Shortly after I graduated college, with a degree in Sports Coaching and Development, I got hired as a physical education coach at a prestigious local University. Although I initially got hired to run the girls' basketball program, shortly after I arrived the girls' swim coach, Mr. Garcia, got fired for inappropriate behavior.
The head of the athletics department asked me if I had any interest in taking the position of Head Coach of the girls' swim team. As a young, impressionable college graduate, I decided to go wherever the school needed me, particularly as the basketball program had an experienced assistant coach, ready and willing to step into the void. I was already a competent swimmer, and had passed the background checks required to work with young adults. Securing the necessary swim credentials was a simple case of taking a forty-hour course, and the school agreed to pay my salary while I got certified. I also met with a vocational counselor, whose job was to advise me of the pitfalls of the job, many of which I hadn't considered prior to accepting the position.
"I have to be brutally honest, Oscar," he began, "these girls are a handful. The environment in which we coach swimming presents some unique challenges for young male coaches. I just want you to know what to expect."
I gave him a quizzical look, as it appeared that the years of trying to protect young college guys from their base instincts, had made him quite jaded.
"What do you mean, unique challenges?" I asked innocently.
"Well," he began hesitantly, "between you and I, and completely off the record, the swimming pool is almost the perfect environment for sexual attraction to rear its ugly head. You are going to be surrounded by young, nubile, athletic girls, wearing only bathing suits. The job of coaching swimming, by nature, requires a certain amount of hands-on instruction, and you will be alone for most of the time with your young charges. To complicate matters, you will also be wearing only a speedo, which telegraphs your intentions, to put it delicately."
"Excuse me?" I stammered, unsure where this was going. "Telegraph my intentions? What on earth does that mean?"
"Well," my vocational advisor continued, "once again off the record, any remote indication of sexual interest will be immediately noticed by these young women. And, believe me, they will be looking."
"I am their teacher," I objected, raising my voice slightly at the mere suggestion of impropriety.
"I know that your intentions are probably good," he assured me. "However, even though your predecessor was fired for his actions, the four coaches prior to him quit under the extreme sexual provocation. In fact, it was their collective assessment that the girls conspired to get them erect, and even have some kind of points-based incentive system to do so."
"Points-based system," I repeated incredulously. "What on earth?"
"When you put a group of eighteen year old girls together, you should expect a certain amount of flirtation," he continued, "However, these girls took it to the next level. Most of them are sexually active, and to try and get a college-age guy hard is fun and games for them. However, for most of the guys it was just too much, and they ended up quitting, before they did something stupid."
"And the guy that got fired?" I asked tentatively, "what did he do?"
"He fucked up royally," my advisor informed me, "although under the circumstances I probably would have done the same," he admitted. "Erica and Jessica ended up breaking him after less than a month."
"Erica and Jessica?" I asked, in an attempt to learn who to be wary of.
"The twins," my advisor said, as if somebody should have already warned me about them. "Identical twins, just turned eighteen and the ringleaders of the swim team. Be careful around them. They have ruined more than one man's career."
"What will happen to the guy that got fired?" I asked, trying to gauge the ramifications of getting caught with my hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
"Fortunately, he pleaded guilty, which saved us the embarrassment of a trial, at least," he said quietly.
"Were the girls underage?" I asked. "I thought that the swim team were all at least eighteen."
"No, thank God," he said emphatically. "They were above the age of consent, but it is against the law for a teacher to have a sexual relationship with a student. He got sentenced to four years in prison, just last week, and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life."
"The severity of the sentence seems incompatible with the crime," I remarked naively, "especially if both parties were consenting adults, over the age of eighteen."
"All parties," he corrected me solemnly, "not both. Mr. Garcia fucked Erica and Jessica."
A few minutes later, still in shock, I left the advisor's office vowing to have zero physical contact with any of the girls. His parting words to me, offered once again "off the record," gave me no solace.