Red Diamonds

A Day in the Life of Scott McCarthy, part 2

In the changing room, McCarthy made a beeline for his locker, which was at the end of the room, in between Tajiri's and Tendulkar's lockers. The latter was already dressed and ready to get outside to start the training session, but he looked up, smiled at McCarthy, and held his fist out for McCarthy to fist-bump, a gesture McCarthy returned. McCarthy set his bag down and began changing clothes as more players started filing into the changing room. Matsuzaka arrived. Chapman and Steiger went straight for McCarthy. Both held their hands out, and the three greeted each other. Then Yagami showed up, and McCarthy held his hand out to shake. Yagami took one look at it and blew McCarthy off, leaving him disappointed and wondering what Yagami had against him.

He couldn't dwell on it, letting it get to him. He's a professional soccer player, here to win. Something so trivial was a distraction.

McCarthy undressed and dressed quickly and was out the door in his training gear in a matter of minutes. Then he stepped outside, greeted by the same cold air from earlier, and the cheers of the fans who came out to watch the morning training session. He turned, smiled, and waved to the fans. Then, boosted by a surge of adrenaline, he ran out onto the pitch. Those fans sat in a 200-seat grandstand attached to the visitor's center. Inside, the fans were treated to a café that opened an hour before training sessions began, with a view of both pitches from the second story of the clubhouse.

As other players emerged from the clubhouse onto the pitch, McCarthy began stretching, starting with some lunges. The cheers varied, depending on who was coming out. A trainer approached him, clasping his hand like they were about to engage in a "bro-hug," but it didn't go beyond that and a fist bump. They entwined their arms, and the trainer helped Scott with some calf stretches, holding a ten-count on each leg before switching.

Some more stretches, spreading his legs so he could bend over and stretch his thighs, pulling his legs behind him, stretching out his arms, skipping, etc., followed. He felt good.

He stifled a yawn. It was still morning. Scott wasn't unfamiliar with morning training sessions, though; he had one or two with the Badgers, but most of those practice sessions were in the afternoon because of classes. Badstuber preferred to start the training sessions in the mornings because he thought that people were more energetic in the morning. But the training session was supposed to start around 10 or 10:30, and he couldn't tell what time it was right now because he didn't have a watch on him.

Badstuber finally emerged from the clubhouse, clad in the club's training gear, and blowing a whistle and calling for the players to gather around him.

"Good morning, guten morgen and ohayo gozaimasu," he said like a new teacher eager to start the day. "I thought I'd keep things light for today; we'll mostly run some drills, then do some strength and conditioning in the afternoon. Chapman, McCarthy, Stieger, Tendulkar, you three have language, culture and etiquette lessons this afternoon, immediately following." The four players in question looked at each other in acknowledgement. "Alright, finish stretching, then we'll get started on those drills. Let's go, auf geht's, ikou!"

Badstuber blew his whistle and the team dispersed.

Football/soccer warm-ups primarily focus on the legs, obviously. But there were a few arm stretches after the leg stretching was finished. Then Badstuber got them to start on jogging a few laps around the ground to get them warmed up for a few drills.

While they ran, Chapman and Stieger ran up next to McCarthy on opposite sides of him. "Finally told my dormitory mates what I did," Chapman said, huffing.

"Took you that long?" McCarthy asked, incredulous.

"I'm barely there to interact with them," Chapman laughed. Chapman lived in a Gaijin house in the Tokyo. Most of the residents were European, but he also mentioned an Iranian wannabe pro-wrestler and an Ethiopian woman working for Mitsubishi.