“Mike Ware. Kid, you have a cannon for an arm. I don’t recognize the name. Are you a late addition to the workout?”
“They added me last night.”
“Let me go get someone you can throw to. I think they only have me and Tim scheduled.” He jogged off, and five minutes later Mike was back with Tim and Jack.
While we waited for everyone to get there, the three of us goofed off with them running routes. The three guys were shocked when a group of Florida coaches showed up. Tom took me over to introduce me to them. Joe Phips was the former coach at Kentucky before he joined the Florida staff. He recognized the three guys I was throwing to. He went over to talk to them as Tom introduced me to Brad Peace. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach.
Joe jogged back and he went up to Coach Peace.
“Hey, we need to move this workout to a more private setting. David’s for real and we don’t need the Kentucky staff watching this.”
“Seriously?” Coach Peace asked.
What was that supposed to mean?
“Yep. Mike tells me David has a strong arm and is accurate with it. He has terrible footwork, but for a freshman has a good upside. He also had him throw all the other key passes and he made them without any effort. I want to get our own receivers and video team.”
Kentucky’s coaches and recruits showed up. Joe saw Mike hurry over and talk to one of the coaches. Joe and Coach Peace looked at each other.
“Shit,” Joe said.
I was easy to pick out, because I had on Kentucky gear. Two of the Kentucky coaches came over. They turned out to be Don Berta and Ned Braun. Don was Kentucky’s recruiting coordinator and Ned was their offensive coordinator and quarterback coach.
Don and Joe stepped away to discuss the situation. Mike had clued the Kentucky staff in on what was going on. Joe and Don came back laughing. They came up to me and Joe led the discussion.
“David, Coach Berta and I have agreed to go ahead with the workout as planned. We really never hold workouts on other campuses. They were just doing it as a favor because I was the coach here in 2012. Are you okay with that?”
“I don’t see why not. I might look silly throwing with seniors, but I told Tom I’d just do it for the fun of it.”
Don looked at me funny.
“What grade are you in?”
“I’m a freshman.”
Don got a worried look on his face. Joe broke into a big grin and clued me in.
“He’s worried you’re going to make his recruits look bad, and they’re going to be pissed when they find out you’re a freshman.”
“Don, I won’t tell them if you don’t.”
Don looked a little better. Shortly all three of us prospects were running drills. I did as Tami said and just focused on what I was doing. I didn’t pay attention to how well the other two were doing. They had paired me up with Mike. We were running a drill where Mike would go downfield ten yards and then do a buttonhook. He’d dropped the ball three straight times. I noticed Mike had dropped a lot of balls, and I’d finally had enough of it.
“God dammit, Mike! Catch the ball with your hands, not your body.”
Mike got in my face.
“Listen, Sport. Learn to take a little off the ball. You don’t have to rip it in practice.”
“Bullshit, Mike. I haven’t even ripped one yet. Hell, my high school receivers catch better than you do.”
His face went beet red.
“Okay, Wuss. Let’s see what you can do.”
“You better get your hands up or this is going to hurt.”
“Whatever. Do your worst.”
What I didn’t realize was that everyone had stopped to listen to our exchange. Mike did his route and on the break, I let loose. It sounded like a fastball. To his credit, Mike caught the ball. He was grinning from ear to ear.
“Dawson, you’re a freak.”
I then heard the Superman music start. Oh hell, no. Tom had the other two recruits and the coaches all watching my YouTube video on his cell phone. Everyone’s head snapped up and Joe started to chuckle. I just turned around and Mike and I continued the drills. After we were done, Mike took me aside.
“Look, sorry about earlier. They have us deliberately drop passes to see how you’ll react. You’re the first recruit ever to dress me down. You handled it just right. You called me on it and coached me up to help me do better. You caught me off guard because I’m not used to being told I don’t catch as well as a high school kid, but it got me motivated. What they’re looking for is leadership.”
“I was just trying to get you focused. This is a big deal for me, and I wanted to do my best.”
“Look, you’re young. If you work hard, you’re going to be scary-good. Arm strength can’t be taught. Let me give you a tip for the rest of the day: get the recruits to like you and show leadership. If you do that, they’ll make you an offer just on that alone. Your development will take care of itself.”
“So how do I get them to like me?”
“Get them laughing. Tease them some, but don’t be mean. Get them to laugh at themselves. If you want them to follow you, let them know you care about them.” He smirked. “Heck, the same thing works with girls.”
Mike took me back to the training facility, and I took a shower and changed. When I came out, Tom had waited for me.
“Okay, that went pretty well. Both coaching staffs agree you’re nowhere near ready. They said you telegraph your throws, your footwork is terrible and you have to shorten your release. The good news is they both are going to start watching you. I thought Joe was going to cry when I told him you play on a team that runs the veer option.”
“Well, I guess that means mission accomplished. I want to thank you and your boss for setting this whole thing up. Even if this trip never turns into anything, that’s fine with me. I’ll always remember that you did this for me. Now feed me! Growing boy here,” I said with a big grin.
THE ONE THING I’LL give the University of Kentucky was the hot chick ratio; it was phenomenal. Every time I turned around there was one better-looking than the one before. I found I liked Kentucky more and more. We picked up our tickets at the will-call window and were informed that the Kentucky staff had left me a field pass. I went up to where Tom was sitting so I knew where to find him, then headed to the gate to let me on the field.
Waiting at the gate was a very pretty coed named Marcy. She was assigned to be my chaperone. She explained that recruits were assigned someone to show them around. Normally it was someone on the team, but I was a last-minute addition. Marcy played volleyball. To be honest, I thought it was just fine that I had gotten Marcy.
“What are we supposed to do before the game starts?”
She gave me an irritated look.
“I guess I could show you around.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I need to run. Sorry, I’m being a bitch. I don’t know why I agreed to come in.”
I thought about it for a minute. Kentucky had lost something like twenty-six straight to Florida. I could really care less about the actual game.
“Do you need to run sprints or distance?” I asked.
“Distance.”
“What’s your pace?”
“I do six-minute miles.”
I hate to run with someone that runs at a different pace than I do. Her pace was a little slower than mine was, so I could relax.
“How far?”
“I need to run three today,” she said.
“Okay, get me some gear and I’ll run with you.”
She looked surprised.
“I sleep in a pair of my brother’s shorts and t-shirt. That should work.”
We walked to her dorm room and she gave me the clothes. I changed in the restroom. The shorts were fine, but the t-shirt was tight. When I got back to her room there were two other girls ready to run. They all giggled when they saw the t-shirt. Someone made a rude comment about me looking like a gay porn star. I just shrugged and told them to get moving.