to SHOW it before. He gathered everyone into the bleachers.

“As you know, up until now our units have been about basic physical exercises and team sports: stretches, push-ups, basketball, that kind of thing that I’m qualified to teach. Today, I’d like to introduce a guest speaker and teacher, Ms. Angelica Turnfeld from the School of Performing Arts. She is here to lead us in our unit on ballet.”

Daniel gestured and a beautiful woman with chestnut brown skin and pure point shoes burst into the room. Even on the cheap gym floor she was grace incarnate and Daniel smiled at the few gasps he heard from the bleachers. Angelica was a performer; she knew how to make an entrance.

“Uh, so what are we gonna do while the girls work on their twirly-twirls?” Trent said flatly. He was the star of the football team and never let anyone forget it. Daniel just smiled.

“Good question. You’ll be with me, working on the male parts of the routine. I can understand if you’re hesitant--ballet takes an incredible amount of stamina, dexterity, and upper-body strength--but I think you can handle it Trent and Ms. Turnfeld is here to help us out whenever we might need a hand. Now,” he clapped his hands and music started playing from the back of the gymnasium. “A demonstration!”

Daniel had to concentrate with every fiber of his being through the next five minutes. Ballet was not his strong suit, but that was fine. He was mostly there for the lifts and to make Angelica look as amazing as possible. By the time the music ended, he could see most of the girls looking in wonder while some of the guys were contemplating the idea of holding a beautiful women in their arms and the rest were impressed or at least resigned.

By the time class ended, a few shy girls who had yet to excel in anything else, but took dance in their spare time, lead the class. They left with a gaggle of cheerleaders asking about their footwork. The football players’ jaws dropped as Angelica recounted her training schedule. Someone from the bleachers who had yet to say anything asked Daniel if they could study Angelica’s dance group for their “coaching statistics grade thing.” Daniel kissed Angelica’s hand and smiled.

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Then came the breaking point: Final Exam Assignments. Instead of judging all students by the same state standards that all the athletes passed with flying colors and everyone else dreaded with stones in their stomachs, Daniel handed out what they would each be tested on in one month’s time.

Austin, who had extreme asthma and would likely pass out if he was forced to run the traditional mile test, was assigned weight-training exercises and research on ways to improve health other than extensive cardio. Brittany, who could cartwheel like nobody’s business but struggled with body image, was asked to do a back-hand-spring and research how many calories professional gymnasts ate every day. A note at the bottom of her assignment said: You need fuel to do beautiful things and what you do is beyond beautiful.

“What is this bullshit?” Trent demanded, waving his slip in Daniel’s face. Daniel studied it.

“I believe it says that you’ll be graded on ballet, Mr. Johnson. I’m not looking for you to choreograph your own routine, but you should be able to do the basic forms and maybe stretch for something more advanced.”

“And how am I supposed to learn this shit?”

“Well, for starters, I wouldn’t call it ‘shit,’ but I’ll help you out.”

Daniel glanced over to where the cheerleaders were gathered, comparing assignments.

“Dana, would you mind helping Trent for a moment?”

She ran over, her brown ponytail bobbing with movement and for a moment Trent looked mildly pleased.

It didn’t last very long.

Less than ten minutes later, Dana and Trent got into a screaming match that Daniel pretended not to hear. It ended with Dana stalking back to the bleachers to talk to her friends while Trent, naturally, headed to Daniel.

“Dana won’t help me.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. I can get you some books from the school library tomorrow, but it really is easier to learn from someone who knows what they’re doing.” Daniel shrugged. “I guess you’ll just have to get by.”

Trent’s face turned white, then red, then a rather startling shade of magenta.

“Is...Isn’t she gonna get points off? For like, not helping me, Coach?”

This time Daniel looked Trent straight in the eye.

“Do you remember our basketball unit? When I asked you to help Austin with his free throws? You said it would be unfair to grade you on how much be improved because his natural talent had nothing to do with you coaching him. I thought I’d apply the same idea here.”

Trent looked away first.

“You’re welcome to try to find someone else to help you,” Daniel continued, “But knowing Dana, rumor would have spread by now that you did not treat her very well.”

Trent looked up. The girls in the gym stared daggers back at him. He gulped.

“Good luck, Mr. Johnson,” Daniel said, turning back to his paperwork. “I would hate to see you get a rough grade in gym.”

After that, all Daniel had to do was watch Trent struggle and wait. In two weeks, Kelsey, a freshman with a bit of a stutter, started correcting Trent on his forms. He yelled at her. She shrugged him off. He tried her suggestions--which worked. She looked at him until he couldn’t get the next step down and finally broke.

In three weeks, Trent himself ran up to the coach.

“Look, I get that I was being an asshole. Can I go back to something that will really help me now?”

Daniel smiled at him.

“I just talked to your football coach, Mr. Johnson. He says your footwork has improved immensely and he’s even more excited about your college prospects next year. You’ve got another week and a half left. Why don’t you see what else you can do?”

#Broken Pieces #High School AU #Daniel Wei

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illyria-and-her-pet · 7 years

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Vanessa Atler Gymcastic Interview Summary

Vanessa contacted gymcastic for an interview after seeing that Larry Nassar spoke about being banned from camp for a certain amount of time cause a gymnast wrote a letter about him. Gym fans thought Vanessa was the one who wrote the letter and she wanted to clarify that she had no idea about the letter.

Vanessa’s thoughts on the age limit are that she goes back and forth, but she thinks it hasn’t stopped young gymnasts from facing the same pressure and difficulty as senior gymnasts, so it sucks cause if you’re born at the wrong time you have to wait 4 years and make sure you’re not hurt or go crazy.

Vanessa says it would have been nice to have the specialist choice and in 1998, she probably would have wanted to give up bars, but her coaches the Rybackis probably would have convinced her that she could still do bars and the all around and it was always one of her dreams to go to the Olympics and compete in the all around and maybe get a medal. She doesn’t think she was born at the wrong time or in the wrong quad because things are always changing and she can’t complain cause she still had a great career.

Vanessa is asked if she had any big skills she did in training, but says she didn’t really do anything (maybe some full twisting double layouts into a soft mat on the pit) because Beth and Steve mostly just had her do what was already in her routines because she had a lot of anxiety and they wanted her to do skills she was comfortable with to keep her calm.

Vanessa was the one who told her coaches that she wanted the Comaneci salto in her bar routine because you don’t have to travel over the bar on the release and her tkatchev was already pretty dumpy.

The media would always interview her before she did bars and she would say that she’s doing good in training and everything is fine, so when she actually got up to bars she would be thinking about how she told the media it was okay and it would be embarrassing if she messed up.

Vanessa doesn’t think that Steve was to blame for her mental block on bars by not taking out the Comaneci salto. She still had problems on bars after it was taken out by Valeri and if it wasn’t the Comaneci salto, she would have developed a mental block somewhere else because that was the type of person she was. She thinks Steve wanted to help her not just as a gymnast, but as a person by making the Comaneci salto something she could overcome like a life lesson.

Vanessa coaches her kids in the way that if she died on the way to the competition or something, her kids would still be able to chalk the bars and be okay. She doesn’t think she would have ever been able to do anything without her coaches cause she was raised to be dependent on them.

Vanessa only went to a sports psychologist when she was a level 5 gymnast and kept falling off beam. She never saw a sports psychologist when she was an elite, but thinks that she should have. When she was at WOGA she did see an actual therapist because she was depressed. She thinks seeing a therapist made her feel worse because she needs a therapist that gives her answers on what to do, while that therapist was the type that made you talk out your life and that just made her realize that her life sucks and made her more depressed.

Vanessa remembers she was next in line to vault after Sang Lan did in warm ups. She didn’t see the actual vault, but she did see her land on her back and all the coaches run up to help her. Steve then told her to turn around and do mental routines. She felt horrible about what happened to Sang Lan, but it didn’t really affect her in competition because she’s not the type that gets affected by any mistakes or injuries of her competitors. I don’t know if I’m phrasing this stuff right and I don’t want to make Vanessa look bad because she didn’t say anything bad, so I want to note that she was asked a question about if Sang Lan’s injury affected her in the competition and that she didn’t bring that up on her own.

Vanessa heard from a lot of other people that Steve said awful things to her or something during 1999 Nationals, but she doesn’t remember anything awful being said. She just remembers that Steve was really upset and stopped talking to her until event finals the next day and that Beth kind of had to take over.

Vanessa was really upset that Steve stopped talking to her for a bit because she felt that she always wanted to be the perfect, coachable student and was so nice and kind and defended him for keeping the skill in, so she snapped and was like “how dare you not speak to me after all I did for you.”

Vanessa heard about how her agent (Sheryl Shade), mom, and Bob Colarossi were talking about maybe bringing Bela Karoyli out of retirement to coach her. Her mom asked her maybe you should train with Bela and she was like no way because she heard all the horror stories about Bela and was like “if I can’t handle Beth and Steve, how would I handle Bela?”

Vanessa had her dad on the phone to tell Steve that she was leaving and Steve was begging her dad to let him to talk to her and apologizing and admitting he was wrong. Vanessa wouldn’t talk to him because she knew if she did, she would just agree to comeback. She regrets not talking to him then because 1999 was basically the last time she spoke to him before they reconciled.

It’s not true that she went into 1999 Worlds without a coach. Bob Colarossi and Kathy Kelley heard about her leaving Steve, freaked out, and then sent her Artur Akopyan. Artur basically let her do whatever she wanted, so she just got to hang out and do some routines at AOGC. So when it came to Worlds she was really out of shape and she was also still dealing with an ankle injury from when she punched out of a really hard surface at that competition in France. Worlds was really awkward too because Beth and Steve were there to coach Jamie Danztscher. Steve was trying to give Artur tips on how to deal with Vanessa, but Artur wasn’t having any of it.

After Worlds, Bela was supposed to coach her. Her agent and mom were trying to contact Bela, but he wasn’t responding, despite agreeing to it. He finally contacted them back and said he couldn’t coach her because he accepted the job of being national team coordinator. Vanessa was like “yaaaay” because she didn’t have to be coached by Bela, lol.

Vanessa and Larry Nassar spoke about Bela and both agreed that he was a hard coach. Vanessa wanted to clarify that she would never write a letter to USAG saying that she was lied to and that Larry said Bela was abusive because she’s not the type that would want to ruffle feathers and would be too scared about backlash. She thinks what could have happened is that either her mom or agent were upset and wrote that letter. She doesn’t want to speak to her mom about it and doesn’t want to know because she doesn’t want to go through all that with her mom. For a backstory on this, here’s what Larry said in his gymcastic interview back in 2013 about it.

Vanessa agrees that Larry wouldn’t say that Bela is abusive and that they just agreed that Bela is a lot harder than Beth and Steve. She thinks what it all came down to was that she was too afraid to stand up for what she wanted, which was really to just quit. She thinks what she should have done was just stop running away from everything and talked to Beth and Steve instead of leaving them.

No one would let Vanessa quit because they knew she liked to run away from things, so they thought it would be better for her if she got through it. So she just continued to do gymnastics to make everyone else happy.

Bela eventually called her and told her that he can’t coach her, but recommended Valeri Liukin/WOGA and said that Bela would come by every month or something to see how she’s doing.

Vanessa finally got ankle surgery and was like wheeled into Texas by her mom. Valeri and Bela were there waiting for her and Vanessa says their faces were like “oh god she’s one of those girls who thinks her foot is hurt or something” and that she was really embarrassed.

Vanessa says she thinks Valeri was a nice man and that there were moments she enjoyed training with him, but that he was new and didn’t really know what the right things to do were. She doesn’t blame him, but thinks that it was the wrong choice for her to go to WOGA.

What worked with Valeri was how he coached bars because he was very hands on and did a lot of spotting, so it helped her be more confident, since Beth and Steve weren’t as hands on and were more about drills. She also liked that after every practice everyone would get a hug and that Valeri brought her to his house and she got to meet Nastia when she was 10 or 11 and that they’re a nice family. They also helped pay for the apartment Vanessa was living in.

It was difficult for Vanessa to adjust to Valeri after being with Steve for so long because whenever she was doing vault or floor, she would be thinking what did Steve tell me to do.

The worst part about Valeri was how he dealt with weight. Vanessa never had any issues with weight until then. During her last year with Steve, Steve started weighing her and Jamie, but Vanessa never had any problems. Steve would just weigh her, write it down, and then give her a thumbs up. However, Vanessa did start being aware of the numbers, which was bad for her thought process. So if one day she was 105 pounds and then another she was 106 pounds, she would start training harder just because she thought one pound was a lot, even though she now realizes it’s nothing.

Vanessa gained 5 pounds because of her surgery and not working out as much. Valeri freaked out on her because of the 5 pound weight gain. He was like we have to get this weight off of you and put her on a diet. She had never been on a diet before and didn’t know how to deal with it because she used to just eat whatever she wants and is an emotional eater, so if she was stressed she would eat a lot.

Vanessa would get stressed out about not losing weight, so then should would eat a lot from the stress. But then she would throw up what she ate because Valeri weighed her 3 times a day.

In Valeri’s office there was a scale and a paper where she had to weigh herself and then write down her weight for the beginning of they day. Then after work outs she would have to weigh herself and write it again. Then at the night before the last workout of the day she would have to write down her weight for the 3rd time.

Vanessa was told not to drink water because it made her look bloated. And then after she already did all the training at WOGA, Valeri’s wife, Anna, would take her to a regular gym to work out on the treadmills. That was the moment where she thought that they didn’t know what they were doing and she at 18 did know what was right, but she wasn’t gonna speak out about it and get in trouble.

Vanessa didn’t throw up because she thought she was fat. She just didn’t want to write down after the weigh ins that she gained weight. She stopped throwing up after she was done with Valeri.

To this day, Vanessa feels messed up about her weight because of Valeri and she now gets really upset when she sees or hears that coaches are weighing their kids.

About the rumor that Valeri told Vanessa after she didn’t make the team at 2000 Olympic trials that she was fat: Valeri gave Vanessa one hug and then didn’t speak to her at all. He talked to her agent and said that Vanessa didn’t make the team because she was fat. Vanessa’s agent told her mom and her mom told Vanessa.

Vanessa was having tons of trouble in training and couldn’t get through her floor routine. Bela was watching and pulled her aside in the tunnel to tell her to not worry and that if something happened, she would still make the team because he’s on the selection committee.

After the first day of Olympic trials, Bela called her agent and said that the rest of the selection committee didn’t want her on the team. Her agent told her mom who told Vanessa. So Vanessa basically knew she wouldn’t make the team and wanted to do really well the 2nd day to make it a big controversy over whether she should have made it, but she still did horrible anyways.

A few years ago Tracee Talavera told Vanessa that she was sticking up for her and wanted her to make the team and was gonna tell her everything that Bela and the rest of the committee said, but Vanessa didn’t want to hear it because she moved on with her life and forgave a lot of people.

Vanessa says that she thinks Valeri is a different man, has learned a lot, and at the core is a good person. She doesn’t think they made the wrong choice to make him team coordinator or anything and that he’ll do a good job. She thinks he’ll make mistakes and that people will be upset about it, but overall his intentions are good.

Vanessa didn’t watch any of the 2000 Olympics when it was live. The only thing she heard about and was worried about was Jamie’s dad getting into an accident.

Vanessa did try to comeback after 2000 by training with Ben Char (sp?) who was friends with Steve and who she thought was a really nice person. But she realized she still had issues with her weight and wasn’t doing it for the right reasons, so she told Ben and he was great about it. He’s one of her favorite people.

Vanessa tried to comeback again with Steve, but he didn’t think she could be serious about a comeback and just had her conditioning like once a week. Someone got wind of it and started Vanessa is coming back rumors and she was like “nope, I’m done with that. I was just conditioning.“ She realized she had too much anxiety and couldn’t handle the pressure, so she moved on.

Vanessa is never angry at gymnastics because she loves it, but she was angry at adults and USAG for not having the best interests of the kids at hand.

As a coach, Vanessa always talks to her kids about whether they want to quit and if they’re afraid to tell their parents and makes sure they want to do gymnastics because they love it and are having fun, not for validation or popularity or something.

Vanessa wants other coaches to realize that what they do ends up shaping how the kids become as adults because they’re watching everything you do and say and that they need to know that it’s okay to apologize and tell the kids that they’re human and were wrong.

Vanessa joined “Starting Over” because she thought it would help her lose weight, but it helped her stop being angry and make peace with her family, boyfriend, coaches, etc.

Starting Over made her go out on the streets and ask people if they thought her not making the Olympics made her a failure. It helped her grow up and accept things when she realized no one cared or thought that she was a failure.

Vanessa regrets going pro and wishes her parents would have told her that education comes first. She wishes she had an NCAA experience after seeing people like Jamie’s at UCLA.

Vanessa felt the need to defend the victims of Larry Nassar because she saw a lot of people saying that because they had a good experience with Larry, the victims must be lying and out for money. It made her really upset and brought her back to times when she was speaking and no one would listen. She had a good experience with Larry and would he was nice and would be the gymnasts’ “buddy.” But as someone who had a good experience with Larry, she wanted to speak out and say that just because you had a good experience doesn’t mean that the bad things aren’t true and that you should keep it to yourself and wait until everything comes out.

At 1999 Worlds, Vanessa was dealing with an ankle injury and Kristen Maloney was dealing with shin problems. Larry Nassar came in and was like “who wants a cortisone shot?” Vanessa didn’t want one because she was scared of needles. Kristen got it to compete and Larry just did it alone with Kristen without getting parental permission. And Vanessa felt terrible like she wasn’t a good gymnast because she didn’t get the shot, which might have helped her in the competition. She thinks part of the problem at USAG is things like that where they pressure you to do things or make it seem like you’re a failure.

The walls were so thin at the hotel for 1999 Worlds and Vanessa and Elise Ray overheard the coaches speaking in the other room. They heard Kathy Kelley say that this was the worst team they’ve ever had and then Kathy knocked on their door and was like “is everyone ready to go shopping :D” and she and Elise were staring at each other like “what an evil person.”

Vanessa thinks USAG didn’t like that their era of gymnasts were all friends and outspoken about their treatment unlike the last generation.

Vanessa says she would probably let her son do gymnastics because she saw that the guys were able to talk back and forth with their coaches, while for girls at her time you had to do everything the coach said. Even though everyone, both guys and girls, seem a lot happier these days, she doesn’t think she could handle it if she had a daughter and put her in gymnastics.

Vanessa is asked if she thinks the age limit should be raised to 18 like it is for guys. She says she doesn’t think it has to do with the age because you’ll be treated like that in the gym anyways and she thinks the guys are just treated better than the girls by their coaches.

Vanessa had a book written that was supposed to be published by USAG before the Olympics, but it ended up not getting published because of all the stuff with Larry Nassar.

Vanessa says she loves Beth and Steve Rybacki and that she thinks they are great coaches who also have the best intentions for their kids in mind.

Vanessa thought she was coming full circle with forgiving USAG with making a book with them, but now with everything that came out with Nassar she doesn’t know.

Vanessa says she doesn’t really care if everyone at USAG gets fired. She just wants the best for the kids and all the procedures changed and enforced. She thinks that the athlete representative stuff is bullshit and that there’s no one to actually protect the kids. She hopes that the backlash gets them scared and that they finally make meaningful changes.

The ranch had the awful, cheapest food that was like a single frozen slice of pizza like school cafeteria food. Meanwhile, the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado had like special cafeterias for each type of athlete for the amount of protein they need, etc.

Someone sent Vanessa a message that said that Larry once slipped his fingers in her vagina and that he apologized and said he was wrong and that the people accusing him are probably misunderstanding his treatment. They said that you should send Larry messages of support to his lawyer and that Alison Arnold (a consultant for USAG) said it was okay.

The day before the Olympic trials there was like a room of judges and stuff. Vanessa walked in and started crying and talking about how she was eating a lot and making herself throw up. They told her that you have to do what you have to do to stay in shape and make the team and basically told her to eat less.

#gymcastic #gymternet #gymnastics #Vanessa Atler #interview

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