Tuesday, 8/12/08 (b)

He hit the fridge as his Mom looked up from her laptop on the kitchen counter. Between two long gulps of Gatorade, he panted, "I'm going to take the job at Clover Valley."

His mom's shoulders dropped slightly and there was a longish pause while she found the right words to reply.

"If that's what you think is best, Matthew." She paused again, even longer this time. "You know we'll still be here for you."

And with that, it was locked in. Three weeks of internal debate. Three weeks of sleep riven by doubt and restless wonderings. Gone. The burden he'd been carrying seemed to be dropping off him faster than the sweat worked up under the mid-afternoon Carolina sun.

"Thanks Mom."

Decisions generally came easy to Matt Adamson. He had a well-grounded sense of what was right and what was wrong. Ever since he was very young, he was consistently able to assess the paths before him, and using his factory-installed wisdom, determine which route was best for him. And not just for him, for those around him as well. He'd talked some friends off some pretty scary ledges in college. But this decision had presented a haze through which he couldn't see the end. It was a decision between two 'rights'.

"It's like Dean Smith against Ol' Roy in a regional final", he'd determined sometime after 1 a.m. on one of those 21 semi-sleepless nights.

On one bench was his family. Mom, Dad, Emily, and Zeus. The team he'd grown up with. The team that had prepped him for the opportunity he now had. He could stay with them and seemlessly slide into the assistant J.V. coaching job at Coharie Creek, sitting but a few seats up the court from where he'd earned 2nd team all-Metro honors just four years earlier. That was the home team. The higher seed. Always.

On the other bench, pretty much by itself, stood the chance to be head varsity basketball coach at Clover Valley High School.