LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 9: Hell Week (2/2)
The schedule for hell week was intense, they held what was called two a days, two practices in a day. First practice was at 9:30 am and ended at 11:30 am, second practice was at 3 pm and ended at 5.
In between they would hold meetings in empty college classrooms where they went over footage of their practice scrimmages and were either praised on the things they did well or chewed out on their fuckups. They would also lift weights every day, and condition like crazy until their bodies were sore and sweaty.
The team ate their meals in the college's dining hall which is where they currently were, eating their dinner. The team's three coaches were discussing who their starting QB would be, and the choice was obvious.
"He's got a hell of an arm, Coach, and the type of athleticism that just wows you," said the young Wide Receivers Coach Tim Dubois. Tim was a 22 year old Palisades High alumni, and while not a teacher himself he had been brought on the team by his old coach, Coach Johnson.
"He certainly has all of the tangibles," Coach Rannals said with a nod. "I think it's clear. He's the guy."
"Gentlemen, I think we have a very good chance of going all the way this year," Head Coach Johnson said.
Coach Johnson didn't see the brief look of sadness on Coach Rannals face. Coach Rannals hadn't told him yet but he had accepted a last minute job offer from the University of Toledo and would be leaving the team in a couple of days, he knew he needed to tell him but he just kept delaying it, he hated the thought of letting down his old friend.
Coach Johnson's phone began to ring and he saw it was his young girlfriend from the Philippines, he excused himself to take the call.
.
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The second week of the training camp was underway and now the team was practicing full speed and wearing their pads. Coach Johnson had informed the team earlier that Coach Rannals was leaving Palisades High. Currently the team was on the field in the second practice of the day waiting to begin scrimmages. They were waiting because Coach Johnson had been away on the phone for ten minutes.
"Uh…. do we keep waiting Coach?" Michael asked Coach Dubois.
"I'm not sure…" He looked down at his watch. "No, let's start. Alright you boys can just call your own plays," he said to Michael and the Middle Linebacker, junior Cole Russell, who was the player that called the plays for the defense. Mike turned to face the offensive huddle.
"Man what the fuck goin on bruh?" asked Julius Green, the Left Tackle. Julius was the biggest motherfucker on this team standing at 6'7" and weighing 310 pounds, and he was one of the three seniors this year that had already committed to a D1 school.
"We're already down one coach and now it seems like Coach Johnson is always distracted by his fucking phone," said another player.
"This seasons already off to a shitty start and school hasn't even started yet."
"Hey! Let's not worry about that, we can't control what they do, we only control what we do. So let's stop bitching and soldier on through. Eyes on me. Brown Right F Short 2 Jet Flanker Drive on one, READY... BREAK!" On break everyone in the huddle clapped their hands and turned to head to their positions.
When you hear a Quarterback call a play it can certainly sound like they're speaking a whole different language. But it all makes sense when you break it down individually. Brown is the formation that the offense will line up in, the fullback will line up directly behind the quarterback while the halfback will line up to the right of the fullback and the tight end will line up on the right side with the offensive line.
F Short tells the Flanker (Z) wide receiver, the WR that lines up a few yards behind the line of scrimmage, to motion inside closer towards the tight end before the ball is snapped. 2 Jet lets the offensive lineman know how they will block. Specifically it lets the left tackle, left guard, center, and right guard know to zone block to the left side, while the right tackle and the fullblack will block on the right side. Flanker drive lets the flanker WR know to run a shallow cross route over the middle.
Michael signals with his hand to let the Z WR to motion to the inside, when he is in position Michael calls his cadence. "SET-HUT!"
He's snapped the ball as he drops back five steps scanning to see which receiver is open for the pass. The X receiver on the left side of the field is irrelevant to the play as he simply runs forward to drag his defender with him and Mike doesn't even look at him. You can't simply lock onto a single receiver with your eyes as that would be a dead giveaway to the defense. So Mike first checks the Z receiver to see if the shallow route is open for a pass but it was not, then he checks the TE who was open over the middle so he lets it fly with perfect accuracy and they make a gain of eleven yards.
Michael runs ten more plays before Coach Dubois takes him out and puts in one of the other quarterbacks for some reps and still Coach Johnson has still not come back to the field. 'What the hell is going on with this team…' Mike thought.
..
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It was the night before the last day of training camp and Michael was in the dorm room he was assigned to with 3 other players. Coach Johnson seemed to be absent more and more, missing meetings and entire practices. The absence of the head coach, the loss of their defensive coordinator, and the inexperience of the young Coach Dubois was certainly a blow to the teams overall cohesion and they began to play and practice sloppily.
It seemed like no matter how hard you tried to keep your business private someone would somehow find out and gossip about it like rich suburban moms. The rumor mill had already begun to spin around the team and word was that fifty-two year old Coach Johnson had a twenty-eight year old girlfriend that lived in the Philippines and that she was pregnant. Mike had no idea how the hell the other players figured this out.
"You think Coach is gonna move overseas?" Ray said to the room which included the two giants Oliver Jackson and Julius Green, and Michael.
"I really don't even care man, I'm already going to play for Texas next year," Julius said.
"It ain't all about you dude," said Ray.
"We'll be fine…. we'll be fine…." Michael said, mostly to reassure himself. He may have acted like everything was fine but that's simply because he was a captain and the leader of the offense and he was simply trying to boost morale. In truth he was quite worried, he needed to perform well and win games in front of scouts if he wanted to get into a good school after he graduated.
"What do you think Oli?" Ray asked an unusually quiet Oliver.
"Maaaan, I'm texting this girl bro, this chick I met here on campus. This asian chick with a big ol fat booty!" The room shared a laugh. "Man, I'm telling ya! They puttin' something in the soy sauce, something in the MSG, humanity is evolving when even the asian bitches got fat asses!" Oliver continued to the roaring laughter of the three others. "Anyways, anyways. What I'm tryna say is that she invited me to this party they're having tonight at this nice ass house right on the beach. Who wants to go?"
"I dunno man…." Ray started. "If we get caught we'll be fucked."
"IF! Keyword! Besides man you know Coach Johnson will be busy talking to his filipina girl," Oli said.
"Yeah…. I guess," said Ray.
Michael checked the time in Manila on his phone to make sure she would even be up now, and sure enough it was 2:20 PM in Manila. "Yeah man fuck it, let's go!"
The four got dressed and made their way out of the dorms as quietly as they could, Michael ordered an Uber on his phone to meet them outside. As they were making their way through the halls of the dorms they were spotted by a couple players that were coming back from the bathrooms.
"Hey where the hell are you guys going?"
"To a party, I guess," Ray said with a shrug.
"WHAT!"
"Shhhhhh," Oliver said.
"Stop yelling man," Julius said.
"Bros… come on, I wanna go."
"Just…. man we have no room in our uber, I'll send you the address, okay?" Mike said.
They head on out of the dorms and the four teens start creeping through the campus, they stick to the grass away from the lights so they aren't found by campus security. A security guard riding on a cart passes by them and they hit the deck and take cover behind the nearest trees they can find.
"This makes me feel like we're playing Splinter Cell or Assassins Creed," Ray whispered to Mike.
They made it to the street without being spotted and found their ride which had already arrived and was waiting for them. They piled into the car and as they were taking off Mike spotted a yellow taxi 40 yards behind them and saw a man carrying luggage about to get inside.
"Hey guys, look." Mike pointed behind him. "Isn't that Coach?"
The boys turned around to see what Mike was talking about and sure enough they spotted their head coach, Coach Johnson, hurrying inside a cab.
"Why the hell is he leaving? We still have one more day of camp," Oliver said.
"Maybe he's got a hot date?" said Ray.
"Then why the hell would he take his luggage with him?" replied Mike.
"Oh yeah… now that you mention it, that is weird."
..
.
The four boys made their way inside the party. Outside they could hear the rhythmic thumping of the bass from the blaring speakers. When they finally made it inside they could hear the Steve Aoki remix of Pursuit of Happiness playing while the entire venue seemed to be jumping and dancing. Project X had been released a year earlier and you could seldom find a party that didn't at least play that song once.
The group split up, Oliver went off to find his Asian girl, Julius saw a couple girls that he approached, Mike began to cut loose on the dance floor, he, just like everyone else, loved this song, and Ray got a beer and stood in the corner awkwardly.
Ray had cheered up on the car ride over and had forgotten about the possibility of getting caught and punished by the Coaches, and he couldn't wait to see all the hot girls at the party. Ray was the type of guy that would talk a big game before. He was the type of dude to say 'where the hoes at?', but when the hoes were actually around he got awkward and shy.
After dancing with multiple girls for multiple songs Mike saw that Ray was still just awkwardly standing in a corner not enjoying himself. He went over to check on his friend.
"Bro, what are you doing? I thought you wanted to know where the hoes were at?" He gestured with his hand pointing out all the different people that were at the party. "Hoes aplenty bro. Pick one."
"I dunno Mike…. I'm...I'm just no good at that shit. I don't know how to talk to girls," Ray said as he downed his beer.
"Dude… you're so money and you don't even know it. Look at all the beautiful babies. Pick a honey baby and let's get laid."
Ray stared at Mike for a second before laughing. "Isn't that from a movie?"
"Yeah man, Swingers," Mike replied with a grin. "But seriously, just go up to a girl and introduce yourself."
"And what would I even say?"
"I dunno… 'Hi' seems to work for me, maybe try that! Stop overthinking it. Point out a girl you want to approach."
Ray pointed at a girl discreetly so she wouldn't know they were talking about her.
"Okay, go up to her, introduce yourself, compliment her on her eyeshadow or something, and ask her if she wants to dance. If she says no you simply move on to the next chick."
"Eyeshadow?" Ray asked nervously.
"Christ man do I have to spell out everything for you. Yeah, these girls spend a shit ton of time on their makeup and it feels good to have their efforts noticed. Say 'Your eyeshadow really makes your eyes pop' or some bullshit like that." Mike began to push Ray in her direction. "No more thinking, just do it."
Mike watched from a distance as Ray went up to the girl and began to chat with her. After a couple of words Mike saw a big smile appear on the girl's face and then she grabbed Ray by the hand and led him to the dance floor.
'Another job well done, now I just have to teach Seth.' Mike thought.
..
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The day after the party was their last day of their two week training camp. The first thing the players did in the morning was eat and then attend a meeting held by the Coaches. Except their Head Coach wasn't present, and neither were two other players who were 'sick'. In truth they were hungover and vomiting from drinking way too much at last night's party. Other than Mike, Oliver, Julius, and Ray, eight other players showed up after Mike had texted one of the guys that caught them sneaking out.
Thankfully Coach Dubois believed the other boys when they told him that the two players were out with food poisoning. And there was no one else to check on them anyway as Coach Dubois had told everyone in the meeting that Head Coach Johnson had left as he had a 'family emergency' and today would be a light day with meetings, weightlifting, and reviewing footage.
The team eventually left Santa Monica College that day at 5pm, they climbed back onto their school bus that would take them back to their High School where the players would be picked up by their parents, and where Mike would simply Uber back home as he had no one to pick him up.