The coaches had known about Thursday night but were surprised when Andres told them about similar goings-on Saturday night. Then he reported what had happened at the players-only meeting. Only he and David had shown up, while Mason had taken the rest of the team to a fraternity party.
With that knowledge, the coaches changed their plan of action for the meeting. Coach Deneau initially wanted to put the fear of Jesus into them and move on. Over the years, he knew it had become a team bonding ritual to take the new guys out and get them laid and hammered on the first road trip.
Andres felt a little sick when Coach Deneau called the athletic director to get an understanding of school policy regarding taking back scholarships midseason, if it came to that. Coach explained that he didn’t intend to go that far but wanted to know his options.
David had made one wrong assumption when talking to the coaches yesterday: he thought baseball handed out scholarships like football did. Baseball was a nonrevenue sport. It had only 11.7 scholarships to allocate among the players on the allowed 35-man roster. Fortunately, scholarships could be broken down into percentages. A portion of a scholarship could be awarded to any player. But even if scholarship players got a 40% scholarship each, at least 6 players would have to be walk-ons.
On top of that, one of the issues that Coach Deneau had was that the previous coaching staff had given two individuals full scholarships: Andres and Mason. That meant that the remaining scholarships had to be chopped up even more. The last coaching staff had done them a further disservice: they’d weighted the distribution based on who they felt would benefit them the most. All of the bench players on scholarship were receiving the minimum allowable, 25%.
Freshman year, when Andres had accepted his partial scholarship to USC, he’d been upset that he hadn’t been offered a full ride. His recruiter helped put it all in perspective for him. There were over a half-million high school baseball players. Only two percent would play Division I ball. To help offset the cash outlay, the university had helped Andres get student loans. That was the main reason he wanted to get a minor-league contract. USC wasn’t cheap, and he’d recently had a bit of sticker shock when he’d seen how much money he owed.
He was relieved when Coach Deneau announced that the only way a scholarship could be freed up was if a player was kicked out of the university.
Before the coaches talked to the team, Andres took one last shot at getting Mason on board.
“Do me a favor and don’t react to what the coaches say in the meeting today.”
“Why? What are they going to do?” Mason asked.
“They’re going to explain the team rules and the consequences if you break them. The coaches are trying to build a winning culture. Personally, I’d like to do that as well,” Andres said.
“I’m fine with that as long as they don’t try to suck the fun out of it,” Mason said.
“We only have a few months until we graduate. We can cut back on the partying until after the season.”
Mason gave him a sideways look.
“Don’t tell me that they’ve got you drinking the Kool-Aid and have brainwashed you into thinking that we can’t party and play ball. We both know that’s a bunch of crap,” Mason said.
“Do we? How badly did we play after partying at Wake Forest?” Andres asked.
“It was only two games. Everything’s fine. Trust me,” Mason said.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Everything isn’t fine. I’m afraid that if we ever do get caught partying before a game, we won’t be playing. I can’t afford to have that happen if I want to play ball after college,” Andres said.
“When did you become such an old woman? Grow a pair because I’m telling you nothing will happen. Remember how our old coach pissed and moaned but never had the balls to follow through? This new group will be the same,” Mason reasoned.
“I think you’re wrong,” Andres said to try to warn his friend. “We have a new coaching staff because the last ones didn’t win enough. These new guys are here to whip us into shape and win games—and to get rid of anyone who can’t or won’t help.”
“We’ll see,” was Mason’s parting shot.
As Andres had warned Mason, Coach Deneau laid down the law. He also invited a speaker from the student counseling center to talk about the POWER program. It was for substance and alcohol abuse education. They were told that they all had to schedule a meeting with an advisor to have a student-athlete alcohol interview.
The next speaker talked about sexual health and responsibility.
When they were done, Coach Deneau retook the floor.
“There will be no practice today. Instead, we’ll be doing the NCAA-required drug testing to check for steroids, peptide hormones, and masking agents, as well as tests for stimulants and recreational drugs. I’ve also asked that you be tested for STIs. The STI test will be confidential, and only you will see those results.
“Any questions?” Coach Deneau asked. When no one had any, he continued. “Then, line up for your tests, and I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
Chapter 24
David
Economics and Communication Strategy in Business was painful. All David wanted was to fast-forward the day so he could play baseball. It was what the team needed after the suspensions. The morning paper had announced that Mason and Jorge had been placed on indefinite suspensions due to breaking unspecified team rules. It didn’t take a Mensa candidate to figure out that meant they hadn’t passed their drug tests.
Coach Deneau had caught David before he left for class to tell him that he would be starting in place of Jorge. He’d also shared that Tucker Frost would play third base to replace Mason. A few minutes later, Andres had sent a text to the starters to meet him for lunch in the USC Village at a restaurant called Honeybird.
David had visited the USC Village on his recruiting trip. It was a new development that was a mixture of dorms and retail space. There were eight dorms, and David had considered living in one of them until he’d found out what Alex’s dad had done.
He’d heard good things about Honeybird. Their signature dish was a spiced fried chicken that was supposed to be outstanding. Andres had picked the right place, in David’s opinion.
On his walk there, his phone rang. It was Lexi.
“Did you forget to tell me something?” was her greeting.
“That I’m taking Jorge Orlando’s spot in the starting lineup tonight?”
“While you didn’t tell me that, I’m wondering why I have four panicked voicemails from Veronica and Christian to call them. Did they break the truce I brokered?” Lexi asked.
’Frick!’ If Lexi was receiving calls, that meant Lindsey was the rat. David was so over all of this. To him, this was the very definition of wasting time. The ‘prank war,’ as Kirk called it, meant much more to his friends and Veronica’s group than it did to David. He’d talked his friends into ignoring it for the most part.
If Veronica’s posse had simply decided that their pranks had been enough, David would have forgotten about it. Lexi knew Veronica and the rest of her gang. In high school, Lexi had been the Alpha girl. When she’d found out that they’d added David to their target list, she’d threatened to take matters into her own hands, which had seemed to cow them.
“They set off stink bombs in our rooms. I have a plan to get back at them, but we were suspicious that Lindsey was sharing information with them. Kirk and Jamie were tasked with telling her that I was calling you to fix their asses,” David explained.