The real test isn’t how someone treats the coach. It’s how they treat the kid on the bench.

Anybody can be decent to the person with power over them, because there is something in it. The reading you can trust comes from how somebody treats people who can do nothing for them: the sub who never plays, the new hire, the one who is easy to skip. That is where the real setting shows, since nothing is being performed for anyone. Charm aimed upward is not a character trait.

Watch for it in the people around you before you get close to them. Then check your own version: who on your team have you actually spoken to lately. Names matter more than you would guess.