Football Nightmare Read Online Free PDF Page B

expect from you. For those who haven’t, it’s pretty simple. I expect everyone to give his best effort at all times, to be sportsmanlike, and keep his head in the game. I know that people will make
physical
mistakes — trip, drop a ball, whatever — and I don’t have a problem with that, unless a player makes a habit of it.
    “But
mental
mistakes are another matter. If you forget what down it is, or miss a blocking assignment, or run the wrong pass route, then you’re probably not concentrating on the job at hand … and that is the land of foul-up that I don’t have much patience with.
    “Okay. We only have two weeks before our first game, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. We’ll start out today with a little warm-up, and then we’ll break into two groups and work on our offense. I’ll work with the backs and receivers, while my assistant, Mack, works with the linemen on blocking.”
    Mack, a powerfully built man whose cut-off sweatshirt showed off his muscular arms, had been a star tackle on his college team. He smiled and nodded when his name was mentioned.
    The warm-up was a short workout with light calisthenics. Coach Bodie didn’t believe in a lot of pushups, situps, and stuff like that, although he had no problem if players wanted to do that on their own. But he liked his team to work on their stamina and wind, and ended each practice with a run.
    When the backs and receivers went to work, the quarterbacks, including Billy and Jason, would give a receiver or back a pattern to run (with any necessary explanation provided by the coach), and then throw a pass.
    At first, the coach assigned Larry to work with Jason rather than Billy, the probable starting quarterback. Keith thought Larry was ready to complain, but stopped at the last moment, since he would have annoyed both Coach Bodie and Jason.
    Keith, Heck, and Billy watched as Jason sent Larry out on the first pattern of the day. Larry made an inside fake and cut sharply toward the sideline. Jason’s pass was slightly wide, but Larry made a nice lunging catch.
    “He’s faster than last year,” Heck observed.
    “Yeah, and he didn’t get his feet all tangled up like he used to,” commented Billy. Keith kept silent for the moment. But it appeared to him, too, that Larry was looking better than he had the previous year.
    When Keith came up to the line for a pass from Billy, the quarterback told him to run a deep hook; he was to start downfield fast, stop short, and make a tight turn inside. The pass, if thrown correctly, would be there for him once he had hooked.
    Keith made his fifteen-yard downfield run, put on the brakes, and turned to his right, but the pass was off target, reaching him at ankle level. The best Keith could do was to get one hand on the ball, which bounced and rolled on the ground.
    As Keith trotted after the loose ball, he heard snickering coming from the group. He felt a surge of frustration. The pass had been poorly thrown and impossible to catch. He angrily scooped up the ball and started back with it.
    “Sorry! My fault!” Billy called, and Keith put on what he hoped would be a convincing smile. But he saw Larry whispering something to Jason, who smiled and nodded.
    A few minutes later, Billy sent Keith deep and tossed him a slightly wobbly, underthrown pass that Keith did well to reach back and pull in with one hand.
    “All right!” Heck yelled, and Billy clapped his hands. Keith noticed that even the coach, who did not give out praise easily, nodded and seemed pleased. He felt a little better. But, at the same time, Keith realized that Larry was far from the awkward, uncoordinated athlete he had been a year earlier. He was looking good, running tight patterns and hanging on to every ball that came near enough. Larry was good. Possibly, he might be as good as Keith himself.
    His preoccupation with the idea that Larry was now a serious rival for the starting position must have taken Keith’s mind off the practice for