Chapter 33

“Dennis, I’m sorry to have taken you so much by surprise,” Coach Byers said as the meeting broke up. “I am going to give you a choice in the matter. If this doesn’t sound like it suits you, just tell me and we’ll go with Plan B.”

“You have a Plan B, sir?”

“No. But we’ll make one up.” They both laughed.

“There are some things that will need to be worked out,” Dennis said. “For example, physical conditioning for the entire football team while I’m working with cross country runners and volleyball players feels like more than I can handle. I’m still a student and have homework, too.”

“I was concerned about that as well. It worked for the track team because we handled it during practice and you only worked with the guys outside. I think I’ll leave football conditioning to the coaches. I’ll be assisting Coach Torvalds with football. We may have the same problem with basketball, though I’d truly like to see our guys put through some of the exercises you put the girls through. That one, we’ll need to talk to Coach Griffith about. I’ll be coaching the wrestling team and will work out what conditioning is needed there. Cross country, though, will be a mixed sport. Having Coach Andy and Coach Graves work on it like they did for track will be positive. I know they’d both like you to work on conditioning for their team.”

They reached the tunnel entrance and kept walking. Dennis noticed that Brenda, Ardith, Andy, and two of the new women coaches, Coach Mills and Coach Fisher, were walking along with them. Coaches Wilson, Griffith, and Torvalds stayed back, hunched over the conference table talking football. Brenda noticed Renée Lambert wandering aimlessly at the door and ran to invite her along with them.

They got out to the track and turned toward the straightaway start area. Coach Andy stopped and pointed.

“We could have used your help out here this week,” he said. “Ardith, Jim, and I spent a long workday on Monday measuring and marking the 5k cross country course.”

“Um ... I have a job. I’m sorry I can’t be on this a hundred percent of the time this summer, sir.”

“Oh, we know that,” Ardith said. “Don’t feel like we’re trying to pressure you into anything. But I talked to Mr. Brown this week and he said you are pretty handy with a mower.”

“I just mowed a hayfield for him, but I don’t have a mower. We don’t have enough yard for anything but an old push mower,” Dennis said.

“Well, here’s the deal,” Ardith said. “Mr. Brown told me about the work you are doing this week and it was a wonder that we were able to schedule the meeting for when you could attend. After I explained what we needed, he offered to loan you to us, if you agree, along with the mower, to prep the cross country track. We’ve marked it off, and have the specifications regarding how it needs to be prepared. In addition to mowing, it needs to be carefully inspected for rocks, roots, holes, and anything else that might cause a runner to stumble. We got permission to run the track at the edge of a couple of farms north of here and then to cross over and come back down next to the river before looping around the cemetery. We’re looking at laying fill in where the track might become hazardous in rainy weather. Some areas will be dirt track, some long grass, and some pavement. By long grass, I mean one to one-and-a-half inches. We may need to do some seeding, too. With good weather, Mr. Brown estimated it would be about two weeks of work and he could provide the equipment and you for the work. He did suggest we get a few volunteers out here to help as well.”

“Wow,” Dennis breathed. It looked like an interesting task and he was willing to do the work. He was a little disappointed about losing two weeks of income, though. “I guess if Mr. Brown doesn’t need me, I don’t have anything else to do. I’ve got another eye operation coming up in three weeks and will have to take a week off then, too.”

“Oh, this won’t be time off, Dennis,” Coach Andy jumped in. “It will be part of your job for Mr. Brown. The boosters are subsidizing it.” That definitely put a better spin on it. They turned and started back toward the track.

“I’m a little unsure about how all this is supposed to work,” Coach Fisher said. “I’ve not worked with a student trainer before. I will probably work most of the volleyball conditioning myself. I’ll consider some expansion of that when I see how you work with the cross country team.”

“Yes, ma’am. I have a lot of reading up to do to look at sports conditioning for volleyball. I’d love to observe you at work,” Dennis said. That stopped Coach Fisher, literally in her tracks. The others turned to look at her.

“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am. Brenda and I are taking a course at DMACC this summer on athletic training. It’s what I hope to do as a career.”

“Hmm. I’ve never allowed boys in for practicing and conditioning. They’ve always proven to be too much of a distraction. I’ll reconsider,” she said.

“If nothing else, I’ll be happy to work with your team manager and make sure she knows where everything is and what the duties involve.”

“Yes. Yes. You do that.” Pat Fisher realized that the existing coaches at the school had a lot of faith in this junior—faith she wouldn’t have put in a junior in college. She would need to do some rethinking.

“Dennis,” Coach Mills said. “Have you considered cheerleading?”

“Um ... You might not be familiar with our history of cheerleading here at Bartley,” Dennis said. “Brenda was a cheerleader for three years before joining the girls’ basketball team. She could tell you more about it. I tried to work with the cheerleaders last year, but they really didn’t seem to be in good condition or be interested in getting in good condition.”

“Well, I will certainly be asking for some assistance in that area,” she laughed. “I was thinking about whether you were interested in cheerleading. I plan to open tryouts to all students, male and female. In addition to our work in the allowed sports, which include football, basketball, wrestling, and volleyball, I plan to put together a competitive team. I consider cheerleading to be one of the sports high schools can participate in, even though the ICCA is its own association and is not part of the IGHSAU.”

“That sounds like a real challenge, Coach. I’ll try to help in any way I can, but I don’t know that I’m cut out to be a cheerleader.”

“Well, keep it in mind. I plan to have the audition announcements and forms out in the next week. We have a no-contact rule in place from July 25 to August 1, but I plan to get auditions underway as soon as we’re clear for action.”

“We never had much organization or even practice for our cheer squad,” Brenda said. “I guess that’s what finally got them disbanded last spring. I know several girls that were interested in cheering but didn’t want to be lumped in with the kind of reputation the cheer squad had.”

Wednesday evening, the girlfriends gathered for a short get together at Dennis’s house. They all sat around on the floor while he and Brenda described what was going on with the sports program.

“So, they’re going full out. Announcements for tryouts and auditions will go out next week. Cheerleading actually gets an extra week from August 1-7. Cross country, football, and volleyball all try out starting the eighth. I think the coaches plan to start practice with everyone who shows up and just cull the herd from there. I’m going to work with the cheerleaders and the cross country team on conditioning and try to make sure all the team managers are prepared for the season.”

“Yeah. That’s after you groom the cross country trail,” Brenda laughed.

“Um ... I guess my dad got into this somehow,” Lana said. “Dennis is going to use our tractor and mower to mow the trail. He told me I could volunteer to help. Um ... He’s decided I’m one of Dennis’s girlfriends whether I admit it or not. And I guess I’m admitting it. But he said I could only volunteer if other girlfriends did, too. For some reason, he doesn’t want Dennis and me out grooming three miles of trails by ourselves.”

“Lana! Your dad is getting awfully permissive, isn’t he?”

“Um ... He might have seen us kiss,” she whispered. The whole group broke up into excited chatter for a few minutes after that, turning both Lana and Dennis red in the face.

“So, you’ll still be our manager for basketball, won’t you?” Natalie asked.

“Yeah. That was a condition of taking on all this other stuff they want me to do. Only they want to try conditioning the varsity team and maybe the JV at the same time with us. I’m not sure if I can keep track of forty or forty-five people at once, even with Lana’s help.”

“As long as you’ll tape my ankles,” Amy sighed.

“And massage my legs,” Tori added.

“And look at my ... uh ... at us,” Leanne added. They laughed.

“I don’t plan to do anything with the wrestling team. We’ll only do track and field for our spring season and the coaches want to recruit half again as many participants. We were really short on field participants for both boys and girls last year. And hurdlers. I don’t know that I’ll need to do anything with the baseball and softball team next summer. They decided to delay soccer and tennis for the time being. Adding five new sports for the year is going to create chaos until they get things figured out.”

“Six if you count cheerleading,” Brenda said. “Don’t forget Coach Mills asked you to work on their conditioning. Lana, you might want to consider going back to the cheerleading squad.”

“Nope. I couldn’t do it. I don’t want to do it. No.”