Gladiators of the Gridiron

Another away game meant another road trip with Coach Long, Coach Hoang, and Bella. Ty was waiting outside his house, sitting on the curb of the road. Megan sat by his side; of course, she was coming along too.

She would occasionally glance behind them, looking at the house when she heard a playful shout from the ever-energetic twins as Victoria was stuck babysitting for once. Ty, on the other hand, was laser-focused and silent as he stared at the asphalt ahead of them.

Megan kept quiet too, not wanting to disturb him while he was concentrating so hard. She didn’t dare ask what he was thinking about, despite her curiosity.

Ty thought back to more of their practice sessions leading up to this important game. The main focus had been tackling, constantly slamming the training dummies into the turf, wrapping them up securely, over and over until coaches Long and Hoang both were satisfied.

Then there were the Oklahoma drills, where two boys—it didn’t matter if they were offence, defence, varsity, or JV—lay flat on their backs opposite each other, while the rest of the team crowded around them, creating a confined space that was barely a yard wide, and only five long.

One boy would have a football—though it was practically just a prop—and at the coach’s whistle, both boys would hop up and test each other in a contest of strength.

The ball-carrier’s aim was to make it past the defender by whatever means necessary, whilst the defender’s goal was to bring the carrier back down to the ground.

The drill resulted in a tense, explosive atmosphere with the compact crowd watching and reacting to every big hit, every tough struggle, and every slippery escape.

JJ had been dominant on BOTH sides of the drill. No one had been able to slip away from his grasp, and he’d rarely been brought down.

Ty, meanwhile, had been average.

Tackling was not one of his strong suits, he’d admit that. Sure, he’d never had problems with poor tackling, but he thought it was a problem if he ever got into a situation that required tackling in the first place. Who needs to tackle someone when you can stop them from getting the ball?

He did a little better in the role of the ball carrier, having more experience evading tackles thanks to his many scrambles after an interception, but still, in such a tight space with little room to work with, he wasn’t the best.

One thing he had learned from watching everyone—and experiencing it himself—was that the legs were the key. “Go for the legs. Doesn’t matter how big they are, or how strong, if you get low and take out their legs, no one can move.”

Coach Long’s car soon pulled up in front of them. Ty stood up, dusting himself off before he opened the door, Megan squeezing in first to sit in the middle, Bella giving the other girl a look as they exchanged short and cold “hi”s.

Ty placed his bag into the boot and then got in. Speaking on behalf of her brother, Megan thanked Coach Long for driving them. Ty was still quietly focusing ahead of the game.

This drive was much more uneventful than last week’s, though Bella still couldn’t help herself and made at least a couple of comments under her breath about Megan’s clinginess, but the younger girl didn’t rise to the provocation.

They made it to the Bears’ field bright and early, the JV game, once again, would be the preshow to the night’s main attraction.

While the coaches went through the game plan ahead of the JV game, Ty and Megan found a seat in the stands.

The field this time was a much larger, extravagant affair, with multiple, towering stands surrounding it. There were also bigger, more powerful lights next to each stand, in preparation for night games.

As time drew closer to the start of the JV game, and more players and families arrived, the stands filled out faster, even for a JV game. By the start of the game, the crowd was already bigger than what usually showed up for the Dons’ previous JV games.

Coach Short stalked the sideline. Bella had a stern look on her face as she watched the slugfest begin.

Even without any mud present, it was still a very muddy and sloppy game from both sides, with defence being the main focal point from both teams. Neither offence could get anything going.

The Bears’ run defence was stout, like a brick wall that the Dons couldn’t break through no matter how hard they tried. Even the elusive Rabbit couldn’t skip around or over that impenetrable wall.

The most frustrating part was that the Bears didn’t even have to over-commit to stopping the run to have such a dominant defence against the ground game. It wasn’t like they were stacking the box with an excessive amount of defenders, it was just that their front four were powerful enough to hold up everything, and their LBs could react in a flash to any run or pass.

Though the Bears' offence, for as mighty as their defence was, was almost the opposite. They struggled mightily on that side of the ball too.

Only in the second half did the Bears start to break away and finally put up a small gap between the two teams, looking like they had fresher legs during the second half.

So, despite the Dons’ best efforts and their victory last week, they fell just barely short in this week's JV game, losing in the end 6–3 to the Bears.

Rabbit had given it his all, collapsing on the bench, panting hard after the game was over.

By this time, the crowd had swelled tremendously. Hardly a seat was empty before the REAL game was about to get underway.

As Ty got up from his chair and headed towards the locker room to get ready, Megan wished him luck, giving his hand a gentle squeeze just before he pulled away.

He muttered a thanks without looking back.

In the locker room, Coach Long had the boys gathered together.

‘Listen up. I know most of you might be holding a grudge thanks to last year's Regionals, and you’re all looking fired up, but you gotta keep a cool head out there. Don’t do anything stupid, and don’t be making mistakes just ‘cause you’re mad and wanting to put some hurt on them like the way they hurt us.’

There was a restless murmur throughout the huddle.

‘We know what they want to do. They’re gonna come out and try to run all over us, but we ain’t gonna let ‘em. Look at the man beside you. That’s your brother. Together, we can do anything. Ain’t nobody running over us if we work together. Come on. Hands in the middle.’

Everybody laid a fist against or on top of Coach Long’s in the centre of the circle.

‘Together on three. One, two, three.’

‘TOGETHER!’ the team screamed as one.

Ty took a deep breath, then followed the surge out of the locker room as JJ led the team out onto the field, jogging a single lap of it.

The huge crowd was nearly silent as the away team made their rounds, only muted, polite cheers and applause greeted the Dons. Ty waved to where Megan was in the crowd. She was easy to find for anyone; one of the few Dons supporters, a rock standing firm against the opposing tide.

As the Dons approached their bench, the crowd dropped to total silence, then a voice boomed over a sound system.

‘Laaadies and gentlemen. The time you’ve all been waiting for has arrived. Put your hands together and let’s hear you scream for your Regional Champions, and State Runners Up, theee Warren Bearsss!’

The stands shook and rumbled under stamping feet, a roar of cheers pierced the air, and the Bears' main squad burst out from their locker room onto the field, the cheers only escalating after the emergence of the players.

The players ran out onto the field, led by their coaches, and stopped at the centre of the field, playing up the crowd, basking in the adulation.

‘I’m loving that energy, people. But I think we can get a little bit louder! Especially for the man we’re all here to see… everyone, bow down to the reigning king of Warren, the greatest Running Back in the nation, a future hall of famer in the making … iiiits, KIIING Denzel Kingstonnnn!’

The crowd erupted even louder, people jumping up and down so much, that Ty thought the stands might collapse. Megan had to cover her ears as she sat right in the centre of that thunderous noise. “King” Denzel Kingston finally made his appearance.

Ty watched as the boy ran out to join his teammates already on the field, then led them around their lap, the screams elevating within whatever section of the crowd he passed by.

Denzel was huge. Even bigger than he had looked on tape. When he passed across the Dons’ bench, he slowed their jog even further, staring down each member of the Dons.

Denzel’s gaze seemed to linger on JJ for a while, both looked like monsters, even among the rest of the players. Denzel grinned, while JJ kept a stern, tightly set, blank face.

Then Denzel passed by Ty. The King stared down at the little peasant, who should’ve been insignificant by all accounts, but he continued to stare just as long as he had at JJ before eventually they drifted away.

Ty felt his whole body tingling. His hands were shaking, and he continued to stare at Denzel’s back, long after the larger boy had passed him by. He had a demented grin on his face, his heart racing.

‘The fuck you looking at, bitch! We gon’ smack that dumb look off your face! Believe that, bitch! Gon’ make you crown me and call me king!’ Deshaun loudly taunted, getting up in the face of the trailing Bears as they continued to run by, though he was soon pulled back by Coach Long.

Ty prowled along the sidelines as the coin toss took place. Deshaun was still jeering and running his jaw, though Denzel’s focus was solely on JJ as they stood opposite one another.

The Dons won the toss, and the only thing Denzel said throughout the interaction was: ‘We’re taking the ball.’ Then he moved back to his huddle and the Dons’ captains returned with the news.

Ty felt a rush flow through his body. He couldn’t sit still, and he couldn’t stop his body from shaking, nor could he wipe the smile off his face. He couldn’t wait until the kickoff was done and the defence was out there on the field.

He’d finally found someone who had it, that special something that made it feel like his soul would explode! “I’m going to CRUSH him!”