Page 131 of The Goalie in Room 1

Training Pathway

The pages inside outlined required courses, confidentiality training, supervision, documentation, scope limitations, and procedures for referring athletes to licensed clinicians. Mental Health First Aid. QPR. HIPAA orientation. Supervised shadowing with the rehabilitation and sports-psychology teams.

This wasn’t something thrown together over lunch.

“How long have they been working on this?”

“Apparently since I first intervened with a patient. An elite junior goalie.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Cash’s eyebrows rose.

Right.

Because this had nothing to do with me.

I closed the binder. “What did they say?”

“That the clinic has athletes who’ll talk to doctors and therapists all day without telling them the shit they’ll tell someone who’s been where they are. They think I could help with that.”

“They’re right,” I said. I’d read the notes in Eli’s chart.

“You don’t have to say that.”

“Matteo told me what happened with Eli.”

Cash’s eyes narrowed. “When?”

“He mentioned it after the first appointment you helped Eli through, and then it was in Eli’s therapy notes.”

“What exactly did he say?”

“He didn’t tell me who helped. Only that another patient connected with Eli and convinced him to do something the therapist couldn’t.”

“I just talked hockey with him.”

“You made him feel like a person…like a hockey player…instead of an injury.”

Cash looked away.

I knew that expression. Praise made him more uncomfortable than pain.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want to do it?”

“That isn’t the same question.”

“It’s the only one that matters right now.”

His fingers tapped against the binder. “Davina made it clear this isn’t a job yet. I have to finish the training, pass the courses, and do supervised hours. If I suck at it, I don’t get hired.”

I laughed and said, “That sounds like Davina.”

“She also said you weren’t involved.”