Football practice was much better than last week. People were flying around with a purpose; they were much more mentally engaged. Our biggest rival, Eastside, was this week’s opponent. Their West Coast passing offense was hard for high school teams to contain. They counted on a short passing game to try to get their most skilled runners open in space. Their offense was designed to gain ‘yardage after the catch,’ or YAC.
To run that kind of offense, you needed a quarterback who saw the field well, made quick decisions, and was accurate in his short throws. To stop it, you had to keep everything in front of you and somehow disrupt your opponent’s passes.
Coach Rector was hammering our defensive line to keep a clock in their head. He coached them to get their hands up at two seconds after the snap so they’d either force the quarterback to change his throw or swat the ball down. They also needed to stay in their lanes so if the pocket collapsed, the quarterback would have nowhere to run.
He coached the linebackers and secondary to close quickly once the football was out of the quarterback’s hand. They’d seen on film that Eastside worked the referees to get pass-interference calls. It had bailed them out several times.
Coach Rector also wanted us to make sure they knew it when we tackled them. We focused on the proper way to tackle someone with force. He coached us not to hit them in the head or crush them if they were defenseless. Once they made a football move, after the catch, you could lower the boom.
Coach Rector also stressed that we shouldn’t lead with our heads. Keeping your head up when making a tackle could mean the difference between getting hurt and not. If you hit someone with the top, or crown, of your head, the impact would travel to your neck and spine. In high school, athletes aren’t as good as they are in college or the pros. Players try to make up for that lack of ability by lunging to make tackles instead of running to the ball. When you lunge, it caused your head to drop.
We’d heard this before, but I was glad he reminded us. Coach Rector wanted us to be physical but safe. Football was supposed to be fun at this level, not the blood sport it was at higher levels of competition.
I typically spent some time after practice watching film with Coach Mason, but I begged off tonight so I could go help Tracy. He seemed interested, so I invited him to come watch and said I would buy him dinner.
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Paul drove me to Granny’s West, and it looked like they had a good crowd for a Tuesday night. When I looked around the dining room, I saw it filled with several of my classmates and their families. Jan, Yuri’s girlfriend, was working the hostess stand.
“Everyone’s in the back.”
I just nodded and walked through to the kitchen. Marshal and Curtis, from my photography class, were setting up a camera tripod and lights. Someone turned a metal table sideways so we could show the desserts as we made them and still show the bustle of the kitchen in the background.
I let them set up and then had Marshal stand behind the metal table as a stand-in so we could check out the lighting. I filmed a short clip and then showed it to them.
“See the shadow?” I asked, pointing at his face.
We tried several different lighting arrangements. The other issue we had was the metal table reflecting the light. Once everyone was finally happy, I saw Tracy and Granny come to find me.
“I think two of us on screen all the time is too much,” Tracy said.
“I’m fine if you want to do this all yourself,” I said and meant it.
“No, that’s not what I want. You should do the portion in the kitchen when they make the dessert. I’ll talk to them about the restaurant and then interview customers.”
“Okay. I guess we’re starting in here, then,” I predicted.
“Yep. You’re up first,” Tracy confirmed.
I suspect she was just nervous and wanted me to start us off. I was happy to do so.
Our goal was to keep the video to no longer than four minutes; ideally, between two-and-a-half and three minutes. I directed my classmates to keep the camera running, and we would edit it down when we got back to class.
Tracy was smart in that she wanted to shoot two episodes today. After I made cinnamon rolls with Granny, Mary helped me make a caramel apple cake. Mary always tried to find fresh ingredients, and apples were being picked at the farm right now. Her dessert would be paired with our upstairs restaurant, Our House, since we did the cinnamon rolls for Granny’s West.
We then took the cameras into the restaurant where Tracy first did a mini-commercial about Granny’s West and then interviewed people as they tried the desserts. I noticed that somehow, Coach Mason and Brook ended up on camera. We then went upstairs and did it again, but this time, Pam and her mom, Lacy, were the taste-testers.
“What do you think?” Tracy asked when we had finished with what she planned.
“You need an intro and wrap up for your video. Something you can use for all of them,” Marshal suggested.
