Chapter 14

I didn’t take time for a shower, just ran in, jerked my shorts off and pulled my support garment on and my shorts. I turned and ran out the door to grab my bike and head for the practice field.

I pedaled as hard as I could, I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t late for practice.

I got to the field just as the others were arriving. I saw Coach Miller and went over to him to let him know I was here.

“Good Morning Rick, glad you made it,” he spoke to me by name and that made me feel good about what I was doing.

“Good morning Coach, do I need to get any equipment this morning?’ I asked.

“Yes Rick, go to the equipment manager and get fitted for a helmet that’s all you’ll need this week.” He told me. I ran over to the dressing rooms and saw a boy going through some uniforms and pads. I walked over and introduced myself and told him that Coach had sent me in to get a helmet.

He looked at my long hair, then he grabbed a tape and measured my forehead. Then he went to the long shelf that was full of helmets, picked out one and handed it to me.

“Try that one on,” he said. I pulled it over my head and it felt really tight on me.

“How does it feel?” He asked.

“Well, a little tight, but I’ll try it today and see how it feels after I have it on for a while,” I told him.

“Good a lot of times when you wear them, they’ll conform to your head shape better,” He said as he handed me a new chin strap.

“I’ll put your number on your helmet when Coach assigns you one,” He told me as I turned to leave. I ran back over to the practice field as Coach Miller and his assistant’s were gathering the players around them.

I spotted Ben for the first time and went over to stand next to him. He saw me and we saluted each other as we grinned. Coach Miller blew his whistle, and everyone looked his way.

“OK men, we have two new players that have signed up to play on our team, Ben you and Rick come over here.

I want all of you to meet Ben Bolden and Rick Dalton, and I want you to welcome them to the team. I expect you to treat them with the same respect you treat each other, is that understood.”

“Yes Sir,” the team sounded in unison.

“Good, now we’ll split up alphabetically in even numbers, and run wind sprints this morning, but first I want you to make one slow lap around the whole field. Then come back here and let’s do some exercises to loosen up.” Coach blew his whistle and we all ran around the track that circled the football field.

As we came back to where the coaches were, they had all of us together. The coaches lined us up across the field in three rows and led us through a series of exercises for about thirty minutes, we did push-ups, sit-ups, and leg lifts, as well as running in place for a while.

There were thirty two of us in all and Coach Bob as everyone called him, blew his whistle and told us to pay attention. “I want the ABCD’s here, the EFGH’s over here, the IJKL’s over here, and the rest over here,” he pointed as he separated us into groups. There were more in two of the groups than the other two, so they made the adjustments and evened us out to equal groups. Ben and I were in the same group, which me feel better.

When the coaches had all the groups lined up, they split each group of eight into two groups of four, then they explained what we were going to be doing.

Coach Bob blew his whistle, and told us “men we’re going to time you in the forty yard dash, we’ll be doing this for quite a while, first to test your speed, then to test your stamina.”

The first group of four will line up with the second four behind them, and so on until everyone is lined up. As the first four leaves, the next four will step up and get ready ASAP. We’ll start at the goal line here where I am,” he said as he stood on the sidelines at the goal line.

“Then you will get a whistle to start, I want you down in a three point stance and run as fast as you can to the forty yard line.

“Then you’ll slow down and trot to the other forty yard line and line up again. There you’ll get another whistle and run as fast as you can to the other goal line. Does everyone understand what we’re trying to do here?” Coach Bob asked.

“Yes Sir,” was the answer in unison again. I was in the second four of our group and Ben was in the first four to line up. I looked up the field and saw two more of the other assistant’s standing at the forty yard line on a small platform. The whistle blew and the first group was off.

I was trying to see how Ben was doing, but our group was lining up and as I got down, the whistle blew. I was caught off guard and was slow off the line, but about thirty yards down the field I passed everyone, and as I ran by the assistant’s at the forty yard line, I saw that they had the stopwatch. I trotted to the forty yard line and was ready this time when the whistle blew. I took off as fast as I could to the other goal line, and slowed as I crossed it and trotted to a stop in the end zone.

We all moved to the other side of the field as the others were still running, and we were lined up just as before, only headed back the other way. I saw Ben take off again, but lost him. Now we lined up again and the whistle blew again. I took off and ran as fast as I could once more to the forty yard line, then slowed down and trotted to the other forty. There was another player there with me and we had to wait for the other two in our group to line up this time.

The whistle blew and we were off again, I took it personal now and ran as fast as I could to the goal line, easily outrunning the other player that had been with me at the start. I slowed down again as I crossed the goal line. Now that I knew the drill, I moved over to the other side of the field, but Ben’s group hadn’t left yet so I waited for them to clear. I looked back and saw my group just now getting here to line up.

The whistle blew even before one player was down in his stance. I took off and ran as hard as I could, still feeling good in my legs. I slowed down again as I crossed the forty and ran easily to the next forty. When I got there, Ben’s group was just now lining up. I saw one of the coaches motion for me to get in the first group. I lined up with them as the whistle blew. I saw Ben as I glanced to my left and I ran as fast as I could to the goal line, crossing just ahead of him.

We ran to the other side and grinned at each other and saluted. When we got to the other side of the field we were told to get ready, there was only the two of us, but we got the whistle and ran like crazy to the forty, as I got there I slowed down and Ben eased up beside me.

We ran to the other starting line and were told to get ready again, as we lined up, we got the whistle, and we were off again. I looked back over my right shoulder as crossed the goal line and saw Ben about five yards behind me. I slowed down and we eased to a stop and grinned at each other once more.

We knew that we were the fastest two in our group. When we got over to the other side of the field, Coach Miller pulled us aside.

“Rick, Ben, you stay here, we want to get the other fastest times, then time all of the fastest together.” Ben and I were joined by three players out of the other groups. We were lined up and got our whistle, I took off and saw out of the corner of my eye that there was another boy running beside me.

We crossed the forty at the same time, and ran to the other forty to get ready. All five of us lined up and I was determined to outrun the other boy. I took off and ran like I had never ran before, as I left them all at least five yards behind. When we made it back to the other end where Coach Miller was, he called me over to where stood with three of his assistant’s.

“Rick, you just made the team,” He said as they all grinned at me.

Wow, I made the team, I was so excited. Coach Miller led me over to the assistant that had the clipboard, and told him that we wanted the official times. The assistant whispered to Coach Miller and, then Coach looked at me.

“Rick, you have an average time of 4.40 in the forty.

“That’s as good as we’ve ever had after ten sprints in a row,” Coach told me.

Wow, I didn’t know what to say. Another assistant came up and told Coach Miller that I was actually faster than that. Coach asked him what he meant by that. Coach Clark as I came to know him, told Coach Miller that I had slowed down each time before I crossed the finish line and if I were to run through the line as fast as I ran the sprint, I would knock at least one if not one and a half tenths off my time. He told Coach Miller that all of this was averages too, and that I had some times that were close to record times.

Coach Miller looked at me and grinned, “Rick we’re going to have some fun this year with you and Ben on our team.”

“Coach, you mean that both of us are on the team?” I asked.

“Yes you are Rick and I know where you’ll start for now, you and Ben will be returning kicks and punts for us. Then we’ll ease you into the game as you get more experience, are you OK with that?”

“Wow Coach, I’m tickled just to be a part of the team, whatever you let Ben and me do, we’ll do our best for you, and hope that we can contribute to the team.” Coach Miller stuck out his hand grabbed mine and shook it, as he grinned.

I looked up and saw Ben, then called him over. “Ben, Coach Miller just told me that you and I would be returning kickoffs and punts and that he would work us into the game from there.” I was so excited.

Ben looked at Coach Miller and Coach grabbed his hand and told him, “Welcome to the team Ben Bolden.” Ben turned to me and we saluted each other grinning like clowns.

Coach Miller told us to get with Coach Clark, and he would teach us how to catch the football, how to tuck it in, and how to follow our blockers.

Ben and I walked over to Coach Clark and asked him what he wanted us to do first.

“I want you to learn to catch the ball without fumbling, that’s the most important thing you’ll ever learn if you’re going to handle the ball.

“You have to catch the ball before any thing else can happen, you understand?” Coach said to us.

“Yes sir,” Ben and I answered together.

“Come with me and we’ll get you set up for a drill that will teach you to catch the ball correctly,” Coach Clark said.

We followed him over to the bleachers, where we saw two assistant’s standing up in the seats about half way up the stands.