Chapter 31

David
The first day of football practice was always a circus at USC because every local sports outlet covered it. As David came up the sidewalk to get to the locker room, he was impressed by the number of TV news vans he saw.

When David arrived at his locker, he found a pleasant surprise. His jersey with no number had been replaced by one with the number 11, which was his old high school number. When David was in on Saturday, the equipment manager had told him that he wouldn’t receive a number until he made the team. Even then, he learned, scholarship players got first pick. He’d resigned himself to getting some number like 98 and winding up sharing it with two or three other walk-ons.

His day got better when he saw his locker was next to Percy Wilkes. David had met Percy when their teams played a game on ESPN. The game had featured two nationally ranked high school teams and was held in St. Louis. ESPN had paired Percy’s team from Texas against David’s because, at the time, Percy had taken David’s number one spot in the recruiting rankings.

David had been injured in a car accident, and the game was going to be his return to football. When interviewed before the game, Percy had basically said that football in Texas was superior to the rest of the country. Furthermore, David’s team wasn’t good enough to rate being a part of such a high-profile game. Percy had actually said that Lincoln High was ‘irrelevant.’

When they’d played, the first snap from scrimmage had made David a believer that Percy might be the best high school football player in the land. Percy was a monster who lined up at defensive end. He was three inches taller than David and outweighed him by at least fifty pounds. On the snap of the ball, Percy had taken one hand and basically tossed Lincoln’s offensive tackle aside.

The play had been designed for Lincoln to triple-team Percy, but he discarded all three opponents with ease. David momentarily froze as he saw his life flash before his eyes. He’d watched plenty of game film where Percy would simply engulf a quarterback and slam him to the turf in spectacular fashion. In most cases, that ended the quarterback’s day, as they had to carry him off.

Percy had zeroed in on David with a glint in his eyes. That ended in a flash as Lincoln’s center had pulled to add a fourth blocker. The center had been able to get up to full speed while Percy had been busy tossing three Lincoln linemen around like rag dolls. The end result was that Percy hadn’t seen him coming, and when the giant defensive end was driven to the turf, David had smiled in satisfaction.

That play set the tone for the game as the boys from Texas learned that the Bulldogs didn’t give up even if they were facing a ‘relevant’ team. David’s team had won 56–28. The game wasn’t really as close as the score indicated, and David had retaken his spot at the top of the recruiting class.

“I’d heard rumors you were on campus. Where have you been?” Percy asked when he saw David.

“The football team claimed they didn’t have any scholarships, so I’m a preferred walk-on. I’ve been playing on the baseball team,” David explained.

“I haven’t seen you in the weight room,” Percy persisted.

“Ridge Townsend and I have been working out together to help him get him ready for the NFL draft. How did you do last year?” David asked to turn the subject to Percy.

“They had me redshirt, which pissed me off at the time. The coaches have assured me that I’ll be getting plenty of playing time this coming year. I decided to look at it as a positive and have been focusing on working out to get ready.”

“You look good. How much weight have you put on?” David asked.

“I’m up to 290. I feel good there, and the trainers think I’m where I need to be.”

At six-seven, the 290 pounds looked to be all lean muscle when Percy took his shirt off to put on his jersey. David had no doubt that Percy would be a star once he got on the field.

One of the coaches interrupted their reunion by calling everyone to the field to start practice.

Today, they were in shorts and t-shirts. They wouldn’t put on the pads until later in the week. Spring football was three weeks long, with spring break mixed in.

After warming up, David was sent to work out with the linebackers, which he discovered was the largest group, with seventeen other players playing the position. David looked across the field where the quarterbacks were gathered. There were five of them.

The coaching session was led by Linebacker Coach Cornetti. He was in his mid-30s and looked like he’d played the position.

It was a typical first day. They lined the linebackers up in two rows of nine each and had them run drills two at a time. That meant that David spent most of his time watching others practice. He could tell that many of the other players were bored because they were talking between turns. David zoned them out, focused on what he would do next, and then gave it his best effort.

David thought his old high school team could use one piece of equipment that looked like a rectangular trampoline on stilts. It was mounted on wheels so it could be moved easily. Its purpose was to teach them to not stand straight up. The coaches had them get into their two-point stance, then step under the contraption and run the drill. David bumped his head a few times, but he quickly figured it out. The trampoline, as he was calling it, helped him keep his body correctly positioned.

As practice wrapped up, David spotted his former high school teammate, Bill Callaway. Bill was two years older and had been David’s go-to receiver when they’d played together.

“I wondered where you were. What are you doing with the defense?” Bill asked.

“Coach Clayton would only offer me a scholarship if I agreed to play defense,” David shared.

David didn’t add that the coach hadn’t even delivered on that. Not that the fact wasn’t starting to irritate him.

“I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“Don’t worry about it. I feel bad I haven’t looked you up, though,” David admitted.

“Ridge and Penny told me you were on campus. I haven’t called you either,” Bill said to let him off the hook. “What are you doing after practice? We should catch up.”

“Sorry, I can’t. I have baseball practice.”

“Yeah, I was surprised when I heard you’d gone out for baseball. I have no idea how you have time to do both.”

“Talk to me in a week, and I’ll let you know how it’s going,” David said.

“We need to make time. It’s crazy that we’re on the same campus and haven’t even grabbed a beer or lunch or something.”

David remembered people warning him that he would begin to forget about all his friends once he left high school. At the time, he hadn’t wanted to believe it. When David left Lincoln to make his movies, he’d had every intention of keeping in contact with everyone. Standing there, looking at Bill, was a stark reminder that he hadn’t really thought about others he’d left behind.

It made him realize that the ones he was still in contact with were even more important to him. There was a handful that he planned to reconnect with, Bill being the easiest. When he could actually do that, he wasn’t sure. He would just have to make time.