QB Sneak

Chapter 6: Friday

(Brrrrrring!)

That's the 1 minute bell. I slapped my locker shut and hustled to class, notes in hand. Alex's locker, next to mine, was untouched. The X-Rays came back. 2 broken ribs and a broken collarbone. Not even coming back to school for a week. Let alone football.

 I strolled into health class with my notes, taking my seat next to Blake Gilbert and Dante McManis. Dante quit football after his sophomore year due to a broken collarbone but is an avid fan of our games and still loves the sport. Mrs. Atkinson began her spiel on the benefits of a good diet. 2:32 turned into 3:20 after what seemed like an eternity, and Blake and I headed to the locker room. Coach Earving greeted us at the door. I opened up my locker, where my glossy purple helmet with a visor and a bright orange hat on it from yesterday tumbled out and bumped onto the floor. I picked it up and dropped the orange hat into a bag with similar purple hats. The entire team filed in one by one and started changing into their game uniforms. I studied the playsheet.

GAMEPLAN VS WHITEWATER

Whitewater has a good run defense. We need to exploit their patchy secondary and get Brazen and Butler open as much as possible. As for their offense, we need to rattle their sophmore QB with an early sack or turnover. Expect a lot of slants and fades to throw tonight. Coach Joey will help train your arm. I looked up to see Coach Joey, our QB coach. 

"Hey, Paddock." He greeted me with a high five. I popped up in my pants and strapped my shoulder pads on. "Howzit, Coach?" I responded. I rolled up the sleeves on my black undershirt. "Catanzaro! Bradley! Fuentes!" Coach called for Nate Catanzaro and Norman Bradley. Nate and Norman appeared along with some plucky kid wearing #18. 

"Winston, this is Geo, our freshman backup. He's our JV guy and he's killed it this year. We want you to help him out and get him ready for tonight. He needs to learn the big league technique.

"OK, Coach. Always good to have depth." Coach smiled and motioned for us to follow him out the door.

"I'm nervous," Geo whispered.

"It's OK. I am too. This is my first start in a minute."

"What do you mean? Earving said I was starting." Geo, confused, stared at me.

"Cap."

"No, I'm dead serious. Go ask him."

Incredulous, I took a minute to look at this kid. 

"I will, then." I stammered as I started off towards Coach's office, knocking on the door, right on the sign that said "PLEASE KNOCK BEFORE ENTERING."

Coach Earving opened the door.

"Coach, is that 18 kid starting?"

"Yeah, well-"

"Coach, this is his first varsity game ever!"

"Well, I've seen a lot of reasons to trust him-"

"Are you seriously going to put the careers of some of these guys in the hands of a freshman who's never played a SNAP of varsity?"

"Need I remind you that your first meaningful snap of varsity football as a Raven came last week?"

"He's a freshman, coach! They're gonna kill him!"

"I put my faith in him for his ability and his determination. Two things that you have not shown me this year. Dismissed."

"Coach-"

"Thought I told you you were dismissed!"

Deflated, I slithered out of the office.