When we finally got home, Emma and Piper looked haggard and Kyle and Mac were crying. I picked them up and they quieted right down.
“Didn’t you guys hold them?” I teased.
Within a couple of minutes, the babies were out like lights. The girls glared at me as I handed a sleeping baby to Greg and Angie each.
“We don’t know what he does, either. I’m just glad they take to him like that,” Angie said.
I gave the girls a ride home and came back to get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow was the next step towards winning three straight State Championships.
Chapter 25 – The Big Game
Saturday November 29
In the morning, I looked outside and it was freezing. The windchill was 14 degrees. The biggest problem with this kind of weather was keeping your hands warm. If they got cold, you’d lose touch on the ball. I wasn’t too worried about the rest of me since I had insulated gear I could wear under my football equipment. Plus, the game plan was for me to be on the field most of the game.
At breakfast, it was weird. Everyone, even Mom and Angie, ignored me. I put in my earbuds and started mentally to get ready for the game. Dad finally tapped my arm and told me it was time to go. Everyone was meeting at the high school to ride the bus over to State. The 4A game was already being played on local TV as I left. The 1A, 2A, and 3A games had been played on Friday. We were in the next game, with the 6A game kicking off later tonight.
Something we were proud of was that Springfield, who we beat during the season, was in the 6A Championship Game. If they managed to win, we could legitimately claim the mythical overall championship. We would have to deal with Mansfield before we could think about that, so one step at a time.
When we got to the stadium, we were sent to the visitors’ locker room. Everyone got dressed and taped. The 4A game had just finished, and the team sharing our locker room had lost. They’d screened off their part of the locker room, but you could tell they had just left their dreams on the field. There was no way that was happening to us today.
Bill, Tim and I led the team out to stretch. I looked out over the field and saw Kevin, Luke and Magic on the sidelines with most of the State football team. When we got a break, I slipped over.
“There he is. This is the guy I’ve been bragging about,” Kevin crowed to his teammates.
“You ready?” Magic asked.
“Yeah, we got this. I wish you guys were playing today,” I said.
“We do too. Go kick some butt,” Luke said.
One of the guys tossed me something. I opened it up and they were State gloves for cold weather. I looked up, curious.
“They’ll keep your hands warm and still have touch on the ball.”
The man looked like a trainer.
“Do you have any more?” I asked.
He grinned and tossed me a bag. I looked inside, and there were enough for our starting skill players and then some. I went and handed them out, and then went to Coach.
“Hey, State gave me these,” I showed him.
I had mine on, and they seemed to work great.
“Should we give the rest to Mansfield?” I asked.
“I’ll take care of it,” he told me.
I went and worked with Mike, Wolf and Bill to do all my throws. I felt good. The gloves weren’t as comfortable as going without, but they were keeping my hands warm. I also had been given a fanny pack that you put your hands in; it had a little chemical heater pack to help with a quick warm-up.
We went into the locker room and relaxed. The team was doing much better with their nerves than the week before. Coach Hope gathered us around.
“Okay, settle down,” he ordered, and then waited for us to quiet down. “Today is a historic event. This will be the first of many State Football Championships for Lincoln High. We are beginning a tradition today, and you’ll get to say you were a part of it. It’s not that we expect to win, or deserve to win. We’ve put the work in. It started last spring with the daily after-school workouts and the morning lifting. It was the commitment you all made as a team.
“I’ve never been more proud of a group of young men. This crowd may not all think we’re good enough, but they need to respect what you’ve done, and I only see bigger things in your future.
“We have one remaining roadblock to our final goal, and they’re in the other locker room. Now let’s go out and show them what Lincoln High football is all about!”
Even though it was cold, our fans were out in force. Tracy had given me a list of recruiters who said they were going to be there today. I spotted Coach Berta from Kentucky. The Iowa recruiting coordinator, who was sitting next to Coach Berta, just shook his head, so I waved at them.
We lost the coin toss and Mansfield deferred to the second half. We took the ball. I was back for the kickoff with Jake, who had taken Ed’s spot after the broken collarbone.
Sometimes you hear about football IQ. There’s no correlation between how smart you are and what your football IQ is. Someone with a high football IQ seems to anticipate plays. They’re in the right place at the right time. Another sign of a high football IQ is they are the impact players. People with low football IQs seem to make bonehead plays. Bert, unfortunately, would be a good example.
There have been times this year where all he had to do is warn me, or actually block someone, to make a play. It’s not that Bert isn’t smart; he carries a solid A/B average. I’d talked Coach out of benching him because of his seeming inept play. On the kickoff return, I wish I’d listened to Coach.
Jake took the kickoff at the 4 yard line and followed me as we found the wedge. Mansfield was flying high on the kickoff. Sometimes that works against you, and in this case, it did: they overran the play. The wedge did its job and punched a hole in their defense. I stepped through and found a linebacker-type closing hard. We were both running at full speed when we collided, causing a tremendous crash of pads. Jake scooted off my butt and broke free. There was no one to stop him but Bert, who decided at that moment to block the closest guy in the back!
I mean, WTF? The closest guy to Jake was ten yards behind. Bert’s block was in front of everyone. I think even the referee was shocked. WHY? Instead of it being 6–0 and kicking the extra point, we were first and ten, way back at the 30 yard line. How many times can a guy be sorry?
Of course, we only picked up eight yards on three tries and had to punt. I wasn’t surprised when Bert was sitting on the bench with Coach Hope crawling up his backside. I honestly had never seen the man so angry in all my life.
The Mansfield Titans were everything we expected from watching the films. They wouldn’t go down easily. On each run, their running back would fight for every inch. It was as if they fed off his effort, and then the next player would try even harder. I had almost let their fullback break a big run. He was digging for yardage, and I slipped and lost him. I was lucky that the line judge saw his knee touch, or we would have been down 6–0.
The extra effort finally bit them in the butt inside our 15 yard line. Their tailback ran right at me. I wrapped him up and Tim lowered the boom. If he’d just gone down, Tim would never have hit him. It reminded me of one of the hits I’d seen Kevin put on a running back when he was at Lincoln. He was now doing that at State. I don’t know what flew further, the kid’s left shoe or the ball.
There was a mad scramble for the ball, and it was one of those deals where the ball may have changed hands a few times at the bottom of the pile. I was lucky enough not to be involved. It’s pretty much anything goes when you’re buried like that. When the pile was cleared up, Wolf held the ball up to let everyone know it was first and ten for the good guys.
That seemed to tilt the momentum to us. I took advantage on the next play. It was designed to be a down-and-out to Bill, but his corner jumped the route right before I was going to release the ball. I was lucky I didn’t throw it in the dirt. Somehow, I hung onto the ball, and Bill darted upfield. I recocked my arm and threw a bullet to Bill. He showed why USC offered as he made their safety look silly. We were up 7–0.