Waterloo is a historic town that dates back to the 18th century when the French settled there. The location was desirable because of its elevation and proximity to the Mississippi River Valley. It was ceded to the British in 1763. In the 1840s, German immigrants arrived as they escaped from political unrest in their homeland. It wasn’t a surprise when we drove through a historic district on the way to the high school.
The high school was a different story. It looked to be brand new and was outside of town with the campus parked square in the middle of a bunch of farm fields. We pulled in behind a convoy of school buses ready to pick their students up after school. Coach Hope had called ahead, and their football coach was there to meet us and guide us to the girls locker room, which they used for visitors.
We were told to get in shorts and t-shirts so we could stretch and do a little running to fight the effects of traveling. During the brief warm-up, I felt good. I wondered if I would need my Vitamin T shot or not. My hip felt fine, but my ribs still ached as they mended. I would talk to Doc Grog when he arrived.
“Where do you think their fans are supposed to sit?” Wolf asked me.
I chuckled because it didn’t look like Waterloo was prepared for a fan base the size of ours. If our crowd got there early, which they would, they would take over the Waterloo side of the field. The stands on the home side of the stadium might hold most of our supporters. On the visitors side, the tiny bleachers could seat hardly any fans. The football stadium also had an oval running track that ran between the field and the stands. Most schools had this configuration to save space. We had raised our bleachers so people seated in the bottom rows didn’t have their view of the football field blocked by the players and coaches on the sideline. I envisioned this field being circled with a standing-room-only crowd.
After our warm-up, we strolled to the cafeteria to grab an early dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan were there with a couple of the other boosters. They’d set out several sandwich trays with a variety of subs. They also had big bowls of salad, chips, and cookies. The perfect meal for teen boys, I thought as I rubbed my hands together.
I took the meat out of a couple of the sandwiches, cut it up, and made myself a big salad. I found I did better if I didn’t load up on carbs before I played. One of the side benefits was I didn’t throw up before games anymore. I wasn’t sure if it was because of what I ate or that I was now better able to control my nerves.
When I was about done eating, Coach Mason joined me. Everyone else left me alone so I could focus on getting ready.
“You ready?” he asked me.
“I think so. I’m starting to feel almost human again, enough that I was contemplating not getting my Vitamin T shot.”
“Let’s be sure. Take some guys out and throw the ball. I want you to try all your passes and decide if you can handle the pain or not. I don’t want to have to pull you for a series while you go get your shot.”
That made sense, so I took Roc, Phil, Wolf, and Don out, and we ran pass plays. Coach Hope and Coach Mason came out when we were wrapping things up.
“What’s the verdict?” Coach Hope asked.
“I think I’ll get one tonight with the plan to be good to go on Saturday. I still get a twinge when I do the down-and-outs,” I explained.
“Sounds good,” Coach Hope said. “Jeff wants to interview you. Go do that and be sure to drink plenty of fluids.”
◊◊◊
Jeff had brought a couple of chairs into the gym for our interview.
“How are you feeling?” Jeff asked to kick off the interview.
I hated the ‘how are you feeling’ questions.
“Confused,” I said as I wrinkled my forehead.
“What about?”
“Women.”
“You having women problems?” Jeff asked as he tried to hide a smile.
“Oh, no, women love me,” I said and then got serious. “You’re married. What do you know about them?”
I almost laughed out loud when the cameraman whipped the camera around to face Jeff as he blinked at me. Now he was confused. I was glad to know I wasn’t the only one. He quickly recovered.
“Let’s focus on football …” he said, and we got to the meat of the interview.
At the end, he asked his usual question.
“Any predictions?”
“I think this will be closer than it should be. We just won a huge game against Broadview Academy and did it convincingly. Waterloo has nowhere near the level of talent Broadview does, but they play as a team. I’m afraid we’ll underestimate them and get into trouble if we aren’t careful.”
“How much do you win by?”
“Two touchdowns,” I predicted.
◊◊◊
When we came out for warm-ups, we saw that Wolf had called it. There were twelve buses in the parking lot, and the rest of the lot was filled with cars. As we expected, our fans had caravanned over early and taken over all the bleachers.
