Chapter 4

Tim Jordan was the boy’s soccer coach at Memorial and had agreed to help out the new principal by also working on football. For the immediate future, Ed Brennan was doing most of the coaching but he was the first to say that he could work with the guys on conditioning and drills but he knew nothing about play-calling. Tim had agreed to help out on that front and had spent the previous two nights going over the Memorial playbook.

Since Junior Jones had been a top-rated high-school quarterback — one of the best in the nation, in fact — most of the plays were passes. In fact, while many teams use the running game to set up the pass, Memorial did the reverse: It used it’s passing attack to open things up for the run. But no more Junior.

Furthermore, his two partners in crime were the best receiver and the school’s top running back. So Memorial was faced with a very solid front line, an excellent defense, but no offensive weapons at all.

While Jordan was musing, it suddenly registered in his brain what he had been watching: The girl with a goalie’s jersey was regularly booting the soccer ball a mile! From the goalie’s box, she was routinely kicking the ball beyond midfield before it hit the ground. That got him thinking. Put the foot back in football?

First he spoke to the girls’ coach, and then to the girl herself. It was Natasha Corcoran, and she was excited to learn of his interest. When he asked if she could kick a football, Tasha replied, “Sure. Tanya and I have been practicing all summer.”

That resulted in Tanya being called over, too. Tim looked at the two girls and realized that, although they appeared to be identical twins, they really weren’t that identical; he had no trouble telling them apart. But since they were the same height, same weight, same build, with the same hair and eyes, it was a puzzlement.

He learned that Tasha was the punter, while Tanya was the better place-kicker. He gathered some balls and one of the junior team managers to chase them and took them over to the football field. Standing on the 30-yard line, Tasha booted magnificent spirals that turned over, landed, and stopped inside the 5-yard line at the other end. Her first kick had sailed far over the head of the manager who was back to catch it but that was no surprise. The boy had never encountered a punter with the leg strength and extension that Tasha had.

Then it was Tanya’s turn with Tasha holding. Starting from extra-point range, she just monotonously pumped ball after ball toward the goalposts, splitting the uprights every time. After the first few, they just moved upfield until she was kicking with the ball placed on the 50-yard line. And still she split the uprights! Not wanting to risk an injury, Tim stopped it right there.

“Good grief!” he exclaimed. “I think Memorial has two brand-new offensive weapons.” Then he grinned and added, “You two don’t happen to know anyone who can throw a football, do you?”

The two exchanged looks, nodded, and then Tanya said, “As a matter of fact, we do. The problem is he’s only a freshman and not much bigger than we are right now. But he can throw and he’s very accurate.”

“Who receives the passes?” Tim asked.

“His best friend. He’s about the same size, but he’s very fast and has really good hands.”

After talking awhile longer, the girls agreed to contact Mike Barnes and Ben Brewster and see if they could get them to try out.

That evening, the girls were sitting around the table in the kitchen going through the telephone directory. Jessie, their cook, was watching with amusement because the girls weren’t having any luck at all. “What’s the problem?” she asked.

In frustration, Tanya replied, “Do you know how many Barnes and Brewsters there are in this damned directory? Dozens! And Tasha and I have no idea where they live!” she wailed in frustration.

“Does it really matter?” Jessie asked calmly. Clearly this was not a life-or-death situation. “You have those two in virtually all of your classes, don’t you?” Mike Barnes and Ben Brewster were not new to Jessie; the girls had been talking about them for weeks.

“But we don’t even know where they live!” Tasha repeated.

“So what? They don’t know where you live either.”

“That’s different,” Tanya sniffed.

“Oh... ? And how is that different.

“Because they’re boys!” Tanya replied as if that made a big difference and the difference should be obvious to anyone.

“That reminds me...” Jessie began. “Don’t you think you’re overdoing this anonymity thing, bigtime? I mean ... Dan had to go and buy a Toyota Camry just to drive you kids to school! Sheesh... ! Of course, it was built over in Georgetown, and since it’s less than 25 miles from here, you’re helping with local employment, but still ... I mean ... What’s so damned wrong with being dropped off at school in a Rolls? I think it would be pretty neat, myself.”

The two girls giggled because that was exactly what had happened.

Tanya and Tasha decided to wait for lunch to talk to Ben and Mike about going out for football. They decided it would take longer than the time between periods and so it turned out to be. The initial reaction — no surprise — was, “You’ve got to be kidding!” That was followed by the argument that they weren’t very good. The girls rebutted that by pointing out that in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king. They might not be great, but Mike could throw far better than anyone else out for football, and Ben was a fine receiver with great speed and good hands.

Finally the two boys were beaten into submission; they would try out that afternoon.

It was no contest. Mike was really firing the ball, and Ben was consistently getting separation on the defensive backs and making catches. As Ed Brennan watched Mike pass, he saw something that looked familiar. Then he realized what it was: Mike Barnes was throwing the ball the same way that Tanya Corcoran did.

At the next break, Ed asked him about it. “Did you teach Tanya Corcoran to throw a football?”

Mike just laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“Your question, coach. It was the other way around: Tanya taught me to throw a football.” Then Mike just shook his head and continued, “Maybe it’s her background in ballet and gymnastics ... I sure don’t know. But what I do know is that not only does she know the mechanics of throwing a football, she’s incredible! She also knows exactly which muscles are doing what, and how to get them all working together for the maximum effect.”

So Tanya became the unofficial quarterback coach. When the girl’s soccer coach complained that she never got to see the Corcorans at practice, Brennan blew her off with the comment, “Those two are so damned good, it’s unfair to the opposition to let them practice, too.”

With the addition of Mike and Ben to the squad, quarterback and wide receiver were covered, but there was no running back. And even though Mike was a very accurate passer, he didn’t have great arm strength to fire the ball downfield. And neither Mike nor Ben weighed even 150 pounds.

This time Tasha came to the rescue. She had been watching a running play in which a guard pulled to lead. The guard was huge, but he was amazingly light on his feet. Although not very fast, he was very quick. She pointed this out to Brennan, and The Tank (Clarence Brown) was born.

When Brennan tried him out as a running back, he learned something else, too. First, he had very soft hands and was an excellent receiver coming out of the backfield, but beyond that he had the ability to move his body so that, even when going through the line, no one was able to get a clean shot at him. In addition, because of his great size — Brown was already six feet four, 240 pounds, and still growing — he was very tough to bring down.

And Tasha began to work with him on his running speed, and that was the cause of some merriment. No sooner had she started, when a beautiful very tall black girl come over and demanded to know what Tasha was doing.

“I’m trying to get his speed up.”

“Sheesh, girl, are you trying to get me killed? Or at least raped? Don’t you realize that the only thing that’s preserved my virtue to this point is that I’m faster than he is?”

“Oh...” Tasha replied with a deadpan look on her face. “I guess you’ll have to work out with us, too, to try to maintain your advantage, won’t you?”