Chapter 24

There were six NorthEast 10 teams playing scrimmages against out of conference teams that weekend. For many of them it was a chance to go and see a big named team play the local college and maybe see some of the names that lit up college highlight films. With the exception of the NEAT game, most drew little attention.

Coach Winslow had no intention of doing a press conference after the game, since it was a scrimmage, but Ann Comeche, his SID insisted that too many outlets requested time for him not to. At that post-game press conference almost all of the questions were about the co-ed team and locker room. Jared explained quickly that he would not discuss the gender of his players. All members of the team were just that, members of the team, and they belonged on the field.

There were certainly many questions about their fine performance. June Bokue had 3 catches and a touchdown, Oksana Cushman made 6 punts, all high, good, hanging kicks for at least 39 yards. One sports outlet interviewed the high schools coaches of each of the girls, even Julie Mercer, the back-up place kicker who had not got into the game. Each of the coaches expressed their full confidence in the girls they had coached and knew they could perform at a higher level when they left. Jared was glad that less attention was paid to Marv Hudson who had certainly made his mark and proved himself. Coach Winslow hoped to intensify the play schooling of the young quarterback over the next 2 weeks for the first conference game.

Jared was looking for a neat and polite way to end the press conference when the door opened and Meaghan and Declan slipped into the room. As soon as Declan saw Jared sitting alone at the table he broke from his mother and ran behind the table to hug the coach.

Laughter broke out among the reporters of whom one of them asked, "Is this your son, Coach?"

"No, I've never been married, but he certainly is a special little guy in my life. I think he wants to go home and to tell you the truth, we've all had a long day." He answered as he stood up and Meaghan came over to him as well, blushing deeply over her sons actions.

There were camera snaps at the trio and unanswered questions as to who the mother and son were, but Jared exited the room without further comment.

"Thank God you guys came in and let Declan steal the show! I didn't want to do a press thing for a scrimmage game and make the girls a circus, but Ann insisted. God, didn't they see the game? It wasn't a stunt, they can play!" Coach said letting out a sigh.

"You should hear what I hear in the stands." Meg said. "Things like, "I see he only recruited the good looking girls", or "Why didn't he recruit any girl linemen?" I guess there's an ESPN story about a girl who was a big star at some Texas High School and she was never drafted. She's apparently a large girl, all-state wrestler, and a defensive lineman."

"Well, you can always say that I didn't recruit ANY of the 3 girls. Matter of fact, Oksana came here on a academic scholarship with hopes of trying out for Woodard's team last year and he wouldn't even consider it. Both of the other girls, who were the ONLY other girls, were also walk-ons. This was why I didn't want any gender questions and also why I don't want any reporters in the locker room, although I won't be able to avoid that eventually. They all want to make a story that isn't there." Jared said as they pulled from the parking lot and headed home.

"You don't have any privacy issues do you?" Meg wondered.

"No, we don't even have, nor do I think we need, a matron as of yet. The dressing part of the girls locker stall is private and the rest of the team is instructed to dress back in their stall. The boys near the front lockers where the girls are have a privacy shield as well. The whole team knows that if there's any screwing around, they are gone! End of story! They've each proved they EARNED their place on the squad. Now, lets not talk football anymore. This is going to be a short week for us ending with a two-a-day on Sunday leading into our first conference game prep week." He explained.

"So after you give the team report card tomorrow and work with the playbook, you're free for the rest of the day?" She asked.

"Yes, we work out on Monday, practice early Tuesday, late on Wednesday, early game prep Thursday, fly out Friday to play. We get back late Friday night and have Saturday off except for team report card, then a two-a-day Sunday, our last. After that it's a normal game week schedule." Jared said exhaling deeply, exhausted about talking football.

Their next pre-season scrimmage was Friday against Appalachian State at a neutral site for a Blue Ridge Mountain Days festival. It was near the campus in Boone, North Carolina and something App State did yearly for the local community to promote the festival and give the fans a taste of that years team. Jared liked the opponent, but not so much the venue, a minor league baseball stadium near the festival site. It would, however, be a trial run at going on the road, getting used to air travel for those who had not experienced it yet. They would take an almost 3 hour flight into Boone's private airport on two charter Canadair CRJ-200 commuter jets. It would be whirlwind trip flying out of Burlington at 7:00 am Friday, playing a 3:00 pm game and be back in Vermont by late Friday night after a bus ride from Burlington. As much as it was a test for the team as a traveling unit, it was a test of the travel crew. Coach Winslow had already had long discussions with the App State coach, an old friend, who assured Jared that this was not a game for blood nor money. It was a scrimmage where he hoped the risks of injury would be slight. They had already had 2 of its star players hurt in practice and were simply ironing out some wrinkles before their Southern Conference opener. Jared agreed it would be a "scrimmage" in the full sense of the word. He would bring only the one red shirt player, App State said they would use 3. The stories of "co-ed" players at NEAT already had a lot of excitement going for the game. Part of the gate proceeds were for charity so all agreed it would be a good thing although Jared hoped there wouldn't be a circus atmosphere to it all.

In Jared Winslow's mind, over anything else, he intended to get Marv Hudson as many game snaps as possible and Brian Faraday as many game opportunities as possible. He already felt that Oksana Cushman was not a problem, the way she handled her first game as if she had been playing D1A right along. June Bokue, as a red shirt, would play in scrimmages, but would not appear in any of the 12 season games. Barring injury he could hold her out and still use her for 4 full years of eligibility. She was at one position he seemed to be well equipped, wide receiver. She, as well as Oksana, had plans for a 5 or 6 year academic career.

The other thing to accomplish in this game was to get Junior Contralco as many minutes as possible on offense. He could sub as an option quarterback and take a pitch and throw, but they had to get him snaps as a tailback, a tight end or even wide-out. He had been held out of the first scrimmage in case Marv got into trouble, Jared wanted to make sure if Marv was overwhelmed he could get him out before there was damage to his psyche. Junior was possibly the most savvy player on the offense besides Boge Hollins and he wanted to get his brains and talent into the game. Jordy Alford would work full time all week getting Mark Freeman accustomed to the offense and the playbook. Freeman had 3 years experience running an offense in a big program, even though he wasn't a prolific thrower. He could easily be a competent back-up once he learned the offense.

The teams win today may have fooled some people, but it didn't fool Jared Winslow. His team at full strength did not belong on the field with Boston College at full strength. Boston College came in knowing this and wanted to have a laugher. Jared Winslow was not going to let that happen. By the time BC had all of the looks at their team they had come for, the score was close and their best players were on the bench and the team on the field was probably seeing their first and only action together. They had no intention of risking injury trying to pull out a scrimmage win. Coach Winslow had to risk a little more to get some experience for some of his key players. He was lucky in one area, he had a lot of 2nd, 3rd and 4th year players who by simple virtue of having a new, more positive, system under them, they felt good about the team.

Although not every fan and player knew it, The NorthEast Ten Division of 1A football was not going to get off the ground until they could draw players who WANTED to be there and not SETTLED to be there. By virtue of their spanking new high tech stadium, NEAT was a prototype to build from. Other schools in the division were building better venues and making better hires, but NEAT was first to build and be ready for the upgrade in class. The NCAA encouraged them to hire Sherm Woodard to make a name for the school and draw some of the better high school players to the division. Unfortunately when Sherm came in he lacked the patience he had as a younger coach and as a successful NFL coach to mold a team from recruits. Joe Barber saw by the third year of Woodard's tenure that he had hired the wrong man. Jared Winslow's local reputation was sure to cause local excitement, but Winslow's name came up with every major college job opening and he had become a national phenomena with his record of winning and always the rumor of his moving on to bigger and better things. Although his name was mentioned many times for high profile openings, he usually never even returned a call. The call from NEAT intrigued him because of the situation in his personal life. He was also aware that once he immersed himself into a project he could make things happen and this would be just the challenge to lift him up and out of the depression he was having over his relationship with Barbara Gaynes. Everything fit well and Joe Barber was savvy in many of the ways Winslow himself was. He knew how to approach Dean Crawford, not with the idea of bringing in Jared, but, to walk into her office WITH Winning Winslow himself with an entire plan laid out start to finish all tied up in a little package with a pretty bow. Crawford liked Winslow because he dealt in reality and didn't hide behind hype. He told her there would be bold things happening to move the program along swiftly, but he had to admit that going co-ed was never even a thought. The fact that Oksana Cushman was good enough to walk into almost any D1A camp and make the team, coupled with the fact that no one seemed to care, opened his eyes when other females came along.

Now, Jared Winslow wasn't jaded enough to think his team belonged on the field with top flight D1A programs, but he was confident enough to believe they only needed proper guidance and experience to get there. Not looking foolish without destroying ego's and confidence between those two reality's was his job number one. He may not have been able to put a team on the field as fully loaded with talent as Florida, Alabama or UCLA, but he could put one on the field with as much fire and heart. For the fans, fire and heart sold tickets, built the base

As much as he didn't want to think about football, his mind reeled about the team on the ride home. Meaghan looked over and saw his furrowed brow and the tension in his face. As Declan occupied himself in the back seat of her SUV she reached over and put a hand on Jared's upper thigh. His racing mind came to a screeching halt as he felt the warm hand near his "equipment". He looked up into the mirror and saw Declan playing and looked back to Meaghan and smiled. He put his hand down over hers and smiled.

"Thanks. I needed to get off that train. Reality is a nice place to be." He said with a smile.

"I'll show you a nice place to be once we get alone tonight." She said softly, smiling back knowingly.

"Can we have pizza tonight?" Came the voice from the back seat. "Mommy wouldn't let me have pizza at the game."

"That was because we had a good lunch at home and we didn't need pizza just because you saw somebody else have it. How about if we make pizza tonight and you help us?" Meg said turning to her son in the back.

Declan looked up from his toy and smiled at his mom, nodding his head.

As Jared observed, he knew this was a part of his life that he was missing and wanted to be part of permanently. Taking this job and having it lead him to Chicago to find Meaghan had been a fate well planned out by the spirits that be, and Jared thanked God every day.

Once home Jared gave Declan the key and let him run to open the house as Meg came around the vehicle to take Jared's arm and walk to the door.

From the adjacent yard a call of "Good game, Coach. Nice show for the fans." Came from Mike Denault who was raking the first of the early fall falling leaves in his yard.

"Thanks Mike. It's good to get that one out of the way." Coach responded as he plucked the keys that Declan had left in the door and went inside.

"Before you sit down to relax I should warn you, Declan is going to want some attention. Mike's kids all went to their Grandmothers for the day with their Mom." Meg said, as a warning.

"Just as well. If I sit I'll go into crash mode and be asleep by 8 o'clock." Jared conceded.

He no more than took off his team blazer when Declan came out of his room, his arms full of play choices.

"Coach, do you have time to play with me for a while? You can show me how to kick the football like that guy at the game, or we can race radio cars in the driveway. If you're tired we can stay in and do Play Station." Declan asked irresistibly.

"We just bought batteries for the cars, let's use them for a while. We can play video games later when it starts to get dark." He replied as he took a car and controller from Declan's arms.

While the men busied themselves with driveway car races, Meaghan busied herself in the house getting back into the routine of being a wife and a Mom. She loved keeping a house and cooking for her men. It was something she missed so when she became a single Mom after throwing Matt out. She had feminist friends who would frown on her thinking, but it was what she loved. As she prepared her stand mixer to make pizza dough she flushed at the thoughts going through her head. For the first time in a long time she felt life was good again hearing the cheering and cajoling of her man and her boy in the nearby driveway. As the sun disappeared behind the tree ridge overlooking the campus she had to switch on the kitchen lights and knew the driveway racers would be in soon.

No more than a few minutes later she heard the clamor from the side door as they came in.

"Mom, can I watch the Sponge Bob Show?" Came the holler from little Declan.

"What does Coach think, are you guys all picked up?" She asked loudly.

"Yes, he wore me out, but we have all the cars and controllers inside." Jared responded smiling as he came in to the kitchen and kissed Meg on the back of her head as she worked the mixer.

"OK, watch Sponge Bob, but then come right in here if you want to help make the pizza. The dough will be ready then." She told the boy.

She pulled the ball of dough from the bread hook and rolled it in flour before wrapping it in a warm towel and placing it in the oven that she had just warmed above room temperature to let it rise. She turned from closing the oven door and fell into Jared arms.

"Forgive me for saying this and don't let it scare you, but if and when you decide you want to get married and make all of this permanent, my answer is yes, yes, yes." She whispered into his ear as tears began to form in her eyes to go with the catch in her throat.