It looked like parking was becoming an issue. Someone decided to direct cars to park on the three practice fields north of the stadium. It was that, or people would have to park on the side of the road and walk in.
The Waterloo players wore shocked expressions when they saw our fans had taken all the prime seats. I blamed the school administration for not being ready for a playoff game against a team that traveled well.
Aside from the chaos that was happening as people tried to get into the stadium, everything else, including the weather, was perfect. It was in the mid-50s, and the sky was clear. I was glad we didn’t have any wind because there was nothing to break it since there was a farm to the west of the football field. That meant no trees to slow it down.
Jake and Phil were in charge of stretching us out tonight. My little brother did a good job of leading us. I could tell he would be ready to step up and help guide the team over the next two years.
◊◊◊
The coaches had us properly motivated as we took the field. I led us out to the home team’s side to acknowledge our fans and then across to ‘our’ side. Waterloo followed us out. They were also the Bulldogs, and they had an actual dog that was all white except for half his head, which was brown. Their mascot seemed to enjoy the excitement as he barked his approval when the home team entered the field.
I walked out to the center of the field for the coin toss. Waterloo had five players there to face me. Their captain for the game was a defensive lineman listed at five-nine and 230 pounds. He resembled a mini-me version of Johan. The kid looked like he could cause us some trouble.
“Ready to lose today?” he asked.
I loved the idiotic banter before the kickoff.
I thought about saying something about him being vertically challenged, but curse Tami and her advice.
“We should be okay. Best of luck to you.”
I think even the ref was shocked at that one.
“Well, okay, then. Let’s do the coin flip.”
We lost, but they wanted the ball.
“Best of luck to you,” I repeated as they looked at me suspiciously.
“Uh, yeah. You too.”
When I got to the sideline, Coach Hope nabbed me before I could go out for the kickoff.
“What did you say to them?”
I did have a history of smarting off and having to be pulled off the field when I felt challenged.
“I wished them luck.”
“And …?”
“Nothing else.”
He just looked confused as I trotted out onto the field.
“Let’s get this one!” I yelled to my teammates.
You could feel the nervous energy on both sides. This was what we worked for all year: playoff football. It was simple. You won, and you played again. Lose, and you had ten months to stew about it before you played another game. For the seniors, they may never play another down of football. In many communities, winning a playoff game would make you a legend for years to come. Many of the players had a lot riding on the outcome. As for a few of my teammates and me, I knew I would play beyond high school. That was unless I decided to go into acting full time or entered the Major League Baseball draft.
We lined up to do our onside kick. Waterloo was ready for us and bunched three receivers in the center of the field as upmen to recover the kick. The referee blew his whistle and wound his arm to indicate the clock would start on contact with the ball. Derek was set and dropped his hand to let everyone know he was about to start his run-up.
Waterloo was excited and jumped offsides before Derek kicked the ball. It bounced over their three receivers’ heads and dropped behind their outside upman. As he scrambled to get the ball, Yuri took him down. Tim dove for the ball, and suddenly there was a big pile of players. Everyone held their collective breath as the referee sorted through the piled bodies. I smiled when a pissed-off Tim jumped up with the ball in his hands. There must have been some serious attempts to part him from his prize.
We didn’t huddle up. Coach Mason had called the first play in the locker room. Waterloo hurried to get their defense on the field.
“Blue!”
Johan snapped me the ball, and Ty and I did our two-man game as we read the defensive end. He moved wide to take Ty, which made me step up into the hole he left me. A linebacker had scraped off the butt of the defensive tackle, so I lowered my shoulder to absorb the blow, and we both started to go down. I looked for Ty and saw that a cornerback had slipped in and was prepared to capture my toss. I was tackled with only a yard gain.
“Huddle up!” I called.
My teammates were confused because we were supposed to run the hurry-up.
“What’s up, Boss?” Johan asked.
“Pay attention!” I snapped. “They’re trying to intercept our laterals. I want you to be sure before you toss the ball around. If you’re not sure, just go down.”
