So here is what I know about Plock, Poland, on account of I behaved like a proper journalist for once and looked it up:

1. Fort Wayne is its sister city. So are nine other cities in out-of-way places such as Belarus and …

2. According to the latest census figures, 129,675 people live there.

3. It’s smack-dab in the middle of Poland, hunkered down along the Vistula River.

4-7. It’s an oil-refining town. It has a soccer/handball club that’s 64 years old (Wisla Plock) and a cool castle (Plock Castle) on a hill (Tumskie Hill). And in 1938, before the Nazis came and began murdering everyone, 25 percent of its population was Jewish.

Here’s something else I know about Plock: Apparently it knows who Drew Brees is.

Or at least it knows what sport he plays.

Like a number of other European outposts, it’s heard about American football, and now it wants to play it. It’s started a fledgling football club, at partly because the new mayor in Plock, a progressive sort, wants to sink a significant chunk of money in a new stadium to house both Wisla Plock and, yes, an American Football team.

This, anyway, is what Stan Podzielinski says, and he should know. The chairperson of the Plock Sector of Fort Wayne Sister Cities International, he’s been to Plock on several occasions, where, on one of them, he and Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry, among other dignitaries, actually took in a practice of Plock’s football team.

The Green Bay Packers they were not, exactly.

“It wasn’t a scrimmage,” Podzielinski recalls. “They had maybe about 12, 13 people; some sitting on the sidelines. They were running plays and doing calisthenics, and the plays were like an end run, a left-side run. There was no blocking. … It was absolutely in its infancy.”

And it absolutely switched on a light bulb in Podzielinski’s head. Plock’s team clearly needs some coaching expertise. Fort Wayne clearly has more than a few people floating around who could provide it. And so the Coach Wanted sign is out.

Podzielinski is looking for volunteers – a young assistant coach, perhaps, or perhaps a retired coach with some time on his hands – who’d be willing to pack up, move to Plock and stay for a couple of months, preferably around February or March. City officials in Plock will provide accommodations for Coach and his wife, along with some sort of cash honorarium.

“It’s a great opportunity to share one’s skills and have a great vacation to boot,” says Podzielinski, who helpfully provides his phone number (260-432-2414) as part of his pitch.

And, in a way, it would be a debt repaid, because Podzielinski figures Fort Wayne’s at least a little responsible for American Football taking root there. The two cities have a student exchange that goes back 15 years or so, with students from Plock attending Canterbury and Bishop Dwenger. And one of the things the Plock kids are exposed to, naturally, is football.

“They actually have gotten a chance to play it, and I guess it’s just taken hold,” Podzielinski says. “It’s just like a seed. Not only that, but they’re obviously seeing how much revenue a good winning team can bring to the city.”

And so, Mr. X-and-O, here’s your chance.

Have read option. Will travel.