Chapter 5

Ex pulled his kit bag out of the boot of his mum’s car, shouting out a quick “see you later” to his mum Ex turned his back to the car and without hesitation started off towards the Sports facility entrance at Cazenovia High School. Just before hitting the doors, he heard a quick shout from behind him.

“Hold up Ex, I’ll walk in with ya!” Exclaimed Lavon as he sidled up to Ex giving him a hearty slap in the back.

“Ready to show the rest of these guys what you can do man?” Asked Lavon giving him a big grin.

“I hope so man, I don’t wanna let you guys down.” Said Ex, somewhat quieter than normal.

“Hey man, your our ‘Warriner’ now! Get it, ‘Warriner - Warrior’.” Said Lavon bouncing around. “I can’t wait to bust some heads.” Grinning from ear to ear. “Just do what we’ve been doing the last few weeks man. You’ll be prancing around in a no-hit red shirt for most of the week anyway so you got nothing to worry about. Besides they gotta get through me and my boys to get to ya, and that just ain’t gonna happen. We gotta protect our future state champion quarter back don’t we.”

“Thanks man,” said Ex feeling marginally better than he had a few seconds ago. If nothing else seeing a 300lbs black man dancing around with a crazy look on his face looking like a lunatic at 9 in the morning couldn’t help but make him smile!

“Follow me then ‘Warrior’ let’s get you in there.” Grinned Lavon, as he led him down to the changing rooms to get kitted out for practice.

The locker room was bouncing filled with nearly 160 kids aged 14-18 all wanting to be the next big thing in Cazenovia football! The room was chaotic with friends hugging and back slapping and re-familiarising themselves with each other after the summer break. Some who had caught up over the summer just with a fist bump to acknowledge the friendship and camaraderie they had, others being far more vigorous and loud. A large group of smaller players most likely those kids coming up from middle school were mainly sat in a group off to one side of the locker room sticking together. Pretty much keeping to themselves seemingly slightly overawed by their current surroundings.

Lavon went round the room, seemingly knowing everyone, or at least all the larger kids in the room, introducing Ex briefly to each of those he hadn’t met before, with either a head nod of acknowledgment or a quick fist bump to welcome him to the try outs.

Half the senior guys on seeing Lavon had greeted him with a high five and congratulations saying “4 stars man!! Way to go!” And such, Ex gave him a quizzical look?

“My player rating on the scouting networks! It’s how they grade college players, the better the grade the better the player and the more likely they get recruited by a top school, I was border line 3/4 last season but got bumped recently!” Said Lavon.

Ex was beginning to realise how big this was for these guys and him. Sports in the UK were run differently with the big clubs from different sports having their own academies where they developed young talent. Some of the soccer clubs were signing up kids as young as 7 or 8. Ex realised how different this was to what he was used to and whilst he previously had begun to understand why high school football was so important to the town and to those who played the game, he was now beginning to understand the scope of opportunity and responsibility that came from playing varsity football. Especially as a quarterback!

Having done the rounds of introductions they found a spare seat on a relatively unoccupied bench and proceeded to change ready to hit the fields.

With most of the locker room changed or nearly changed, the main doors barged open and Coach Mercer walked.

“Right ladies!” He exclaimed, “time to work of the dust and see if some of you managed to stay of the twinkies and pop this summer!” With a wide smile on his face.

“Time for some football get your butts out onto the field ready for a morning of conditioning. Don’t you love to run in the morning?” His smile turning into a grin. “Get your butts moving!”

First up was a slow warm up jog involving the whole team, led by Coach Appleby one of the PE staff who worked as an assistant coach, at only 25 and an avid fan of his chosen profession he was in better shape than almost all of his protégés and easily led them round the fields for a few laps whilst jogging backwards. All the time encouraging the players to start to stretch out their strides after a few hundred meters and to start to loosen their muscles and get their blood flow going for a gruelling day of fitness and football.

Having completed the 2 laps easily and just beginning to get warmed up Ex looked around his fellow football players to see some clearly were like him and in a good shape of physical fitness, indeed most of the older guys seemed to see the exercise for what it was a gentle warm up. It was clear though that a few of the guys wouldn’t be making the cut just based on fitness. Ex thought to himself how stupid it was to plan to play football but not be fit to play football.

“Alright gather round,”shouted Coach Mercer. “We’ve got a lot to do today so I need you all to shut up and listen for a minute!” Pretty quickly silence descended and he Coach carried on. “We’re gonna start off with the normal tests, speed, strength and then your favourite and mine endurance! We have 4 stations set up for you to run a 40 yard sprint. We’ll have the defensive line prospects at station 1, that’s over there with Coach Bradley, at station 2 I want the defensive backs with Coach Appleby, at station 3 the O line with Coach Finch and the Offensive backs come with me over to station 4.” With that he blew his whilstle and led those that followed him over to station 4.

“Okay gentleman and ruffians,” he grinned, “whose first? Name and position.”

Matt confidently stepped forward saying “I’ll go first coach might as well give this lot something to try and beat! Matt Hill, wide receiver.” Ex wasn’t surprised with his confidence. Having thrown to him in most of their practices over the summer he was likely the quickest of the receivers. In this group he would likely be the fastest to run the 40, indeed unless their was someone who was greased lightning in the freshman class or in the D-backs he was likely the quickest on the team.

“Okay Matt, let’s see if you can improve on last year. Get set, on 3... 3... 2... 1 ... Go!”

Matt exploded from the stance he had dropped into after giving his name and position. Sprinting down the laid out 40 meter course. Ex watched him fly up the laid out track from his position. He watched Matt lean for the imaginary line as one of the Assistant coaches holding the stop watch at the finish line shouted out an encouragement and a “great time” as Matt raised his hand to his head to take in oxygen and walked over to coach to find out his time, before heading back to the rest of the group.

“How’d you do Matt?”, “What was your time,” and various other shouts querying his performance came from the group as Matt tried to saunter back to them all whilst getting his wind back as the next man up settled into the line to run.

“4.48 guys! Beat that!” Said Matt with a huge smile on his face. To be met with whistles and looks of respect from his team mates. “Shit man said one of the freshmen I’m gonna look like an offensive lineman out there!” At which point everyone cracked up. The excitement was still there but with a sense of cameraderie and friendship to try and challenge each other to get the best results for their team.

Ex watched as most of the guys in his group ran, he held himself back trying to get himself into the right frame of mind to do his best. He was an all round athlete and had run sprints numerous times in various levels of competition. Whilst he didn’t have top elite speed he was fast and he he wanted to open a few eyes as to what he could bring to the team as whole package quarterback.

As the 4th to last member of the group sprinted off the line as Coach Mercer started him on his sprint. Ex readied himself and stepped forward to take his place at the line. Looking over to Coach Mercer he stated; “Exthereon Warriner, Quarterback.” Dropping into his stance to ensure he got the most explosive start possible for this 40.

“Okay Mr Warriner! Let’s see what you’ve got... 3... 2... 1 ... Go!”

Ex exploded out of his crouched stance, staying low as he had been taught as he pumped his arms hard and drove his legs as hard as he could, gaining traction off the grass surface with his cleats digging into the lush ground. Leaning forwards initially as he passed 10 yards down the track he started to straighten up, still pumping his arms for all he was worth whilst driving his legs, muscles bulging to continue his acceleration before he hit top speed.

Straightening out, driving to the line, lungs screaming, as he drove his muscles as hard as he could Ex crossed the finish line. He slowed bringing his arms up over his head to rest, fingers interlaced behind his head as he sucked in lungfuls of air. He turned to go and check on his time, catching the assistant staring at his stopwatch.

Ex walked slowly over to the assistant coach all the time sucking in air getting his breath back as quickly as possible. “ How’d I do coach?” Asked Ex as he walked up.

“Um excellent work, Ex is it? Did I hear you say you play quarterback?” Said the coach.

“Yes Coach, can I get my time?” Asked Ex again intrigued to find out what his time was if this was the reaction of the coach.

“You did a 4.58 according to the stopwatch, damn fine work young man!” He exclaimed. Ex thanking him quickly and slowly trotting back over to the rest of the group of players milling around ready for the next test.

Ex was met with gusto from a number of the players who recognised he had posted a fast time. Once they learn’t he had posted a sub 4.6 and was looking to be the the quarterback, the chatter and general excitement amongst the group elevated. Their previous quarterback who was due to be a senior had been shipped off to military school after a scandal involving the local ministers 15 year old daughter, whilst their junior quarterback was at best efficient, he couldn’t complete a pass beyond about 30 yards accurately. The sophomore who had been playing quarterback was an outstanding cornerback and wanted to focus on playing there which would have only left them with a freshman quarterback who was still only 5’9 and very ‘green’ and a further junior who had a decent arm but couldn’t get out of the pocket and looked more like he was preparing to play as an offensive lineman going into the season. (It was him who made the wise crack to Matt earlier) If Ex had an arm to go with his foot speed they had a decent shot at a post season run with the other talent in the team.