Alan found it, and it was empty. It had held all my Range Sports gear and the things that Bo Harrington had gotten me. It also had shoes and other personal items I used.
“Where’s all my stuff?” I asked.
“It’s not yours, it’s Lincoln High’s. I gave it out to those who needed it,” Alan said.
“Well, you better get it all back. I paid for most of that gear.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. We just have what’s left. I guess you should have been here at the start of two-a-days.”
“Okay, I see how it’s going to be,” I said, and turned to walk away.
I glanced back and saw his evil grin. His eyes got big when Jeff and the camera crew walked up. Alan slammed the equipment room door so he wouldn’t have to say anything to them.
“This is fun,” Jeff said.
“Let’s go to practice. I’m sure I’ll get yelled at for not being dressed,” I predicted.
Coach Hope stood on the sidelines, talking to Coach Rector and Coach Mason. I walked up with Jeff and his cameraman in tow. Coach Hope looked at me curiously.
“Why aren’t you ready for practice? I thought you knew we were in full gear today,” Coach Hope said.
“I would be, but Alan gave my equipment away. Besides, Coach Rector gave me a tiny locker so I wouldn’t have any place to store it if I did get it,” I said.
“Hang on. Alan told me we were out of big lockers,” Coach Rector said in his defense.
Coach Hope gave him a withering look.
“Now that I think about it, that’s stupid. I’ll make sure you get a football locker,” Coach Rector said.
“Go get Alan. We don’t have time for games, and I don’t want David to miss more practice than he has to.”
“Should I start getting them warmed up?” I asked.
“Yeah. Lead them in warm-ups,” Coach Hope said.
Everyone looked at me funny. They were all in football gear, and I strolled out in shorts and a T-shirt.
“Line up! Let’s get this party started,” I called out. “Foresee, Tams, Antakov, Hofmann—up front with me.”
I know it wasn’t supposed to happen this way, but I’d just named the team captains. Tim would represent the defense, and as the middle linebacker, he called the plays, with Yuri as his understudy. Yuri’d done a great job being defensive captain last year when Tim was hurt, and I didn’t want him to feel like he was being shoved aside or demoted.
Wolf was my pick for the offense because he was my best friend and was one of the very few four-year varsity players. Derek was our punter and placekicker. I thought he was the best pick for special teams since he would be on the field for every one of their plays.
I saw Coach Hope had figured out what I’d done. He didn’t stop me, so I just went with it.
Miraculously, Alan showed up with my duffle bag, which was full this time. Coach Rector took me to the locker room and assigned me my regular locker. I quickly got dressed and joined the practice.
I was happy to see Coach Mason was in rare form. It took him about two minutes before he tore into me.
“Get your hands up and back! You know where they’re supposed to be!” he barked. “You know what, I don’t have time for this. Give me five laps around the field, and when you get back, you better have your head out of your ass!”
I gave him a big grin, which caused him to throw his clipboard at me. This was going to be fun.
Towards the end of practice, I got to play defense but found out that I would have to ‘earn’ my place on the defensive team. Coach Hope had the number-one offense going against the number-two defense. To my surprise, Yuri and Tim were also on the number-two defense.
“I take it we’re all in the doghouse,” I said when Tim huddled us up.
“Yeah. I’ll talk to you after practice. Right now, I want to kick some butt,” Tim said.
We were running a three-four defense this year (three down linemen and four linebackers). Coach Rector stepped into our huddle.
“I want you to run the base defense, nothing fancy. Just give them an honest effort and don’t make it easy on them. Remember, these are your teammates. No unnecessary roughness.”
“This is a live drill?” I asked.
“You just can’t tackle the quarterback. If you touch him, he’s down,” Coach Rector confirmed.
With Tim, Yuri, and me flying around, making plays, the first-team offense struggled to make any running yardage. I saw Coach Mason working with them to try to get things moving. I knew he wouldn’t run the ball all day. Tim had been watching our starting quarterback, Trent Buchannan, in practice all week.
“Watch his right foot when he gets under center. If it’s back, he’s going to pass. He’ll also glance at his primary receiver as he lines up. I’ll hold my fist up if it’s a pass. David, you cover the middle, and I’ll blitz when that happens,” Tim said.
Trent broke the huddle and looked at Ed. He then got under center, and his right foot was back. Tim held up his hand.
“Blue. Set. Hut, HUT!” Trent called out.
Tim timed the snap count, and Brock had to break off his double team of the nose tackle to try to stop Tim. He was only partially successful as Tim bore down on Trent. Trent chucked the ball in the general direction of Ed. I smiled, because Yuri had dropped into the flat to help with Ed, and it looked like Trent had thrown the ball to Yuri on purpose.
On the next play, the blockers picked Tim up, giving Trent time to throw. What Trent hadn’t done was check where the safety was. If the safety lined up outside the hash marks, Trent was supposed to do his checkdown and throw to a receiver either in the flat or over the middle. Instead, he threw to Ed, who was running the fade. If it had been one-on-one, Ed would have caught the ball. Instead, the safety stepped in front and had an easy interception.
We huddled up while Coach Mason pulled Trent aside, apparently trying to explain to Trent how he’d misread the play. Coach Rector got into the defensive huddle.
“If they’re going to pass, let’s amp up the pressure. We’re switching to four down linemen. David, you step in at right defensive end. Tim, I want you to spy on the quarterback, and if David flushes him, I want you to clean it up,” Coach Rector said.
I lined up across our best tackle, Milo Bauer.
“Hey, David. Go easy on me. I don’t want to lose my starting job because of you,” he said with a big smile.
“You could just block me,” I suggested.
On the snap, I blew by Milo. It’s funny when you hear a Mennonite cuss.
“Red!” Milo called out to warn Trent.
Trent looked back and decided to run the ball. Silly boy. He suddenly had Tim in his face, and he jumped back so Tim couldn’t tag him. Right in my path. Oops.
“What did I say about hitting the quarterback?” Coach Hope bellowed.
“It was my fault,” Trent said to defend me.
“I don’t care whose fault it is!”
We had to run to the goal line and back.
“Next time, we figure out how I can accidentally hit him,” Tim said, which made us all laugh.
◊◊◊
We soon switched to number-two offense against our number-one defense. Coach Mason was all smiles when I joined the huddle.
“Glad to have you back. What do you think we should start off with?” he asked.
“Let’s pound them up the middle,” I said.
“Okay, power I dive right on the first sound,” Coach Mason called.
Wolf moved from his tight end position to act as another fullback with Bert. Jake was our tailback.
“Blue!” I called.
The play was designed to go between the center and right guard. Wolf was to lead Bert and Jake through the hole. If the center needed help with the nose tackle, Wolf would double-team him. If not, he was to take the linebacker on. Bert was supposed to either help with the nose tackle or the linebacker. If they were both blocked, he would pick up either the backside linebacker or the safety.
The nose tackle had slanted away from the play, so Wolf zeroed in on the linebacker. I heard a crack of pads as I handed the ball to Jake. Wolf had pancaked the linebacker, and Bert actually stepped in front of the other middle linebacker. Jake was in the secondary before he was brought down after a ten yard gain.