Chapter 16: First Football Game

Cindy drove Sarah and Ashley to Woodside High School. The first game was a home game, so they didn’t have to travel with the squad to the other school, but they were expected to arrive early to allow for some last-minute practice.

Gloria had decided both the varsity and JV squads would perform at the first game. The JV was doing a great job learning the routines, and the varsity was improving more than she expected. Using the varsity to help the JV was having unexpected benefits. The varsity members were eager when it was their turn to work with the JV, and Cindy was proving very knowledgeable and turned out to be a great teacher and leader. Things had really rebounded since she had found out Betsy had quit.

Gloria laughed when she saw Ashley, Sarah, and Cindy walk up with black belts wrapped around their waists. Cindy’s belt had other colors with it, while the girls’ belts were plain black. All three were congratulated by both squads.

Jimmy sought out Jenny just before the squads were to go out to the field. After a long kiss, he told her what Bert had asked him.

“I haven’t heard about him dating anyone. He’s friendly with everybody, but no one knew anyone with whom he had gone out. Some of the girls were wondering if he was gay, but there were plenty of instances of him noticing someone when they wore something designed to catch a guy’s eye. Jane was planning to do that every day next week to see if she could get him to ask her out. She has him in two classes, and she managed to get seats next to him in each. She will be disappointed when I tell her.”

“Don’t tell her; let her try. If she succeeds, then Bert’s not that serious about Sarah. If she doesn’t, and he asked Sarah out, we need to make sure she doesn’t break his heart.”

“She’s your sister and would never do something like that.”

“She also has many things she is busy with. How much time will she have to give Bert? He’ll know it isn’t her being hard to get but that he isn’t that central in her life. Imagine if I had the commitments she’s making. How would you feel?”

“Yes, we need to keep an eye out for something like that. She would be upset if she hurt someone.”

“One more kiss for luck. We’ll go out with Maria and Benny after the game and celebrate.”

“Someone is confident.”

“Bert is really on his game. I told him if we won the game, Sarah would be more likely to say yes.”

“She would be more likely to say yes if you lost the game to make him feel better. She would also give him tips on how he could improve, and they all would be useful.”

Jimmy realized she was right about the tips. “Jenny, ask Sarah and Ashley to think of anything we can do to improve our game while they are watching. I’ll see about introducing their suggestions before the next game.”

“Going to use your sister and Ashley to make yourself look like a genius?” Jenny saw Jimmy hadn’t realized that would be what would happen.

“I’m not sure what would happen if I told the coach and the guys where I had gotten the ideas. Also, I don’t think the girls want more attention.”

“You’re right about them working to avoid attention. The only time they have broken from that is when Ashley talked to us about working for her in the cafeteria. I have had a number of people ask if I could get jobs for them.”

“I think that’s why she did it, but I don’t understand. We need to talk to them about it. Maria is waving for you.” After another quick kiss, Jenny ran to join the varsity squad.

Woodside was losing ten to seven at halftime. Bert and Jimmy had worked together for a solid drive of mostly passes to Jimmy on the first possession, which gave Woodside a seven to zero lead. After that, the other team had doubled-teamed Jimmy. Bert had been able to get the ball to the other receivers, but they weren’t Jimmy. Two fumbles had led to the other team scoring ten points. Bert and Jimmy were discussing what to do while they walked to the locker room when they found Sarah standing in their way.

“Jenny told us you wanted suggestions on how to improve your game.” She looked at her brother. “Jimmy, when you aren’t the receiver, you aren’t as intense in running your pattern. Run them all the same. The defenders have noticed this, and one is dropping off when you do it. Bert, run a couple of plays to other receivers while Jimmy runs his pattern intensely. It should keep the two defenders on him. Then go to Jimmy on the next play with Jimmy not starting off intense. Jimmy, as soon as one of them moves away from you, go for it. Bert, you could fake to someone else to draw the man off, but probably just watching the other receivers would do it. You’re able to keep track of the downfield well enough that you’ll know when Jimmy takes off.”

Bert had been surprised when Sarah had stopped them. He wasn’t sure what to think when she started with her suggestions, but what she said felt so right that he was grinning as she finished. That Sarah had been paying such close attention to him made him want to show her what he could do with the help of her suggestions.

Jimmy had also realized how helpful his sister’s suggestions were. He was about to thank her when Coach Marraccini spoke.

“Those are very good suggestions. Jimmy, I had noticed you weren’t running hard when you weren’t the receiver, but I hadn’t thought about how to use it as an advantage. I think it will only work once, but it will give us an opportunity. Bert, her suggestions for you were also good. Miss, do you have any other suggestions?”

“Sarah Pierce, Jimmy’s sister. The other big one we had was for the defensive line. Ashley isn’t having any luck convincing Moses and Ben about what they need to change.”

Coach Marraccini looked where Sarah was pointing. He saw a blonde girl in the face of his two largest players. She wasn’t backing down, but the two linemen weren’t even listening. They were just trying to get around her, which was funny since they both weighed twice what she did. “Moses, Ben. Come here.”

Ashley let both boys go when the coach called. They both looked relieved until they realized the coach had seen the girl keeping them from getting around her.

“Sarah, Jimmy’s sister has just given us some good suggestions for Bert and Jimmy to do in the second half. She says Ashley was trying to offer you some suggestions. Let’s hear what she has to say. Ashley, can you tell us what you were trying to explain?”

Coach Marraccini’s saying Bert and Jimmy had accepted suggestions made them look stupid, but the pretty blonde wasn’t looking like someone who was going to say, “I told you so.” She was just smiling at them and waiting. Moses realized Ashley, who was a friend of his sister Rachael, was waiting for him to acknowledge the coach. “Yes, Coach Marraccini.” He nudged Ben, who just shook his head, “Yes.”

“You are being beaten with fakes. You’re not taking the time to see what they are doing. You did better last year, especially the last game. You should be giving the back a huge hole. Ben, your man is doing the same fake every time. Take a second to watch for it. You got him beat so badly physically he has to fake you to have a chance. A few times where you don’t fall for the fake and he’ll start being intimidated. You were very frustrated every time you came off the field. Moses, you were catching the fakes most of the time but you were also reacting to what was happening with Ben. Take care of your man first then help Ben. Coach Marraccini, after Bert and Jimmy get the passing game started on the first set of downs, call a run between Ben and Moses on the second set. JJ will pick up at least ten yards. You’ll have a more balanced attack and the guys will tear them apart.”

Coach Marraccini understood what Ashley had done. Not only had she told Ben and Moses how to correct what they were doing, she had given a lift to the team, who were now standing around listening to what was going on. “Thank you, Ashley, Sarah. Let me take the guys into the locker room. I have a couple of suggestions of my own I want to tell them, plus they need to take a break.”