3 - Ethan
Ethan
The second I walked into the locker room, I wanted to leave. Everyone else was already there, and the discussion they were having was enough to make me roll my eyes. But I didn’t want them to think I didn’t care, so I grabbed my gear and took a seat in front of my locker.
The entire room buzzed as the guys discussed their so-called locker room strategy. Meanwhile, we were actually supposed to get ready for practice. But it was good to see their excitement. It almost gave me a flicker of hope.
“Okay,” Malik said, standing up like he had just been elected president. “This is what we’ve gotta do. We need to move fast, as in first down fast.”
My brows shot up as I tried to comprehend what he was trying to explain.
“Yeah,” Lucas jumped in. “Remember what Coach said. It’s all about tempo. So we just gotta run more, right? No huddles or anything like that. Just good vibes.”
Harris opened his mouth to speak. “What I meant by tempo—”
“And we gotta establish a run,” one of the offensive linemen said, looking way too confident for his own good. “Even on third and long. No! Especially on third and long. That’s when they’ll least expect it.”
“That’s not—” Coach tried again, but it didn’t look like anyone was paying attention to his presence.
I let out a deep breath and started wrapping my wrists. This conversation was way below my grade, and it made me cringe. If it hadn’t been compulsory for me to be here, I would’ve walked out the moment they started talking. Clueless, all of them.
Dylan nodded and said, “We should also blitz on the offense.”
The group was silent for a moment, but then the guys started nodding in agreement.
“Yeah,” Malik added. “Like a surprise blitz. Ethan can run at them. They’ll never see that coming.”
I slapped my palm against my forehead, wondering how much worse these guys could really get.
There was no way they could possibly think any of these plays would work.
So they were either making fun of our situation, or they were far less experienced than I’d first thought. But I still didn’t say anything.
Coach Harris blew his whistle. “Listen! What I’m saying is that we need discipline. Assignments. Everyone needs to know what their role is, and they need to perfect it.”
“Exactly,” Lucas quipped. “Roles like in basketball. I’ll be power forward. I’ll post up.”
“We post up now?” Cam asked, sharing a confused look with Malik.
“Why not? I’m big,” Lucas said, looking like he’d been struck.
Coach Harris rubbed his temples, and I could feel his pain. How had we gone down this road? How had a game that was so simple confuse these guys so much? I had hope for these guys once, but the more time I spent with them, the more I realized that they were totally doomed.
And because of that, so was I.
“Ethan!” Cam said, drawing my attention. “What’s your take on all this? Do you think any of these tactics will work?”
I shook my head. “I honestly don’t know what to tell you guys.”
“Oh, come on, man,” Malik said as he took a seat next to me. “You have more experience than most of us. You’ve gotta have something in mind.”
“You guys don’t understand,” Harris interrupted, saving my ass. “You don’t post up. You run your route tree.”
“Routes…” Dylan said with a nod. “That’s the thing with the arrows, right? So we just freestyle until we end up open?”
Harris’s frustration was evident on his face. The man looked like his wrinkles had doubled since we arrived. As though he were getting older by the minute.
“Freestyling is how you get intercepted,” Harris moaned.
“The facts,” Cam said, snapping his fingers. “If we spend more time with the ball, it’s obvious that we’ll score more.”
Oh, God. I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. How did that make any sense? And even if it did, how did he plan on pulling it off? It was those kinds of stupid comments that made me want to set them straight. But I didn’t want to be that guy.
I preferred watching from the sidelines as they fooled around, and kept missing the points Harris was trying to make. At least that way, nobody felt insulted, and I wouldn’t end up being the bad guy.
I had come here to play my game, and that was all.
“That’s not how possession works,” Harris said, running a hand down his face.
“Look, it’s simple,” Lucas said, putting his feet up like he was the captain on a ship. “We just have to want it more. Football is like seventy percent heart.”
“Nah,” Cam corrected. “It’s more like eighty percent, and the rest is conditioning and yelling.”
Harris let out a massive sigh. “I need you to read the defense. To adjust on the fly, and communicate with each other.”
At least someone was getting on the right track, and it was the basketball coach of all people. I’d thought it would’ve taken him longer. Everyone nodded as if they finally understood what was expected of them, but not one of them asked how we were going to pull it off.
I looked up, done with my preparations, and shook my head. The room had flooded with overlapping voices. They were all sure of what they were saying but at the same time, every single one of them was wrong. And I couldn’t take it anymore.
I pushed to my feet. “Coach, do you mind excusing me? I just need a minute, but I’ll meet everyone on the field for practice.”
“Wait. Ethan. You can’t leave us. We need your input!” Dylan called as I was walking out.
“Ethan!” Lucas joined.
But I didn’t care. I just kept walking. These guys had been trying to break through my defenses for days, and I hadn’t broken yet. I wasn’t about to start giving in now. If only the actual defenders could work like that. It might have given us a chance to actually win.
“Ethan Rose?” A woman’s voice came from behind, stopping me in my tracks. “My name’s Penny Donovan. I’m a reporter for the Havenport school paper, and I was wondering if I could have a few minutes of your time?”
“I’m sorry, but I really got to get to practice.”
“The rest of the guys are still in the locker room so I’m pretty sure you aren’t late,” she said, taking me by surprise. “Yeah, I’ve been waiting. You’re the new blood. The quarterback who was brought in especially to give the Highlanders a first ever season that’s worth talking about.”
“I’m not all that,” I muttered. “I’m just another guy trying to give this team a fighting chance. But we won’t achieve anything by having never-ending discussions with chicks who think they mean something.”
“If you spent less time arguing the facts and more time answering the questions, we wouldn’t be taking so long.”
I wished I could argue, but she was right.
The more time I spent trying to get away from her, the longer I stood there talking to her.
She was like a dog with a bone. She wouldn’t let me go until she’d gotten what she wanted.
And the worst part was that she had my shitty attitude on record.
Something that could flush my name even further down the toilet. Not really a risk I could take.
“Fine,” I said, motioning to the hallway. “But we’re going to have to walk and talk because the rest of the team will be coming out soon.”
“I can live with that,” she said, trying to keep up with me. “How does it feel to be the star the entire school’s relying on?”
Horrible. Annoying. Confusing. The truth was that the more time I spent with this team, the more I was starting to wonder if coming here was really the right choice for me.
Yes, I was benched in Stamford, but at least there I stood a chance.
The team knew what they were doing, and they worked together like a well-oiled machine.
Talent scouts watched us play regularly.
So all I needed was a chance to be on the field at the right time and I could’ve made a career for myself.
But at Havenport I didn’t stand a chance at all.
I’d have more game time, but nobody was going to pay attention to this team until we started winning, and that wasn’t happening any time soon.
It was very hard for me to not just blurt out the truth and make my real feelings known.
But I knew that if I didn’t keep my mouth shut, it would be front-page news.
That wasn’t something I could afford to do.
And the team didn’t deserve it either. Even though they annoyed the shit out of me, they were trying, and I’d be damned if I was the reason for their failure.
So I stuck a smile on my face and said, “It feels really good to be here and help this team grow. It was an honor to be the one who was chosen to take the lead. And I’ll try my absolute best to help us succeed.”
“Do you have any strategies that you think will help us make a good first impression during our first actual match?”
“I have a few ideas, but the key to any good team is working together well. It’s also the pitfall when forming a team.”
Penny’s face clouded, her frown deepening. I took a breath and slowed things down for her.
“Think of our team as a clock,” I said. “Each part works individually, but in order for it to do what it’s meant to do, those parts need to work together in a very specific way. At this stage, we’re trying to get the mechanism to work so the team can start doing what it’s meant to do.”
I prayed that my analogy would make sense because if it didn’t, she could end up writing it in a way that would make us look like a bunch of total idiots.
“I get what you mean, but that’s a time-consuming process, right?” she said. “Our first game is scheduled, and the days are drawing closer. Do you think the team will be ready?”
That was the question of the century. We hadn’t even found a working strategy yet, so there’d been no practice in anything worth our while.
And because of that, we were still just a heap of individual parts that couldn’t perform as a whole.
So no, I didn’t think we’d be ready. I thought we were gonna get slaughtered, but the entire school didn’t need to know that.
“I believe the team will be ready,” I said. “But there’s a difference between practicing with guys you know, and actually going up against another team. So I don’t expect us to win.”
“You don’t?”
Shit. I probably shouldn’t have said that part out loud either.
“It’s not because I don’t have faith in the guys,” I backtracked quickly. “It’s just because it’s nerve-wracking, you know? Going up against an established team while you’re trying to build one from scratch.”
Penny didn’t look too convinced as she scribbled down some more notes.
“Okay, last question. Many of the students saw the photo montage Lucas did at the party. Was your practice really that bad in the beginning? I mean, it looked like you guys didn’t know what you were doing at all.”
I died a little inside, but I still managed to give her a killer smile. “Not many people are aware that Lucas is the Loki of the team. The jokester you can’t trust to save your life. What he did at the party was just a prank. We wouldn’t be here if we were really that bad.”
She laughed. “Fair enough. I didn’t think you could be that bad either. I won’t keep you much longer. All I need from you now is a picture.”
Before I could protest, she pulled out the camera.
I had no idea what I should do, so I just stood there, helmet in hand like a chump.
She snapped away happily, but luckily the team burst through the doors before she could get carried away.
They pulled a few stupid poses before running off, and that seemed to placate her.
“Thank you for your time,” Penny said as she put her camera away. “I’m sure we’re going to have a lot more of these chance encounters.”
The thought alone made my skin crawl. Of all the things that came with being a football player, this was the one I hated most. I was forced to lie and make things up on the spot.
I couldn’t just say what was on my mind without the risk of it coming back to bite me in the ass. And I couldn’t stand it.
I quickly turned around and headed to the field, glad that disaster was over and done with.
But as I stepped out of the building, Elizabeth caught my eye.
She was sitting on the bleachers with her long legs stretched out like she was on vacation.
Her hair was waving in the wind, and her expressive eyes burned into me.
“I see you’re making headlines already,” she teased. “The new face of Havenport. Ethan Rose, star player and leader of the Highlanders, expected to bring the gold home!”
But I didn’t have time to stop. The team would already be teasing me because of the interview. I didn’t need them to add her to the mix as well.
And besides, there was absolutely no way I was going to elaborate on that discussion.