“All the infrastructure for the school is already in place, as far as roads and utilities go. The park is in the middle of a residential area.”
The biggest issue I saw right off the bat was getting the players to and from the new location. Back in the day, my dad said that he and Uncle John had either been dropped off by the bus or walked home.
Now, they had ridiculous rules. The new one was that the bus driver wouldn’t let you off if your parent or a designated guardian wasn’t waiting at the stop for you. How would the little darlings survive walking three blocks in a residential neighborhood?
The real issue they should’ve been concerned about was what would the neighbors do when a pack of unruly football players cut through their yards and trampled their prized rosebushes?
That was when I remembered that Polish saying: ‘Not my circus, not my monkeys.’ If the school board created this mess, it wasn’t my worry how it got fixed.
“I take it you want me to write you a check for something,” I said to cut to the chase.
Mrs. Sullivan just smiled. She knew to call my office.
◊◊◊
I was suspicious when Cassidy handed me the keys to the Demon for the drive to the Lincoln Field House. While I drove, she gave me the latest news from Brook.
“There was a big scandal at her school. There was a picture of a girl’s … uhm … you know … between her legs,” Cassidy stammered.
“Okay.”
“Someone printed it off and put it up all over the halls to shame some poor girl. Everyone was sure the culprit was Kaia Chamberlin because it is the kind of thing she’d do.”
While Kaia did seem to be your typical caricature of a villain in most teen movies, that sounded like a bridge too far. This stunt was something Alan might do because of his lack of impulse control.
Kaia didn’t strike me as someone who would risk getting herself in trouble. I took her more for the sort who would spread rumors or try to intimidate. More of a Destiny Crown type, but at Brook’s school.
“They had a class assembly because of what the headmistress called ‘shocking behavior,’” Cassidy said.
When Cassidy didn’t add anything, I glanced over and saw her smiling. She looked like she’d stolen the last slice of pizza from me and was waiting for me to realize the theft.
“Don’t leave me hanging.”
“Turns out the hairy pic was of Kaia, and her evil minion Sabrina had done it. I guess Sabrina had finally had enough of Kaia’s cutting remarks and had gotten her revenge. Sabrina got expelled for her efforts. Brook said Kaia disappeared for a few days, and when she came back, she was meaner than ever.”
“So, it was hairy?” I asked, crinkling my nose.
Of course, I was just giving Cassidy grief.
“You’re such a guy. There’s nothing wrong with hair down there,” she chided.
“I guess if you’re watching vintage porn, it’s okay,” I conceded.
My odds of getting hit were fifty-fifty. I was happy when Cassidy decided to laugh at my rude comment.
“Or married,” I added. “Word is that once a girl gets a guy to submit, she lets herself go.”
I probably shouldn’t have shared that last one. Cassidy had a real gift of always being able to precisely find the right spot to jab me for maximum discomfort.
◊◊◊
I walked into the Lincoln Field House and found we had more people than I’d expected. I’d asked for all the senior and junior football players to attend. What I was greeted by were all the upperclassmen from
As I walked in front of the stands they were seated in, I didn’t say a word. I was impressed when they went quiet to hear what I had to say. On his best day, I doubted Coach Hope could have gotten them to be silent without either yelling or blowing his whistle.
“I’m truly humbled that you would all show up. It tells me that our goal of leaving a legacy for success will happen with all your help. I realize that you took time out of your Saturday to be here, so I want to respect that and keep this meeting short,” I said.
“Yeah, I was contemplating a serious nap,” one of the wrestlers joked.
“I almost had high score on my video game. This had better be good, Dawson.”
Both those activities made me jealous. I never seemed to find time for stuff like that.
“I’m going to have Tim and Wolf share with you some of what we learned from our recruiting trips that might help us here at Lincoln High,” I shared.
They repeated a lot of what they said at the first meeting and added a few more insights they’d thought of since then. When they finished their talk, I stepped back up and continued.
“In college football, they only have 85 scholarships to fill 25 or so positions if you consider kickers and long snappers. Ideally, you would want twenty-five seniors ready to play each year.
“Unfortunately, the numbers don’t work that way, and you need underclassmen to step up and fill roles. We need a way to accelerate the development of our underclassmen so we don’t have down years if a large class graduates.
