“Boy, you sound like my damned assistants. If I wanted this kind of advice, I’d go ask them.”
“Sorry, Coach.”
“Don’t be sorry. If enough people are telling me something, it might be time I listened. Now get out of here before you start to irritate me.”
“Yes, Coach.
AT PRACTICE, COACH gave us our starting center and two small cornerbacks who were almost as fast as Bill. They didn’t have great hands, but they could make you look bad if you didn’t play with discipline. Coach Engels finished with the freshmen and came to help the scout team practice.
“The West Coast offense is supposed to test the defense. It uses short downfield passes that are designed to turn into big gains after the catch. What we’re going to help the defense learn is to keep everything in front of them and then close quickly. Bump and jam the receivers to disrupt their patterns. The more physical you are with their receivers, the less effective they are,” Coach Engels explained.
“Normally, we use the running game to open up the passing game. We wait until they start cheating up and then we do a play-action pass and catch them for a big gain. With the West Coast, it’s just the opposite. They try to get you cheating back to play the pass, and then run on you,” he continued.
“The biggest mistake teams make is thinking they should blitz the quarterback. The offense is designed to have quick, accurate throws, not giving the defense time for an effective rush. What you end up doing is giving them an advantage in numbers and you get burned. How we can make a blitz work is to run a fake blitz. The quarterback is trained to dump the ball into the vacated area. Coming up to blitz and then stepping in front of the receiver can help turn a game around,” Coach Engels said to wrap up our learning session.
We only had twenty minutes to practice Eastside’s plays before we faced the first-team defense. The scout team gave the defense fits. They could no longer just key on Bill. Coach Engels helped them a lot, and by the end of our session, we were struggling. When practice was over, we all had big smiles on our faces. We had a blast running the wide-open Eastside offense.
I DIDN’T GET A CHANCE to go to Beth’s and use the hot tub, so I set up a group video chat with Tracy and Tami. We chatted about our days until it was time to go to bed. Tracy dropped off first.
“Are you going to come over again tonight?”
“Do you mind? I just want to be with you as much as I can over the next few days. Even if it’s only while we sleep,” Tami answered.
“Not at all, I’ll just put on some shorts before you come.”
“‘Stupid boy,’ you better not. Half the fun is feeling you naked, spooned against my back. Plus, Tracy knows and is fine with it.”
Yes, Tracy would be okay with it. Since we weren’t in a relationship, I guess we could do whatever we wanted. It felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and she’d be off with the next bad boy that crossed her path. I knew if I ever found out she’d been with another guy, I would be done. I hated she was giving me the freedom to be with other women. The Mr. Happy did too much thinking for me as it was.
However, it wasn’t as if I was going out to find new partners. The only person I could see anything happening with outside of Tracy was Suzanne, and that would only be something like today. She seemed to need some relief. We both knew it was just sex, and neither of us was pushing for the ‘just friends’ label to change.
Any guy at my school would be thrilled to be in my position. Two of the hottest girls were spending quality time with me on what I hoped would be a regular basis, but neither relationship seemed to be going anywhere deeper than friendship and sex. I’d never been in love, but I would like there to be at least a hope that it would happen. The best I could expect was for Tracy to get over her demons so we could have a real relationship.
“You win. Buck-naked it is. Why don’t you come over now, so we can fall asleep with you in my arms?”
I was almost asleep when Tami showed up. Without a word, she stripped down to just her panties and skipped the t-shirt. She crawled into bed; with me on my back, she put her head on my shoulder. She ran her hand up and down my chest. I was on the edge of sleep when I felt her grasp my member. I just moaned my approval. Tami just held me, and once I got used to it I went to sleep.
Wednesday September 25
I WOKE TO FIND I’D had a wet dream. There was cold spend all over my stomach. Tami was awake; she saw the horror on my face, and she gave me a wink.
“Sorry, I think I played with it a little too much. You really seemed to enjoy it.”
I shook my head.
“I wish I was awake to enjoy it.”
“We can’t right now. Peggy’s in the living room waiting for you.”
“Crap, did she see me like this?”
“Yes. You need to start setting your alarm, so you don’t keep showing her your wiener.”
I looked at the clock. It showed 5:45.
“Hey, she isn’t supposed to be here until six.”
She just laughed at me as I went and took a quick shower to clean myself up. I was ready by six, and Peggy and I did freestyle running.
WHEN I GOT TO SCHOOL, the rumor mill was in full swing concerning Luke and Kim. They were ‘the new couple’ and everyone wanted the latest gossip. I was afraid Luke and Kim might kill Alan when he started asking them questions nonstop. I hoped Jeff would give him a few whacks to slow him down. I was glad Tracy and Tami skipped the normal lunch routine with me so we could say goodbye to Tami.
Football practice was fun, and we had a few more recruits on the scout team. Everyone was having a good time with me throwing the ball all over the field.
Thursday September 26
COME THURSDAY, IT WAS pretty much the first-string offense playing on the scout team. Coach let us play almost all practice because we kept pushing the defense. I finally threw back-to-back interceptions on fake blitz plays and Coach decided to end things on a high note for the defense.
I caught Coach Engels after practice.
“Hey, Coach. I just wanted to thank you for helping us with the West Coast stuff.”
“It was a lot of fun. I was surprised all the first-stringers wanted to play scout team. What did you offer them?”
“Nothing, they just saw us having good time and wanted in. I was glad to see that Coach Lambert let them. If we get into a two-minute drill situation they all got some experience. Hopefully we’re never down where we need it.”
Coach Engels got serious.
“You should really think about switching to quarterback next year. In the spring, you might enter some seven-on-seven tournaments and go to some quarterback camps. If you continue to grow and learn the position, you’ll be able to play at the next level.”
“You really think so?”
“Well, nothing is ever 100%, but if you work hard, I do. You’ve had a lot of success early. My biggest fear is that you’ll become complacent. You have to be careful of everyone telling you how good you are and believing it. There’s always going to be someone bigger, faster and more skilled. But I know you can outwork anyone.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
I CAME HOME AT TEN to find Tracy in her cheerleading uniform doing her homework in my living room. I think it was every boy’s fantasy to sleep with a cheerleader. The ultimate fantasy was to do one in their uniform. Tracy always seemed to take my breath away. I sometimes found it hard to believe she was only sixteen.
It still was hard to accept that she’d go out with me. Well, there was the problem: she really wasn’t going out with me. In my head, I knew we’d agreed to take it slow, and it was for the best. Neither of us was ready for a committed relationship. It would be easy to fall deeply madly for her. If she asked me anything, I’d probably do it for her.