Junior Year Box Set

Wolf just shook his head. Kevin had been a senior and played middle linebacker when we were freshmen. He hated offensive players with a passion, and I had taunted him in practice one day so I could win a bet. I’d done it to get him mad and make him lose focus. I would’ve won the wager, but I reminded Kevin that if he calmed down, he had the first team defense playing against our scout team. Once he did, I lost the bet. My goal was to get Todd so mad he lost focus. Of course, I didn’t plan to tell him he had the better team if he calmed down and just played.

“The only problem is, I think he’s bigger and faster than Kevin ever was,” Wolf reminded me.

He had a point. If he hit anything like Kevin did, I might have just made a mistake.

We went into the locker room and waited to be called out for the game. I had my earbuds back in when I felt my nervous stomach get the better of me. I ran to the toilet and lost my supper. When I came out, I saw a sea of grins. Everyone knew that meant I was ready. Coach Hope called us to gather ’round, so I put my phone in my locker and took a knee.

“Most of you may not know that I’m a spiritual guy. I’m not trying to tell you what to believe or how to believe, but I wanted to share something with you. I open the good book daily to get inspiration. Sometimes that page will give me great insight. Today I opened it to a page that I think you need to hear about. This page, in the book of Samuel, tells the story of David, the son of Jesse. When Saul, the King of the Israelites, was on his deathbed, the Lord appointed the prophet Samuel to choose who would succeed Saul. David had seven brothers. Everyone expected one of Jesse’s sons to take power, with David the least likely of them. David was the youngest, the smallest, the weakest of the eight, but Samuel chose David to be the next king.

“You may wonder why I’m telling you about that. I’ll tell you why. He was the least likely candidate. There are a lot of people out there who think you’re the least likely team to be successful tonight. Samuel chose David because David had something his brothers didn’t. What he had was the heart of a lion. Okay, they’re bigger! They’re faster! They’re stronger! A bunch of their guys are going to Division 1 schools. We can see that, and so can everyone else out there. But nobody can see what’s in each and every one of your hearts! King High School is not going to know what hit them! We have to put our hearts on the line and believe that we will win. Show them what it means to tangle with the Lincoln Bulldogs! Show them the pride that we have, and show them that even if they may be bigger, faster, and stronger, they don’t have our heart! Now go get ’em!” Coach Hope boomed.

We ran out of the locker room and down the tunnel. ESPN had someone with a headset that held up his hands. I think he wanted to time our entrance onto the field, but there was no stopping us. We ran past him, and our fans erupted and began to ring their cowbells. We got into a big mosh pit and began to chant ‘Our House.’ Our fans joined in, and you could hear us even on TV. I’d never seen our team as fired up as we were in that moment. Coach Hope was right. King couldn’t match our heart.

We walked out for the coin toss. Jim and Yuri were my co-captains for this game, and the three of us met eight King players in the middle of the field. I grinned when I saw Todd. He walked up, and our noses almost touched.

“Okay, I won’t tolerate any funny stuff,” the referee said as he pushed between us.

“Hey, Todd,” I said and paused so everyone would hear me. “Your village called, and they want you back by midnight.”

“Did he just call him an idiot?” Yuri asked.

That was when a fight almost broke out.

“You’re a fag, Dawson!” Todd screamed.

“You wish I were!” I shot back.

“The two of you, back to your sidelines!” the referee ordered.

I grinned as I bounced over to our sideline, pointing at Todd the whole time. Coach Mason grabbed me when I got close to the sideline and pulled me over to the bench.

“I hope you know what you’re doing because that is one big boy,” Coach Mason said with a huge smile on his face.

I just smiled back. My team needed to see me in full Alpha Male mode. I needed to assert dominance over Todd. Right now, we circled each other to see who was the best. I knew this wasn’t over by a long shot. Before this game ended, one of us might not walk off the field under our own power.

We won the coin flip and deferred to the second half. Our kicker, Derek Hofmann, boomed the opening kickoff deep into their end zone. Their game films showed they always ran the ball out. Our players knew this and flew down the field. This was our chance to pin them back to start the game. We had the advantage of practicing with one of the best open-field runners I’d ever seen in Ty. When their return man made a fancy spin move, our team didn’t bite and crushed him on the 9 yard line.