“Young love,” I said cryptically.
“Jan and Yuri,” Pam guessed. “That’s one couple I would never have guessed.”
“He’s a bit of a Neanderthal, in a cute kind of way,” Mona said.
“If you mean he’s bullheaded and should be tased, then I agree,” Pam said.
I expected Pam was still pissed about everything he’d said to her about me not being able to come to school. I would have to warn him that Pam might yet want to apply some electricity to his nuts. He might want to make a preemptive apology to be on the safe side.
“I need your help with a couple of things,” I said, and got wary looks in response. “Yuri dressed Jan today, so be supportive of her.”
“Oh, dear. He surely didn’t,” Tracy said. “We may have to stage an intervention.”
I just shook my head.
“The other thing is, we’re trying to limit her alcohol and drug use,” I said and looked at Mona.
“Jerk,” was her one-word response.
“Hey, you’re the Party Queen, and seem to be one of the few who stays sober at the parties,” I said. While I explained that, I was eying both Pam and Tracy, who’d been known to throw a few back. “All I’m asking is that you all keep an eye out and help support her.”
“I’ll help,” Pam said. “After all, I can’t drink right now.”
I smiled, stepped up to her, and rubbed her belly. She gave me an exasperated look.
“You might want to get used to that. Angie said that complete strangers would walk up to her and want to touch her belly.”
That didn’t help, so I kissed her.
“Don’t start something you can’t finish,” Tracy teased.
Right on cue, the bell rang. Tracy and Mona pulled Pam away from me, and they all wiggled their butts and giggled when they saw the lust in my eyes. All that stopped me from going caveman, dragging them into an empty classroom, and having my way with all of them was that I figured they might actually kill me.
I heard someone chuckle, which startled me. It was Coach Hope.
“Get to class before you do something stupid.”
I shook my head to clear it and hurried off.
◊◊◊
All our teachers cracked down. They’d gone easy on us the last few days because of the first playoff game. I checked the calendar in my head and realized I only had a couple of weeks of school left. Time to knuckle down, get all my reading done, and prepare for finals the day after Thanksgiving. That following Monday, I would be in LA.
Something else I wanted to do was to lay the groundwork for next year. I was self-disciplined enough to work on my own. Of course, Coach Hope would get them working on next year, but I wanted to make sure he knew what Coach Mason had said. I knew that I wouldn’t be around after the season for nearly two months. If the guys were committed, they could make a lot of progress in that amount of time.
Uncle John had told me that when I learned to delegate, I would accomplish a great deal more than if I did everything myself. I thought there was no time like the present, so I talked to Coach Zoon after lunch. He taught my AP American History class. I asked if I might speak to him and Coach Hope during my last period when I had a free period. That period could be used for either tutor sessions or self-study, but I usually used it to watch game film.
At the appointed time, I found them in Coach Hope’s office.
“Come in, David. Have a seat,” Coach Hope said when he saw me at the door. “What can we do for you?”
“I wanted to talk to you about getting ready for next year,” I said.
Coach Zoon scowled, and Coach Hope broke out in a big grin.
“Tony told me that was what you wanted to talk about, and I didn’t believe it,” Coach Zoon admitted. “He bet me you really did, and now I have to go to the dojo and spar with you. He said you needed to show me your new move.”
“Did he tell you what it was?” I asked.
“No, he said I should be surprised. I have a feeling it won’t be good, so I’ll warn you right now I might get even,” Coach Zoon said.
“I taught Cassidy how to do it, so I think I’ll pass and let her train you,” I said with a straight face.
Coach Zoon turned to Coach Hope.
“How did you know?” he asked.
“Coach Mason had a talk with them while we were in Indianapolis. I figured he’d want to talk about it sooner rather than later,” Coach Hope explained to his friend. Then he turned to me. “Tell us what you’re thinking. I’ve got some ideas from last year, but I want to hear what you have to say.”
“Last year, we implemented the study groups, and everyone’s grades improved. When I was in Houston for Elite Camp, I learned that the NCAA has implemented stricter guidelines for football scholarships. You can probably guess who has a chance to get a scholarship. Could we ask Ms. Jaroslav, our guidance counselor, to check on the guys who might make it to the next level and ensure they’re on the right path academically?” I asked.
“That was on my to-do list,” Coach Hope said. “It reminds me, though, that a couple of the players were homeschooled. Johan Bauer’s a junior, and Derek Hofmann’s a sophomore. Roc and Milo are both freshmen, so they should be fine. I’ll have Ms. Jaroslav look into the NCAA guidelines to see what needs to be done in that situation.”
Coach Zoon wrote it down; I knew who Coach Hope expected to delegate that task to.
“Did Coach Mason give you a breakdown of what he told us?” I asked.
“Yeah, he was pretty funny. He said he expected that you’d remember it all, but you were a kid,” Coach Hope said.
I didn’t react, which made Coach Zoon grin. He knew the ‘kid’ remark would irritate me.
“I thought we would do the same thing we did last year,” Coach Hope continued. “I’ll have the trainers put together individualized programs for both nutritional and weight-and-conditioning programs. There was a lot of improvement over last year.”
“I agree, but we need to tweak it,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Coach Zoon said.
“The best example I can give you is that Jim isn’t nearly big enough to play at Alabama. He needs to put on forty to fifty pounds of muscle without losing any flexibility or speed. He was lucky that Bo knew him, and recommended that Alabama look at him. Based on Jim’s weight, they probably wouldn’t have recruited him otherwise. There are a lot of high school left tackles who are three-hundred-pounders already. I believe we played against several of them.
“I want to see Jim succeed. If we contact Alabama, I’m sure they’ll help us with a plan to get him ready. They’re one of a handful of college programs that have the best offensive lines each year. What we learn from that could be used with the rest of our offensive line. Can you imagine what we could do if next year’s offensive line packed on even twenty pounds of muscle?” I asked.
“Yes. We got everyone into great shape, but no one blew up in terms of size.”
I kept my mouth shut because last year’s ass-hats had done just that. The only problem was they did it the illegal way.
“What else?” Coach Zoon asked.
“I suggest there are specific skills that need to be worked on. Overall team speed is never a bad thing. Can you imagine if Ty were faster? He might be able to catch me,” I said with a grin. “Being able to jump would help the receivers. Right now, we rely on Wolf’s height. Imagine if he were able to jump just a few inches higher. We’d never have to worry about someone getting high enough to stop him in the back of the end zone.”
“I see where you’re going with all this. Let me work with the trainers and the rest of the coaches. I’ll call Coaches Harrington and Mason and get their input. We should have everything we need equipment-wise with the new Field House and weight room. It’s just a matter of putting together a training program. We’ll sit down with each player after the season and get them on individualized programs while you go play in LA,” Coach Hope said.