He’d then been pissed when he was grounded and couldn’t go to Prom. I personally thought it was his own fault because he knew my mom and what she would do if he got out of line. It wasn’t the first time she’d taken him home. If he kept it up, it might not be the last.
“Well, if you two can’t figure this out, I’ll just pull Alan from coaching.”
“What … why me?” Alan sputtered.
“The only reason I’ve allowed a student coach is because David asked me to. The school will no longer allow you access to any student’s information after what you did to Lisa Felton. They take cyberbullying seriously. I admit that you add value, but not at the expense of you locking horns with my best player.”
“But,” Alan sputtered.
“I’m only going to admit this once, so hold your comments. If it were anyone else, I would back you out of principle. Two things that make David different. The first is personal. I’ve gotten to know David and realize he wouldn’t have stopped being your friend without good reason. I’ve watched how he interacts with teammates. He even worked with Mike after he pulled his stunt with Mona. I also know how he treats my daughter and son. Brad deserved his animosity, but David was a stand-up guy through the whole fiasco last fall.
“The second reason is that David is an exceptional athlete. I may never again get to coach anyone with as much talent as he has. It would be easy for him to come in and make demands, but he’s been a team player. David hasn’t once come in and asked me to remove you from coaching. It has only been you who has asked me to suspend him or get him to bend to your will.
“Alan, I say this with the hope that you’ll understand. Don’t force me to choose sides. I don’t think you’ll like the outcome,” Coach Hope said softly, and then turned to me. “Do you have an issue with Alan continuing coaching?”
“Alan seems to have a talent for coaching. I would hate for him to not be allowed to continue. It’s just that I don’t know if he can help himself where I’m concerned.”
“Is he right?”
Alan looked down; we both knew the answer to that.
“Alan, I’m going to give you one more chance, but your responsibilities are going to change. You’ll work with the freshmen and JV. You’ll also be responsible for breaking down game films and loading them to the software. If I hear you making comments about David, you’ll be done. Just so you aren’t surprised, I’ll tell all the other coaches to keep an eye on you. Will that work?” Coach Hope asked.
“I’m good,” I admitted.
Alan just nodded. I really didn’t want to prevent Alan from coaching. But I wasn’t putting up with his crap anymore, either. I was more than a little pissed that he was politicking for me to be suspended. I had no doubt that I might decide to earn the suspension if I ever found out he was responsible for something like that.
◊◊◊
We had a fun last day of practice because you always look like a superstar when you don’t have to worry about being leveled by a defender. It felt good to just cut loose and throw the ball.
“I’m so good, I could switch to defense, and no one could even catch a pass on me,” Damion announced after he made a spectacular grab.
“Care to put your theory to the test?” I challenged.
“You can’t let David challenge your manhood like that,” Mike spoke up.
Damion had just been bragging, but now Mike had called him out after I’d teased him. He thought about it for a minute and got a big smile.
“Yeah, I want to see the great David Dawson go down in flames,” Damion announced.
The Michigan coaching staff felt this would be a good way to end camp. They gathered all the campers and had them sit in the stands. The players were a little rowdy, and the crowd seemed split over who they wanted to get the better of the other.
I talked to Wolf and Roc to decide who would be my receiver. They felt that if I planned to show up Damion, it should be with Roc because he was smaller and younger and might make Damion overconfident.
Larry, Matt, and Jay volunteered to be referees, and Matt decided we needed an MC.
“David will start on the 20 yard line and have to drive the length of the field. If Damion can force a turnover or stop David from getting a first down, he gets a point. If David scores, he gets one. First to five wins,” Matt announced.
Roc had faced me as a defender, so Damion’s size and speed weren’t something he hadn’t seen before. I was confident that he could get open.
On the first play, Damion tried to do what I did to him: put Roc on his butt. Roc had been practicing with Yuri to get off the ball. Damion might be taller than Yuri, but my little Russian hit man was a load when he got into you. Coach Rector had been working with Yuri on how to keep a receiver or back from getting upfield. I almost dropped the ball laughing when Roc made Damion completely whiff. Roc scored easily, putting us up 1–0.
On the next play, Damion was smarter and played off Roc so he could run with him. Damion pushed off and intercepted the ball. Pass interference was called.
“No, give him that one. He’s going to need all the help he can get,” I taunted.
“If you’re dumb enough to give me a point, I’m not turning it down,” Damion said.
On the next series, Roc and I ran simple down-and-outs. Damion was getting frustrated, so I gave Roc the hand signal to do a down, out, and up to burn him. We were up 2–1.
The next series, Roc ran straight up the field, and when Damion flipped his hips early, Roc cut to the center of the field. Damion had to turn to follow him. Damion might be faster, but you give Roc a lead, and you weren’t catching him.
“Hey, Damion. To make it fair, I’ll tell you what play we’re running,” I said with a big grin.
One of the drills we ran was precisely that. You had to be crafty to win when the defender knows what you’re going to do. Damion flipped me off, which got everyone to laugh. I think they saw the handwriting on the wall.
“He’s going long right up the sideline,” I called out.
Roc was off like a flash. I could tell Damion thought he had him. What I knew was that Roc was better at getting 50/50 balls because he had better hands than Damion. I purposely underthrew the pass so Roc would have to slow down to get it. Damion overran the play, and Roc gathered it in and then cut to the center of the field to put us up 4–1.
“Same play, but this time I’ll throw it long to give you a chance,” I announced.
Roc and Damion were running down the field when I uncorked one of my teardrop passes. Damion, even at six-six, would never be able to stop that pass if I threw it accurately, which I did. When Roc gathered it in, Damion just stopped, admitting defeat.
“What the hell was that?” Matt asked.
Oops. I shouldn’t have shown that pass.
“That’s something he learned from Coach Mason,” Coach Haber said. “I’d studied it, but I thought it was a gimmick pass.”
“Yep. It’s a gimmick pass,” I tried.
“Here I thought we were friends,” Jay said.
“Dang it. I didn’t want to show you my best tricks,” I complained.
I ended up demonstrating the pass, and then all the quarterbacks got a chance to try their hand at it. The key was accuracy. If you threw it too far in bounds, it just turned into a jump ball.
◊◊◊
While we did that, the Michigan coaching staff pulled players in to give them an evaluation. I was last to be called.
Coaches Haber and Title were in one of the meeting rooms.
“We wanted to reconfirm our offer to you. I also wanted to clear up the issue of you playing two sports,” Coach Haber started out.
“And I want to apologize again for what I said. I did an interview with the documentary crew to set the record straight,” Coach Title said.
I’d have to get Jeff to show me what he’d said.
“What is your policy?” I asked.
“If you play at a high level, we’ll release you at the end of the football season to go play the other sport. The key is we don’t want bench players wasting their time. If you’re at the level where you can play both, we’ll support it,” Coach Haber explained.