Gladiators of the Gridiron

Over the rest of those one-on-one drills, I kept my promise to not give up a single completion no matter who was put against me, or who was throwing the ball.

Day eventually returned after he had cooled off, though a close eye was kept on both him and me whenever we came close to one another.

Afterwards, we went through a variety of drills to test out our positional skills. There was another drill that pitted DBs against Receivers, only this time without the ball being involved.

The DBs were in press coverage, and it was our job to prevent the Receivers from moving forward five yards for as long as possible. Whereas the Receivers did everything in their power to get around the DBs as fast as possible.

It was a fun challenge, even if it was more like what a lineman would be doing and almost like a miniature sumo bout.

I couldn’t help but notice that every Receiver tried their hardest against me. Though that still didn’t stop me from holding them to their slowest releases.

But no matter what else we did, nothing reached the adrenaline high of those proper one-on-ones.

Before I knew it, Coach Long was calling an end to the drills altogether and the tryouts were over. He gathered us all up one last time as he had one final announcement to make.

‘Excellent job today, boys. I’m really proud of the effort on display by everyone today, and you should all be proud of yourselves for doing your best, so give yourselves a round of applause.’

I kept my hands by my sides as I listened, everyone else gave a gentle clap, the coaches being the most enthusiastic out of everyone.

‘Now,’ Coach Long continued. ‘I’m sure you’re all very curious as to who made the cut for varsity, and who will be starting off the year in JV.’

He looked around at all the expectant faces, some murmurs spread throughout the crowd of teens, people whispering amongst themselves about whether they thought they made it or not.

My teeth started to grind together as I stared ahead silently, holding my breath as I waited for the coach’s next words.

‘Unfortunately, we won’t be able to tell you that today. We’ll have to go back, go over all the details and all the results of the drills and exercises, talk it all over together, and come up with a decision together.’

There was a collective groan of disappointment, and even a few boos scattered around the group. My jaw relaxed and I let out a deep breath; I’d have to wait to hear that I’d made it onto varsity.

‘But there’s good news, and congratulations to you all are in order. You all have made it onto the team, whether it’s varsity or JV, you’ve all done great and left us with tough choices for who to put on the varsity squad,’ Coach Long said.

Another round of applause was started by the coaching staff.

‘I welcome all of you to the Dominguez Dons Football Team. Expect a call within the next couple of weeks to let you know which squad you made it onto. As for now, it was a good day of practice everyone, get home safe and rest up.’

I felt like it was all over too soon. I brought my borrowed gear back over to the table I’d gotten it all from. The brats looked to be in brighter moods now that they would be leaving soon.

I turned away to head back to my own bag when I almost ran into another one of the players.

‘Ah, sorry, sorry,’ he said. He had his head lowered, staring at the ground as he handed back his gear.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ I said before going to make my way past.

‘Um… you’re Samuels, right?’

I stopped again and looked at him once more. ‘It’s Ty, actually.’

I looked him over. It was that mouse-looking kid—big ears, buckteeth, quiet, those freckles could’ve been whiskers. He really was tiny too, so much so you’d think he’d snap in half if someone laid a finger on him.

I remembered that he’d always done the worst when put up against anyone else no matter how hard he tried; I wondered how he had made the first cut to actually make it on the team, maybe he was someone’s kid.

‘O-Oh. Um, I’m Max Graham, but uh… everyone calls me Rabbit.’ He extended a hand to me.

I shook it gently, though he must’ve noticed my raised brow at his nickname.

‘A-Apparently I look like one… um, kinda. But uh, I-I’m fast like one too.’ I could see that; he had been quick at least.

‘Did you want something?’ I asked as I let his hand go.

‘R-Right! Sorry I just, I wanted to say how awesome you were today. You were like… totally unstoppable out there. It was incredible!’

I hadn’t even played a proper minute of high school ball and I already had my first fan.

‘Thanks. You were uh…’

‘I-I was crap.’ His head lowered again as he shifted his feet. ‘I already know that I won’t make varsity this year but I just, I wanted to say that you really inspired me today. How do you do it?’ He peered up at me again.

‘How?...’ I looked away from him, frowning a bit as I thought back to any time I went up against a Receiver one-on-one. I thought about when Harry had destroyed me yesterday and what the difference was between my victory and my defeat.

‘It takes a lot of things to beat somebody when it’s just you versus them. Of course, being bigger, faster, and stronger than them plays a big part. But you see me, I’m not that big, sure I’m fast so that’s good, but just about every Receiver today was bigger than me.

‘But physical dominance doesn’t mean you win in this sport. You have to be smarter too, you have to be more precise, and more technical. You can’t give them even a millisecond of a lead against you.

‘That means you can’t have any wasted movement, everything you do needs a reason. But it also means you can’t waste time reacting. You see, the Receiver always has the advantage just from the way offence and defence work.

‘They know which route they are running, they know which way they are going and when they need to catch the ball. As a corner, you’re left reacting to what they do. It takes time to react, so whenever they make you react, they’re in the lead.

‘You have to anticipate what they’re going to do. You have to know what they’re going to do before they even do it, then you have to find the opening for when the ball will arrive, and you have to slam it shut in their face.’

I finished my speech with a sharp clap. Max looked up at me, his eyes full of both awe and confusion.

‘B-But… how?’

‘It’s subtle. You have to keep practising and you have to study your opponent. Everyone has a tell. Whether they take shorter strides when they run a specific route, or they turn their hips a certain different way when it comes to fakes and real turns, to just the look in their eyes or how they stand before the play. Anything could give it away.’

It was clear I had given Max a lot to think about, I could already tell his brain was working overtime trying to think back to his own experiences when trying to guard someone to see if he could retroactively find any anomalies and “tells”.

‘O-Okay. I think I get what you mean. Th-Thanks, Ty!’ He beamed up at me with a wide grin.

‘No worries.’

‘Ah, I-I should get going. My mom’s probably waiting for me. See ya!’

We waved goodbye to each other as he hurried off to the gates leading out to the street where a bunch of cars were parked.

‘Samuels, you got a minute?’ Luke called out to me now.

I checked my phone—I still had time before my bus got here. I turned to him and nodded.

‘What’s up, Coach?’

‘Just wanted to say good job out there today. When you were on the field you carried yourself really well and did great. Now, you’ve still got some clear attitude issues, but between you and me, it’s safe to say that you’ll be on the varsity team this year.’

A pressure I didn’t even realise existed in my chest suddenly disappeared when I heard that. I found it a lot easier to breathe and I felt a lot lighter. It was weird. Why was I so relieved to hear something I already knew would happen?

‘Thank you,’ I said. It was all I could think to say at that moment.

‘But don’t think that means you can slack off, or that just because of your stellar performance we’ll tolerate that kind of behaviour.’

‘It’s not hard to perform so well when you’re up against easy competition.’

‘See, that kind of arrogance is exactly what I’m talking about. Just because you’re better than others doesn’t mean you should look down on them,’ Luke said and sighed.

‘Stephen Day. The one you almost got in a fight with. He was our best Receiver last year. He led us in touchdowns, receptions, yards, everything. And he’ll probably do the same this year too.’

I frowned. So what if he did that? That didn’t make him good, it just meant he was better than anyone around him. He was nothing compared to that monster, Harry.

‘Is that all, coach?’

Luke let out another heavy said before he said, ‘Jeez, freshy… you’re gonna be a real pain in my neck this year, ain’t ya? Yeah, yeah that’s all I had to say. Go on and get home.’

‘Before I go. When’s practice start?’

‘Two weeks. Same place, same time. We’ll have officially announced the two teams by then.’

‘Hm. See you in two weeks then, coach.’