This caused some grumbling. I was surprised when Ed responded.
“How are you responsible for any of this? I’ve seen you bend over backward to be a team player. I know if you’d pushed the open competition, Coach Hope would’ve had to do something. I can’t believe he’d kick you off the team.”
Ed and I had come a long way from him trying to punch me in the nuts after last season. It had been a slow process, but now he was defending me. It made me happy to see the change in our relationship. I raised my hand.
“Let me worry about him kicking me off the team. We have bigger issues. I’ll let Wolf tell you what he found out this morning,” I said to keep us on track.
Wolf went into his explanation of finding the steroids, and his cousin’s experience with them. He then talked about what we thought would happen if we reported the users. After he was done, the room was quiet as this all sank in. I got back up.
“I just want to play football. I’m sick of the drama. This was not what I spent all spring and summer working out for. If there was a reasonable alternative, I would sign up in a heartbeat, right now.”
I cringed when my mom stood up.
“Let me ask you all a question: do you feel the same way David does? Do you just want to play football without all the drama?” she asked us. “I want you all to think carefully before you answer. David?”
“Yes. I just want to have fun, and play.”
She went around the room and asked each of us, one at a time. I have to hand it to her. She was getting us to buy into whatever she was going to propose. I had seen her do this to Greg and me before. I was always cautious when she did this, but to be honest, it was how I felt right now. I just wanted to play. When she was done, she took a moment to gather her thoughts.
“Here’s what I see happening. The seniors know you guys have been working hard to play varsity. Last year’s seniors were an exceptional class. You can point to three players in their class who were All-State caliber. This year’s class has never been strong. They’ve decided to do everything in their power to keep you all from taking what they think they deserve.
“They’ve gone so far as to cheat. Now, there are too many of them to keep their secret. They’ll either let it slip, or they’ll make someone mad and soon everyone will know. I think David’s right, you guys don’t need to be the ones to tell. If you do, they’ll get revenge. You have to play everything aboveboard.
“I also agree with David’s friend, Tami. If the seniors get the starting positions, their lack of talent will show through. That’s when the house of cards will fall apart. Coach Hope won’t be allowed to put a losing team on the field. I honestly don’t think he expects them to lose.
“Now let’s talk about you guys and your desire to have fun and play football. The solution is simple: play JV ball,” she said.
There was stunned silence. I was sure we were all having the same discussion in our heads. Did we want to give up our shot at varsity to play JV ball, or did we really mean it when we said we wanted to have fun? Jim was talking to his mom. They came to a decision and he stood up.
“If you guys decide to play JV ball, I’ll play with you. I would rather play with my friends, who I trust, than worry about the other guys. I don’t want to write this season off. I want to get a scholarship to play football in college. If I sit out this year, I’ll have a hard time getting there.”
Ed and Tim were next and they agreed with Jim. Everyone turned to me next. I was saved from making a decision by the pizzas arriving. How was I going to explain this to Coach Hope so he believed me? The decision was made. I wasn’t letting down the three who had made the commitment. I also didn’t want to see this get anyone hurt, or tear this team further apart. I just didn’t know how to sell it. When we demolished the pizzas, everyone was looking at me again.
“I’m on board with playing JV. What do we tell the coaches?” I asked.
Jim’s mom got up.
“You tell them your mother told you that was what you were doing. I’m not thrilled Jim’s playing football after what they tried to do to him. If he’s playing for the right reasons, I’ll allow him to play.”
“I’m not sure I want to tell the coaches my mom told me I couldn’t play varsity,” I said.
“You better, or I will,” Mom told me.
Crap. She would, too. I offered a compromise.
“Could we tell them we want to have fun playing? That we talked it over with our parents, and they suggested JV ball was the best alternative?”
Mom chuckled.
“You’re such a big baby. Yes, you can tell them that. Just know your mommas still run your lives until you’re eighteen.”
That got the moms laughing. The boys, not so much ... even though we knew it was true. Before we left Monical’s, everyone was on board. No one had a better plan.
OF COURSE, THEY MADE me their spokesman. You should have seen the four coaches’ faces. I think Coach Diamond was the only happy one in the room. He had just gone from a possible five hundred team to going undefeated this year. Coach Hope was losing most of his potential backups and me as a starter on both offense and defense. He had penciled me in to take Tommy’s place as one of the middle linebackers. My playing fullback was also a potential difference-maker for the running game.
Coach Hope kicked everyone out of the room except for me.
“You assured me you were a team player and would do whatever it took to help this team win this year. You told me that over and over again. Now you’re quitting on me?” he asked.
“You forced my hand this morning. Brad won’t even talk to me. How are we supposed to work our differences out if he isn’t even willing to try? I would rather play on the JV team, and enjoy football than have to worry about getting hit with a cheap shot ... in practice! My family would rather see me having fun and be injury-free.”
“It’s been made clear that kind of play will not be tolerated. No one’s going to take a cheap shot on a teammate,” he told me.
I just shook my head. He couldn’t even get his own son to talk it out. What made him think they wouldn’t take an extra shot every chance they got? The more I thought about it, the happier I was to not to have to worry about my own teammates.
When he saw I wasn’t changing my mind, Coach Hope kicked me out of his office.
COACH HOPE MADE THE announcement before the afternoon practice.
“I have decided to start all freshmen on the freshman team and all sophomores on the JV team. Juniors who would not see a lot of playing time will also be on JV. This leaves a thin group to play varsity. We will do this for now and reevaluate closer to the start of the season.”
With that, Coach Hope took the pressure off us. It bought him time to try to fix this mess. The irony of the varsity high-fiving themselves, as if they had won something, was not lost on the rest of us, nor the coaching staff.
Coach Stevens got the JV and freshmen to go work with him. The other three coaches focused on the varsity. I missed the varsity’s practice, but Bill told me it was brutal. They could do nothing right and had to run for every infraction. Bill said if he could catch me, he would kick my butt. I just laughed at him.
Meanwhile, Coach Stevens was a little overwhelmed. I hadn’t been involved in two-a-days last year, so the returning guys stepped up and helped. Jim took the offensive linemen and ran them through drills. Mike took care of the quarterbacks; Wolf had the receivers; Ed had running backs; Tim had linebackers; and I had the defensive backs. Coach Stevens took the defensive line.
Coach Hope wandered over to check on us about halfway through the morning session. I was teaching them how and when to turn and run with a receiver.
“What do you focus on?” I asked the freshman who was defending me.