“Monday night the Washington Booster Club had a fundraiser where Coach Crouch talked. What I’m about to show you are excerpts from his speech. For interested parties, we have thumb drives with the whole, unedited version,” Tracy said, as Pam handed out thumb drives to Jeff and then everyone sitting at our school officials’ table.
Tracy hit the play button, and the TV screen showed Coach Crouch step up to the podium to the applause of the Washington Boosters. He seemed very relaxed, and I wondered if he’d been drinking.
“Didn’t the Boosters do a great job tonight?” he said to more applause. “We’re going to have a great year this year, due to the help you all have provided. Instead of having to rebuild, you’ve gone out and helped us be even better than we should have been last year.”
Washington had six kids transfer to their school district who were now starters on their roster. While Coach Crouch had not come out and said it, the implication was that their booster club had arranged for them to go to Washington. The tape jumped ahead to what appeared to be a question-and-answer session.
“How badly will the loss of Ty Wilson hurt us?” someone off screen asked.
“We won’t miss him at all. Ty was only good because of our system of football. At Lincoln, he’ll just be average, at best. I’d be surprised if he even gets much credit for what he does because of that glory-hound they have as a quarterback. Ty made a big mistake by not staying put. With my coaching, I could have helped him get a scholarship. I even had it worked out where he’d be All-Conference as a junior. My brother-in-law runs that, you know. We laugh about the votes that come in from the schools and coaches, and he just throws them away. All-Conference should only be seniors since they deserve it.
“Speaking of Lincoln High, we play them this Friday. I want to see a large contingent come out and watch us pound them. We plan on hitting their Mister Everything each and every play, regardless of whether he has the ball or not. I guarantee he’ll not play another down of football after we get done with him. We’re going to go into their house and embarrass them in front of their fans. The best part is the game is televised. Everyone will see that Washington is the best team in the state. I almost wish I could suit up,” Coach Crouch stated.
I certainly wished he would. Coach Hope got up to a stunned room.
“Officials for the High School State Association are in the back of the room. They have assured me that the officials tonight will protect our players from illegal hits. If it does happen, let the coaching staff handle it. Did you hear that, Mr. Dawson?” Coach Hope said, which caused everyone to laugh.
“I’ll just send Cassidy after them,” I shot back.
“I think that’s an even worse idea. Now go get ready for the game,” Coach ordered, and we all went to the locker room to get dressed.
◊◊◊
The locker room was quiet, but I wasn’t worried about the guys being nervous. They all seemed to be focused. While we were in the locker room, the offensive line came up to me; Jim was their spokesman.
“We have your back. If they take a cheap shot, we’ll take care of them.”
“I don’t plan to let them. I’d rather deliver the blow than get clocked. If one of them gets free, just yell,” I said with a smile before finishing, “You guys are great, but you’re not perfect, so it’s gonna happen.”
I found Ty and smiled at him.
“Welcome to Lincoln football. You ready to prove that ass-clown wrong?” I asked.
He broke up laughing.
“You dumbass! I was getting my mad on, and then you have to make me laugh. Let’s do this,” he said, and the two of us walked out to warm up.
If I thought we had a crowd for our team scrimmage, this was unreal. If this continued, we would need to get more bleachers brought in. The stands were full, and there was standing-room only along the edges of the field. An area had been blocked off for press and recruiters. I saw gear for every team in the Big Ten and several other schools we had contacted, including Notre Dame, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, and Oregon.
Ty had been selected to be my other team captain this week. After the hazing incident, Coach Hope had decided to have me be a captain all year and then rotate in teammates for each game. Right before the kickoff, we walked out to the middle of the field for the coin toss. A cameraman from Fox came out to catch the action because we were on their Sports Network as the regional game of the week.
I was impressed when they had the official mic’d up so the crowd could hear him. Some improvements had been made that I wasn’t aware of.
“Washington, you’re the visitor and will call the toss. This is heads, and this is tails,” the referee said, as he showed us each side of the coin. “Call it in the air.”
“Heads!”
“It is tails,” the ref called.
“You’re going down!” the Washington player shouted, pointing at me.
Ever do something that you would regret later?
“This is OUR HOUSE!” I shouted, and it boomed all over the stadium. “You will learn what that means! Give us the ball.”
I had been instructed to defer to the second half, but I wanted to start the beatdown as soon as possible. Our fans went nuts, and between the cowbells and the cheers, you couldn’t hear yourself think. I would be willing to bet that we were louder than it had been at the Northwestern game because the stands were closer to the field. I glanced over at Coach Crouch, and he didn’t look entirely well. I had just announced to the world that we knew about his little talk on Monday.
On the kickoff, they were smart enough to kick away from Ty, but Ed caught it and pitched the ball to him. Ty waited for the wedge to form, but he was too eager and tried to force a hole, and Washington contained him. On our first play from scrimmage, we came out in our new formation with me under center. Mike was my fullback, lined up directly behind me. Ty and Jake were lined up slightly behind and next to him as my tailbacks. Roc and Wolf were playing wide receiver.
From that formation, I could either pass or run without a problem. The first play from scrimmage was an option that was set up so that Ty would end up getting the football. On the snap, Washington jumped eight guys into the box. That was where they brought one of the safeties up for run support. I smiled when I saw that left Wolf one-on-one with a cornerback. This was unfair on so many levels. Wolf was nearly six-five and weighed close to 240 pounds. He was being defended by a kid who was maybe five-nine and weighed 165 pounds. For a big guy, Wolf was surprisingly fast.
I faked the dive to Mike to hold the safety and allow Wolf to make a move on his guy. I stood tall and threw a pass to Wolf as he got free of his defender. The safety that had snuck up to help against the run had no chance. Wolf would have scored, but I put the ball too close to the sideline, and he stepped out of bounds after a gain of fifteen yards.
Luckily for me, I’d seen the defensive end coming for me after I threw the football. I was in no mood to play games, so I lowered my shoulder and laid him out by getting low and helping him fly over me. The crack of our pads could be heard over the roar of the crowd as Wolf made the catch. I walked over to their downed lineman and leaned down so he could hear me.
“I can do this all game long. Do you think you can handle me kicking your butt on every play? If so, keep up the cheap shots,” I warned him.
The next few plays seemed to go all wrong. Jim jumped offsides, Johan held, and Ed went in motion and started towards the line of scrimmage before the snap. We found ourselves first and thirty. I finally had had enough.
“Huddle up! Get your heads out of your asses and focus. I don’t care if we get the first down. I care that you do your jobs. Understand?” I asked.