Guts vs Glory (2 page)

A week later, our sentence was set
to begin as the first day of school was upon us.  That day, the student body
was allowed to sign up for the after school program of their choosing.  The
auditorium was full of eight foot long tables, each decorated and labeled for
the club they represented.  We didn’t know where to begin, so we started with
the table closest to the entrance

The first table was the after
school band program.  We listened to rap and heavy metal music all the time,
and starting our own band sounded kind of fun, so we figured we would give them
a try.  We were even willing to learn how to play the drums or the guitar.  We
were ready to sign up until the representative at the table started talking. 
That person had band nerd written all over him.  Apparently, East Whitaker was
known for their marching band.  In fact, they had more people in the band than
their entire senior class.  That club was clearly for band nerds who couldn’t
get enough of the French horn or tuba and wanted to spend time with other band
nerds.  Those nerds had been playing since the 5th grade and could out-clarinet
us any day.  Next.

The next table was the honor
society.  That group consisted of students that really liked school and had
really good grades.  Next.

We skipped the chess club, the key
club, and the math club, but we stopped at the drama club.  That was another
club where our only concept of the group came from popular media.  We loved
movies and thought acting would be fun.  Just like before, we were ready to
sign up until their representative told us about his group.  Memorizing lines
and acting like someone else in front of an audience would’ve been a challenge,
but something that we could have overcome.  What we wouldn’t be able to
overcome was the fact that we would be performing in plays where we would be
wearing make-up, singing, dancing, and making complete fools of ourselves. 
Next.

We were out of options, so we took
a walk outside.  We decided that our only talents were Mike’s running abilities
and my size.  Unfortunately, those talents would be wasted in drama, chess, and
band.  I thought back to the big deputy and how he was able to use his size to
his advantage without needing to be fast or athletic.  Why couldn’t I do the
same with my size?  Then we saw them.  Out on the field, with their dark purple
helmets glimmering in the sun, the varsity football team was running, catching,
tackling, and blocking.  That’s when it came to us:  The football team met
after school, which would fulfill the after-school aspect of our sentence,
while the field would be a great place to use our natural talents.  Then, for
the first time I could remember, I ran.  We both ran – straight to the coach to
sign up for the school’s football team.

We soon realized that the football
team was not like any of the after-school clubs in the gym.  There were no
tables to sign up at, and no advertisements for future members.  It was a group
that had spent the entire summer practicing together, and was not interested in
recruiting new members.  Unfortunately, that realization didn’t come until
after the coach laughed at us when we asked about signing up.

Once the laughter subsided, he told
us that he would talk to us after practice.  In the meantime, we were invited
to stay and watch.  At first, we were very intimidated.  Clearly, this group
had already formed a team.  They knew the drills, and had already begun working
on plays.  Even more intimidating was the level of skill that those players
had.  I was watching the runners knowing that I could never compete at their
level.  They were running fast, they were running hard, and they were even
running backwards.  Mike was watching the tacklers.  They were knocking the
tackling dummies into the next field.  As a runner, he seemed shocked by the
amount of force that those tacklers could deliver.

After a few minutes, however, our
attentions switched and our optimism rose.  I began watching the tacklers,
while he watched the runners.  He knew he could keep up with the runners, even
though he was a few weeks behind them.  I knew I wasn’t ready for what the
tacklers were doing, but I was more than willing to learn.  The more I watched
them, the more I wanted to hit somebody.

After practice, the coach sat us
down in his office.  After explaining our situation to him, the coach said he
would be willing to ask the judge if the football team was considered an
after-school program.  He then explained that we would be faced with the
challenge of learning the team’s plays quickly, because the first game of the
season was scheduled at the end of that week.  His biggest concern was that
because we missed the first two weeks of practice, which were aimed at getting
the team in good athletic shape, he didn’t know what kind of shape we would be
in.  He decided that he would attempt to assess our athletic ability during gym
class the following day.  Since the coach was also the gym teacher, he would be
able to pull us out of activities that day to assess our speed and strength. 
After that, he would know how far behind we were and what we would need to do
to catch up to the rest of the team.

We were excited that the coach was
willing to give us a chance.  Rather than turning us down right away, he was
willing to take time out of his day to see if we had any potential.  It would
then be up to us to prove our dedication to the team and our willingness in
staying committed to the program.  Our excitement quickly turned to panic.  As
we were shaking hands with the head coach of the varsity football team, he
welcomed us as players.  The next day wasn’t a tryout; we had already made the
team. 

We were not forgotten about.  Just like
he told us he would, the coach pulled us aside from the other students.  It was
the second day of gym class, so we weren’t really missing much anyway.  While
the other students were playing flag football, we had a private meeting with
the coach on the other end of the football field.  He began the meeting by
informing us that the judge would consider football as an after-school
program.  The coach then told us that he wanted to do a quick assessment on us
to see what we would need to improve on.  His primary objective was our speed
and strength.

The first thing he had us do was
stand at one end of the flag football field.  We were asked to run for 20 yards
as fast as we could.  Clearly, Mike had no problem with it, but when I was
done, I couldn’t breathe.  Without even getting a chance to catch my breath, it
was time for the second agility drill.  For that drill, we started at the same
place as before.  This time, we ran to the 10-yard line, turned back around and
ran back to the starting line, turned back around and ran to the 20-yard
line.   The back and forth running continued until we made it to the 50-yard
line.  In total, we ran 250 yards during that drill.  I think I’m still trying
to catch my breath.  But like before, that drill was made for Mike.

After the speed drills, we were
ready to move on to the strength drills.  The first drill was to see how many
push-ups we could do.  After numerous attempts, we were finally able to do the
perfect push up.  Unfortunately, we were each only able to do one perfect
push-up.  Next were the sit-ups.  We struggled to figure out the right form for
those too, but eventually we were able to complete 10 of them.  Our last drill
was squats.  For that drill, we had to squat down as far as we could without
bending our back, and come back up with our knees locked.  After the 5th one,
neither of us could get back up.

With the drills finally done, we
clearly didn’t need the coach to tell us what we needed to work on.  I needed
to work on my speed, while we both needed to work on our strength.  The coach
did tell us, though, that he was impressed with Mike’s natural speed and felt
that if I was strong enough, I could definitely use my large size to my
advantage.  He promised us success by the end of the season if we stuck with his
workout plan.  We quickly committed to the plan, but our degree of commitment
decreased the more the coach described what our workout would consist of.

Since I would play as a lineman,
the coach wasn’t too worried about my speed.  He told me that I would get
faster once I maintained a healthy diet and worked on my cardiovascular system
a bit.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t use practice to work out on our own and we
couldn’t keep missing gym class.  That left us with the time before school to
utilize the school’s weight lifting room.  With a school day that started at
7:30, our sessions would have to start at 6AM.  For students going to bed after
midnight, 6AM seemed like a nightmare.  To stay on the football team, we would
have to go to bed early, wake up early, get to the gym early, make ourselves
lift weights and run on the treadmill, stay in school all day, then finish with
a three hour practice.  To make matters worse, the coach said that we would
have to raise our grade point average to stay on the team.  That meant we had
limited time after practice to work on homework and study.  It seemed to us
that what should’ve been a fun activity of running and hitting people was quickly
turning into a lifestyle similar to the military.

It wasn’t the workout routine that
bothered us.  In fact, it was a pretty easy routine to follow.  It was the
early mornings that bothered us most.  We tried going to bed early, but staying
up late was a hard habit to break.  After a half hour in the weight lifting
room, we showered and were ready for class.  Class dragged for the first few
hours as we struggled to stay awake, but the rest of the day went by quickly
once we started thinking about after school.  We were excited for our first day
of practice.

Finally, it was here.  We put on our
practice jerseys for the first time and really felt like part of the team.  We
walked onto the practice field with pride as we were feeling like part of a
strong tradition.  Practice started off with a few minutes of exercising.  Some
of the drills we did were similar to the drills we completed with the coach the
previous day.  The drills, however, were slightly easier the second time.  I
thought it might be due to the morning of weight lifting, but I’m pretty sure
it was just adrenaline.

After stretching, exercising, and
speed drills, we were broken up into small groups.  Mike was put into a group
of runners.  They called those guys running backs.  All they did was hold onto
the football and run as hard, and as fast, as they could.  My group was made of
blockers and tacklers.  This group was a little unique because it was broken
into two separate sub-groups, yet we all had the same coach.  One group, the
offensive linemen, played when our team had the ball.  Their goal was to make
sure our quarterback didn’t get tackled while trying to throw the ball.  The
other group, the defensive linemen, played when our opponent had the ball. 
Their goal was to tackle the guy with the ball; usually the running back or
quarterback. 

There were 12 guys total in our
group.  A starting offensive line consisted of five players, while a starting
defensive line generally consisted of four, for a total of 9 starters.  That
meant that at the very least, I would be one of three backup players; which in
turn meant more playing time for me than I expected.  The line coach quickly corrected
my assumption by reminding our group that some of us would be starting on both the
offensive and defensive line.  I now understood the importance of being in such
good shape.  Not only did we have to be strong enough to tackle or block, and
fast enough to catch the guy with the ball, but we also had to be able to play
long periods of time with very few breaks.

We spent about two hours working on
plays that day.  The plays were pretty easy for us to remember because our
roles pretty much remained consistent for every play; there were just a couple
of trick plays that we had to remember.  Otherwise, once the ball was snapped,
the offensive linemen stood and blocked the defensive linemen, while making
room for the running back.  The defensive linemen had to run through the
offensive linemen in an effort to tackle the guy with the ball.  The logistics
seemed easy enough, but again, the struggle was keeping up with everyone else
while only taking limited breaks.

Mike didn’t have it as easy as I
did.  I thought the simple concept was to run every time he had the ball.  What
I didn’t realize was the amount of plays he would have to memorize.  There were
almost 50 plays involving the running back position.  Sometimes they ran left,
sometimes they ran right, sometimes they ran up the middle, and sometimes they
didn’t run at all.  A major challenge for him was that each play was assigned a
numeric code.  Rather than the coach telling each player what they had to do,
the coach would give signals to the quarterback, who would then say something
silly to the offense like “34 iso”.  Due to the intense memorization required
to know what each numeric code meant, Mike was forced to divide our designated
studying time between doing homework, studying for exams, and now, memorizing
plays. 

The next day seemed very similar to
the one before.  We were able to fall asleep early the night before because of
the long day, which made us more refreshed when we woke up at dawn.  That time,
we were able to lift a little more weight and run a little longer.  After
struggling through class, we made it to our second practice.  Practice was a
little different the second time.

I was taught in practice the
previous day how to block and how to tackle.  With my large size, blocking was
easy.  With a little more strength, I felt my blocking could be the best on the
team.  As a defender, I didn’t get a chance to deliver my first tackle. 
Instead, we continued working on getting past the offensive line, which was
where being a big guy helped.  Waiting for the snap was another issue, though. 
As I mentioned earlier, our simple job was to block or tackle as soon as the
ball was snapped.  The hard part for me was patiently waiting for the ball to
be snapped.

As linemen on either side of the
football, we were unable to move until the ball was snapped.  But with all the
excitement and adrenaline going on, I found it hard to wait patiently.  That
was clearly my biggest struggle and was addressed promptly.  The line coach
figured out a great way to help me.  Every time I jumped early, our entire
group would have to do push-ups.  As much as I hated push-ups, I hated letting
down the group even more.  It didn’t take long for me to break that ugly habit.

Mike had an ugly habit to break of
his own.  While we were working on our drills, we all stopped suddenly when we
heard a loud pop.  Looking around, we saw a coach yelling at Mike with a
football laying his feet.  He later told me that as he was running a drill, the
running backs coach calmly walked up to him and was able to punch the ball out
of his hand.  As fast as he was, Mike struggled to hold onto the ball.  He
wasn’t used to carrying things while he ran, so he simply wasn’t paying
attention to the ball.  The coach made it very clear that even though he was
the fastest player on the team, he was a liability if he couldn’t hold onto the
ball.  That meant that until he could learn to hold onto the ball better, he
wouldn’t be able to play during the games. 

His bad habit was corrected the
same way mine was.  He was also worried about letting the team down but his
biggest motivator was being able to play in the games.  There were four other
guys trying out for the starting running back position.  With that much competition,
he would have to be nearly perfect to stand out.  We were already informed that
we wouldn’t be able to start in the game coming up, so we both made it our goal
to stand out and become starters the following game.