When I walked out to the field to talk to my campers, Jeff Delahey and his camera crew were there waiting. I waved and then ignored them.
“Okay! Gather around!” I called to get everyone’s attention.
As I looked around, I noticed several unfamiliar faces in the crowd. Not all of them were freshmen. Mom had told me she’d had a few families want to move here. Part of her showing a home and the community was a tour of the new facilities we had on campus. We’d started to attract people who had kids who played sports. If we continued to have success, I was sure that trend would continue.
“Welcome to Camp David. Coach Hope asked that I work with you this week before I leave to play baseball for Team USA. I’ve spent time at a number of football camps and had quite a bit of one-on-one coaching. He felt I should share some of my knowledge.”
I then told them what the goals were and who should show up each day. Today I would help them to increase their speed by sharing what my speed coach had taught me. Tomorrow was linemen; Wednesday I would work with the linebackers and defensive backs; Thursday was for the skill players on offense.
“People ask me, ‘what’s the secret … how do you become successful?’ I’ll tell you, I think it’s simple and can be summed up in the word ‘focus.’ It’s being able to go through every day, whether it’s a workout in the weight room, a conditioning run, practice, or in the classroom, with focus. Focus on what it is you’re doing on that day, at that moment. It’s not cheating yourself out of a rep, a play, or a practice. Because you’re going to get tired, you’re going to get sore, and you’re going to get bored. But I can tell you there’s something special about us. We’re tough; bulldogs are tough; we always have been. Physically tough and mentally tough. When other people quit, we keep going. When other people give in, we stand back up. Let’s go out and surprise some people this year. The last two years weren’t flukes. We deserved to win State. Let’s go show them what it means to be a Lincoln Bulldog. Today we recommit to winning State. Today we start to dig deep to set ourselves apart.”
My motivational speech had the desired effect. Everyone was pumped up to learn new skills today. I was happy the older guys stepped up and helped the younger and the new teammates. By the end, I could tell they were tired after I ran them. I expect some of them wanted to sneak off when they saw Cassidy show up. I’d talked to her earlier and asked her to up her game today. Boy, was that a mistake. She about killed us.
◊◊◊
I met with Coach Hope in his office to give him my impressions from today. I wasn’t totally on board with Jeff and his film crew sitting in, but Coach Hope told me we needed to get used to it.
“Da-vid,” Cassidy said in a singsong voice to interrupt our conversation.
“He’s busy,” her dad said.
“David’s done enough football for today. He has to take me to Beth Anderson’s to go swimming,” Cassidy said.
“Just give me ten more minutes,” I suggested.
“Will you and my dad see each other before practice tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I admitted.
“Would you rather talk to my dad or see all the cheerleaders in swimsuits?”
Sometimes Cassidy made a lot of sense.
“Sorry, Coach. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said and packed up.
Jeff and his crew started to follow me.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked.
“To film you interacting with all the high school cheerleaders,” Jeff said with a straight face.
Coach Hope laughed at the face I made. Jeff slowed his roll when he saw the one Cassidy gave him. I suspect he’d heard the rumors of her taking down guys and didn’t want to get added to the list. I thought Jeff made the right call when he suggested a quick interview before practice.
◊◊◊
Cassidy and I just walked in the Andersons’ front door.
“I’m home,” I called out.
“In the kitchen,” Mrs. A said.
She was busy making snacks for all the girls. I looked out at the pool area and saw that I would be the only guy.
“Where’s your husband?” I asked.
“Louisville, Kentucky. They’re apparently having some sort of issue, so he flew out today.”
“That means we don’t have anyone to burn everything on the grill,” I observed.
Mr. Anderson always had fire issues when grilling. I was put in charge of the squirt bottle to put them out, or he would burn whatever he was cooking. Tom Dole had shown me that beer also worked to put out flare-ups. I thought his method showed a lot of merit. It motivated you not to burn the food because you got to drink the remaining beer.
“Are you volunteering?”
“No, not really. I’ll kick in some cash for delivery, though,” I said, getting out my money clip.
Mrs. A had no problem taking my money. I don’t expect she felt like cooking for this large a group, anyway.
Cassidy had gone out to talk to Brook and Beth. I wasn’t surprised when the two of them came into the kitchen. They each claimed a hug and a kiss.
“Go get changed. I want you to meet the new cheerleaders,” Brook told me.
I grabbed my duffle bag to get a t-shirt. Luckily, I kept extra swimsuits at the Andersons’ for occasions like this. I changed into a pair of board shorts and a Lincoln High football t-shirt.
Four girls who were on varsity last year had decided not to come out this year. Tracy technically had one more semester of high school, but she and her family had decided that she didn’t need the stress. With her out of the way, Brook was named head cheerleader. Pam had also decided not to go out. She was still unhappy about how it had all gone down when Tracy first had problems. Mona had staged a coup and been named head cheerleader.
The other girl that I was sad to see hadn’t come out was Halle. She’d decided that since she might get one of the movie roles she was trying out for, she didn’t want to commit to cheerleading. If she didn’t get it, Halle was okay with just being a senior.
One girl was asked not to come back: Ronda Reyes. She was one of the two cheerleaders that hung around with Jan Duke. The other one missing was Ella Keen, who’d drowned with Jeff. After Jan moved in with the Antakovs, she’d cleaned up her act, as far as drugs were concerned. Ronda hadn’t, so it was decided not to invite her back.
There was one girl that I was happy had joined the team: Lisa Felton. Tracy and Pam had taken her under their wing with the help of Halle, Zoe, and Brook. I couldn’t wait to see her in a cheerleading uniform. My bet was it would be as good as the R-rated version of a Catholic schoolgirl uniform she liked to wear to drive the males of our school crazy.
“I want you to meet some of the new girls,” Brook said, pulling me away from my friends.
She walked me over to the younger girls, and I froze. Oh. Dear. God! April Lacier’s little sister, Jill, was with the group of freshmen. I’d dated April for all of two minutes, and I remembered her little sister practicing her womanly charms on me. When she was in middle school, I could get the big brain to explain that she was jailbait, and Mr. Happy had reluctantly allowed us to run from her. Now she would be in high school. Seniors dated freshmen … right?
The reason April and I had gone out was because she was tall and athletic. She tended to wear baggy clothes that hid her assets. April had a great body. If I were using my superhuman model skills, I would say she was six feet tall and weighed 160 pounds. People got hung up on women who carry a little more weight than the ‘ideal’ 150 pounds for someone that tall. The extra ten pounds was all muscle, which came from playing basketball; April had a muscular bottom and thighs.
Jill was just a tad shorter than her sister at five-eleven and weighed 150 pounds. She was spectacular. Imagine what Adrienne must have looked like as a freshman in high school. Jill might be the best-looking girl at Lincoln once she enrolled. That’s saying a lot when you have a lineup of older girls that includes Jan Duke; Pam Bell (runner-up in the Teen Miss California pageant), Tracy Dole; Brook Davis; and don’t let us forget Halle James, daughter of the legendary Rita James.