I started to realize what a big deal this camp really was.
Bo had talked to Coach Trent and he shared some interesting information. Ten of the past eleven quarterbacks who won the Heisman Trophy had attended the Elite 11 finals or an Elite 11 regional. Thirty-five of the top forty-nine NFL passers in 2014 had attended the Elite 11 finals or an Elite 11 regional. While it was no guarantee for success, it seemed they were pretty good at identifying talent at their invitation-only camps.
I talked to Bo about the difference between the Elite 11 camp and the Elite camp I was going to later in the summer. While Nike was involved in both, they were put on by different groups. Elite 11 was originally put on by Student Sports. Later Nike and ESPNU got involved.
Bo wasn’t really a fan of Elite 11 because of the ESPNU tie-in. He felt it was more of a reality TV event, even though the coaching was outstanding. He felt it put too much pressure on high school kids because of all the attention they received. Football was hard enough without a camera following you around. One bad decision (and what seventeen- or eighteen-year-old guy has never made a bad decision?) would be magnified at least a hundred times. The sad part was: drama sells.
He much preferred the Elite Quarterback Camp in Houston. I had really enjoyed that camp last year and was looking forward to it again. You received plenty of quality instruction without having ESPNU follow you around.
I went downstairs with Duke and found Tami and Tim Foresee waiting for me. It hadn’t taken Tami long to get back into good-enough shape to ride her bike while Tim and I ran.
“So?” Tim asked.
“They offered,” I answered, letting him know Alabama had offered me a scholarship to play football.
Tim and I began to stretch.
“Guys kill me. You say three words to each other, and that’s supposed to explain your week,” Tami huffed.
“Don’t blame us for being efficient,” I said with a straight face.
I knew Tami was going nuts. She was a girl, after all, and I think they all think we’re brain-damaged because we can say a couple of words where hundreds are needed, in their opinion. He asked. I answered. Simple.
“Am I going to have to drag everything out of you?” she asked, sounding exasperated.
“I had a sexy threesome with a little bondage action, but you told me not to brag about things like that.”
She threw her hands up in the air and snatched Duke’s retractable leash from me. She called him over and he sat as she put it on him. She had a little talk with him about leaving the evil squirrels alone while she rode her bike. We began our run. Tim seemed to drift closer than normal to me.
“I don’t have a problem with you bragging about your threesome,” he said, trying to reassure me.
I gave him a one-armed shove and laughed at him. Now he wanted details, too!
AFTER WE LIFTED, I met Bo and the skill players on the football field. Alan and Tami were there as well. Alan was showing Bo our new software and the offense we would be running next year. I was surprised when Tami was contributing to the conversation. I knew she had been watching us in practice but hadn’t realized she was learning the offense.
While I was at Alabama, Ty Wilson’s family had finally closed on their house and moved to our town. I was happy to see my friend, the star running back from Washington, joining us.
“Alan tells me you’ve been learning the playbook David has for his Elite 11 camp,” Bo Harrington said.
“What? Why are you guys learning that playbook?” I asked.
Elite 11 had sent all the participants a playbook with one hundred twenty-five plays. One of our tasks, before we arrived at camp, was to learn them all. Everyone was given two weeks so we were on equal footing. Before I left to go to Alabama, Alan had copied my playbook. He did me a huge favor by putting all the plays into the software we used. It didn’t have videos of the plays, or coaches’ comments, but it was in a format I was used to now.
“Tami explained we’re a team,” Mike told me. “You winning the Elite 11 will reflect on us as a team. The more we can help you, the more it helps us. We want a chance to play college ball too. When this place is crawling with college recruiters, maybe we get a look.”
Leave it to Tami to be working on my behalf while I was gone. I felt myself tearing up because I was overwhelmed my friends and teammates would go this far to help me out. Bo didn’t give me a chance to be emotional. He put us to work.
BO STOPPED FOR THE day a little after one that afternoon. He and Alan were going to take the video we had shot and put it into the software. I found I learned the plays faster if I could see them actually run.
The rest of us were going to Beth Anderson’s house for lunch and to go swimming. Tami smirked when Ty stopped to take in the pool area. Beth had invited Suzanne and Cindy. Then we also had the usual suspects: it looked like all the cheerleaders, my female friends, and the guys’ girlfriends were there.
Ty came up to me and hugged me.
“I knew moving here was a good idea,” he said.
“You remember that later today when we get done with sixty minutes of hell,” I shot back.
Beth saw us and got the girls’ attention.
“It’s David’s birthday week! Be sure to wish him a happy birthday,” she said with a smirk.
Kylie wasn’t missing a chance and about knocked Tami down to get to me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and put me in a lip-lock. When she let me go, she leaned in and whispered to me.
“I’m single, and a year older.”
I thought about it for a moment. While the freshman cheerleaders had all seemed young, they were older now. They’d done a lot of growing up over the past year. I looked at Kylie and wasn’t getting the vibe she was too young anymore. It might have had something to do with her bikini—and the kiss. The kiss wasn’t that of an innocent girl.
“We’ll talk,” I told her with a smile. “Now tell the other guys ‘hi.’”
I hadn’t expected her to kiss all of them too. She did give them quick kisses, but no tongue. I could see Ty’s eyes get big. The poor guy was about to die by the time all the girls at the party had repeated Kylie’s example. Of course, most of them just kissed the guys on the cheeks.
The one group of girls who I was surprised to see were the JV cheerleaders. They would be on the varsity squad this coming year.
I had never hung out with the cheerleaders in my own class because of what had happened in middle school. Jan Duke, their captain, had dumped me to go out with Justin. She had also introduced me to drugs and alcohol at parties. Jan was to be joined on the varsity cheerleading squad with her best friends Ella and Ronda. The three of them cornered me while I was helping Jeff get the grill going.
Jan had always been the best-looking of the group. She had developed first and now sported a solid ‘C’ cup on her five-nine frame. Ronda was the ‘plain Jane’ of the three. I had always liked her because she was bright and had a friendly personality. I had stopped talking to her after Jan dumped me. Ella was cute. She wasn’t the beauty that Jan was, but she did catch your eye. She had developed since the last time I’d seen her. She was almost as busty as Jan now. It looked good on her athletic frame.
When they came up, Jeff groaned. He knew the history, and I don’t think he wanted to be anywhere near us if this blew up. I was a little pissed when he mumbled something about getting the hot dogs and left me alone with them. I looked for Tami, but she was getting to know Kylie. I was a little afraid what they were getting up to.