Second Down
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 23
Wednesday was the first chance I had to practice with Li. She had tutoring until almost dinnertime on both Monday and Tuesday, and I still had a lot of studying to do for the week, between school and watching a game video. As part of the extra work I’d asked Coach for, to start making improvements in my game, he sent me home Saturday with a video of the game. I was supposed to make notes in specific formats, and bring them back to him so he could see how I evaluated the game.
What that really meant was watching the game several times through, once making general notes and identifying sections to look at, then reviewing them more closely, even playing them at half speed so I could really focus on finding the strengths and, more importantly, weaknesses in our gameplay.
It was an interesting assignment, and I was actually learning a lot by doing it. At least, it felt like I was, and that I was making progress in practice, starting to see the patterns from the game and then on the field without the coaches having to point it out to me. I wasn’t getting everything. I probably wasn’t catching most of the little errors made and tendencies our guys had, but it was something.
We didn’t really have scouting videos of the other teams, although Coach said varsity did, at least during the playoffs. So mostly, it was for seeing our own errors and mistakes, rather than using it to predict the other team’s.
“Looks like you’ve got a fan club,” Mickey said as he juggled the ball.
We were off to the side working with Coach Easley, our offensive coordinator, on short five-yard passes that Coach Holloway liked to run as part of the push-and-grind game that he preferred. These tended to be quick passes, but they also had me throwing into heavy traffic, and that could end in interceptions if I wasn’t careful. It’s what had gotten Jorden in so much trouble in the first part of the season.
I looked over at the stands and saw Li sitting up several rows wearing basketball shorts and a baggy T-shirt, looking mildly uncomfortable with her backpack perched on her knees. I gave a wave, and she waved back kind of shyly.
“Not a cheerleader, just my friend. She’s trying out for the girls’ basketball team, and I’m helping her train.”
“Hey, you don’t have to get defensive with me,” he said, grinning and putting more into the statement than he said out loud.
“Sims, get your head into practice,” Coach Easley yelled, whacking the back of my helmet.
“Sorry, Coach,” I said and went back to throwing.
After practice ended, I waved the guys off as they headed to the locker room and went to the stands. I knew I’d be meeting Li, but I thought we’d meet at the court, and I didn’t want to keep her waiting, so I’d brought my bag out with me. Some of the guys made some kissing noises at me as I headed to the bleachers where Li was coming down to the field to meet me, which caused her to blush.
“Don’t mind them. They’re idiots.”
“It’s okay,” she said, but I could tell it was making her very self-conscious.
We made our way down the track, off the field, and down the sidewalk to circle the building where the basketball courts were set up behind the teacher’s parking lot. They were also used for tennis courts and sometimes even volleyball, but usually tennis, since the basketball and volleyball teams usually played inside the gym.
That meant, for us right now, that a tennis net was stretched down the half-court line, which basically kept us to half-court play only, but that was fine. It wasn’t like we were doing a pickup game or anything. Later on, if we needed more room, we could go to Frazier Park, but it usually had people playing pickup games after school until it got too dark to see.
That might be good when I needed to see her play against other people, but for now, we’d work on the basics.
“You’re really good,” she said suddenly. “At football, I mean.”
“You watched the whole practice?”
I hadn’t realized she’d been there long enough to see me throw more than a handful of times. I thought when the guys called her out, that she’d just arrived, since I hadn’t noticed her before that, and even though Jorden wasn’t starting anymore, he was still getting to throw in practice, meaning I spent a lot of the time watching her after I noticed her just waiting around while he got to do his thing.
“Most of it. I don’t know much about football, but even I can tell you throw really well. And you’re fast. You were outrunning a bunch of those other guys out there.”
She must have been there early because we didn’t scrimmage at all today, and the only time we’d run was for warm-ups and then doing some sprints before breaking into groups with the coordinators while Coach Holloway worked with varsity.
“Thanks. I think I could do even better if Coach would let me be more mobile. You know, scramble when it makes sense, pass more. But that’s not my call.”
“Why not? Aren’t you the quarterback?”
“It’s complicated. High school football has a lot of ... politics. Coach Holloway likes a specific style of play. Conservative. Ground and pound.”
“That sounds painful.”
I laughed. “For our runners, more than me, since they have to keep charging headfirst into the other team’s line. But hey, we won last week, so I can’t complain too much.”
“Still, you looked really good. Like you knew exactly what you were doing.”
“Thanks. I’ve got a long way to go, though. Especially if I want to make it to the NFL.”
“Is that what you want? To play professionally?”
“It’s all I’ve ever dreamed of.”
Actually, it’s all I’ve ever dreamed of twice, technically. In this life and in the dream life.
“That’s ... kind of amazing, actually. To know exactly what you want like that.”
“You don’t?”
“I mean, according to my mom, I’m going to Harvard to become a doctor. But that’s not exactly my dream.”
“Basketball?”
“Ha,” she said, laughing out loud. “No. I mean, I like to play and if I could play in high school and college, that would be great, but no, I have no dreams of being a professional athlete.”
“Then what?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve really thought about it. It’s just been, do viola lessons, do Chinese lessons, get A’s, get on the honor roll. Just the next thing and the next thing, following the plan put in front of me.”
“Don’t you think maybe you should consider what you want to be doing? I mean, it’s your life and you’re just starting. Do you want to look back in thirty years and realize you’re living your mother’s life, instead of your own?”
“No,” she said after a long pause. “But it’s also not that simple. It’s ... it’s a Chinese thing. It’s hard to explain.”
“Okay. I won’t push. Just think about it. Okay?”
“Yeah.”
We got to the court and, thankfully, no one was there. That wasn’t that big of a surprise. There weren’t any lights, so we had maybe an hour of playtime before it got too dark, and most people didn’t want to cut games short once they got going.
“So, I talked to one of the guys on the varsity boys basketball team about what tryouts are like and what you should expect. Sorry, I don’t know any of the girls on the team, but one of the JV guys on my team knows him and connected us.”
“What did he say?” she asked, her normal reserved demeanor slipping for a second.
“So it’s two parts. One is running everyone through drills to see your fundamentals, and then they’ll split you up for scrimmages, so they can see you play. We can’t really do the scrimmaging because there’s just the two of us and all that,” I said, waving at the tennis net at half-court. “But we can at least work on the fundamentals.”
We started with dribbling exercises, or at least what I thought were the exercises. I’d watched a fair amount of basketball in my dream life and I talked to some people over the last few days, which wasn’t the same as actually knowing what I was talking about, but it would have to do.
Li seemed to be really good at handling the basketball. She had a ton of control, switching hands easily without looking down at the ball, something I couldn’t do, going in between her legs, and even changing hands behind her back at one point.
“Where did you learn that?”
“Some guys I played with at the park back home thought it was cute having a girl wanting to learn to play basketball, and kind of adopted me. They taught me all kinds of stuff and had me practice.”
“Ohh, so when I’m calling out dribbling drills, you must be getting a real laugh.”
“No! I really app...”
“I’m joking. If you know actual drills, let’s do them.”
She started again, and her drills were a lot more complicated than the ones I’d had her do, including speed dribbles, stopping and cutting back while controlling the ball, and switching from between the legs, behind the back, and around the other side, pulling up for a shot. I didn’t know how useful all of that was, but it looked really impressive.”
We continued with free throw shooting, each of us taking turns at the line. Li’s shots were consistent, with her hitting almost ninety percent of them. I hit closer to fifty percent, and that was rounding up. After that was rebounding, which consisted of me bouncing the ball off the backboard, trying to simulate a shot that didn’t go in and her trying to get the ball in one short go.
This was the most questionable of the drills because it was very different from having someone else against you, contesting the ball, but it was what they’d told me would happen at tryouts, so it’s what we went with.
Again, she was really good at it, always seeming to know where the ball was going to bounce and getting a hand on it. It helped that she was tall, but even with that, she was really good at getting into position.
Finally, we tried some contested shooting. She’d start a few steps back and come in for a shot, and I’d get my hand up in the way, not really trying to block it, but trying to make the shot harder. She was really solid close up, but her shooting in the mid-range was closer to seventy percent with my hand in the way, and that was again not having anyone really putting pressure on the ball, trying to move it, and a whole team operating around you. I’d heard somewhere a good shooting percentage was in the forties, which made sense with everything that would be happening.
Although I didn’t know if that was true or not.
She was a lot worse from behind the three-point line, only hitting two out of ten shots. None of that seemed to matter to her. She was grinning and having a great time. It was the happiest I’d ever seen her. The serious, no-nonsense girl had completely disappeared, and a kid just having a good time took her place.
She was glowing.
“Having fun?” I asked during a water break.
“So much.” She was practically bouncing on her toes. “I forgot how much I loved this.”
“It shows. You’re really good, Li. Like, really good.”
“Thanks.” She ducked her head, but I could see her pleased smile. “My mid-range game needs work though. I can post up all day, but if I want to be more than just height under the basket...”
“Yeah, it and your three-pointers are definitely weaker, although I wouldn’t say they’re terrible.”
“Threes don’t matter as much. I know I’ll be playing post. But being able to hit those elbow jumpers would make me harder to defend.”
“Okay, well, I guess we know the areas we need to focus on next time. Speaking of which, we should probably wrap it up. Same time Friday?”
“Definitely.” Li gathered her things, then paused, “Hey, Blake? Thanks for this. For helping me, I mean.”
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