Team Manager COACH!
Chapter 8
CLASSES AT BARTLEY HIGH School started at 8:20. The first day of school was always a fast intro to where classes were held and what books were needed. It was an early out day, so school was out at 1:30, which would give plenty of time for the cross country team to get dressed in their new uniforms and get to Lehigh Academy in time for the 4:00 race.
Dennis didn’t need to be at school until 9:45 on short days, since he was scheduled for classes at DMACC during the early blocks. He ended up walking his girlfriends to school and hanging out in the coaches’ ready room for an hour and a half before his US Government class. He was a little uncertain as to his welcome in the class taught by Grant Torvalds, the football coach. Several of his classmates looked at him strangely when he walked into the room. They thought they should know him, but couldn’t seem to place him. Then Natalie, Tori, Diane, Leanne, Debbie, and Sara Steinbeck came into the classroom and immediately surrounded Dennis, cutting him off from the rest of the students.
“And Speedy Gonzales is with us this term,” Torvalds said when he called the roll. Dennis dropped his head. “So you all know, this guy—uh… Dennis—turned in a 5K on Saturday at under seventeen minutes and humiliated the entire football team. No problem, though. Now they are twice as committed to getting into shape as they were Friday night. Good luck in your race today, Dennis, and all the cross country team.”
“Thank you, Coach.” There were a few whispers as other classmates who had not been at the Saturday event or engaged in any sports realized this was the geek they’d been ignoring the past ten years.
There really wasn’t time for much more than handing out the syllabus and textbooks. They got their assignment for the next day and the next bell rang. Dennis made his way to Intro to Calculus, taught by the new varsity basketball coach, Neil Griffith. The intro was warm in that class as well, but Neil made it clear they were on a fast-paced track for the subject and that they all needed to read the introduction and study the formulae in it. They would start on Analytic Geometry in the morning.
Dennis had lunch with his girlfriends before they all headed off to physics and then English literature. In all, it was just another boring school day.
“Can you tape my ankles on the bus, Dennis?” Tori asked when they were in uniform and ready to go.
“Sure, sweetie. Let me make sure I have adequate tape in my kit.” He checked his red waist pack and also the traveling first aid kit that all teams carried. Then they headed for the bus. Since the entire team was traveling to this meet, there were over thirty people on the bus. A few of the boys had paired up with girls, but mostly the girls clustered together before the boys got on the bus.
Dennis set straight to work on Tori’s ankles and had them finished in fifteen minutes. He looked up to see Diane standing in front of him. “Me, too, lover?” she asked.
Of course, he taped her securely.
The Lehigh Academy cross country course was actually at a local golf course—a nine-hole par three course that was pretty flat. The running course looped up one fairway and down another. There were some nice trees along the route and a cool breeze was blowing when they got off the bus. Bags were left in the coaches’ circle and the girls were sent to the putting green where their race would begin.
The buzzer sounded starting the race and the hundred or so girls took off. It was soon obvious that there were ‘runners’ and ‘others’ in the race. The line of competitors stretched back the entire length of the second fairway by the time they made the turn to run the other direction. In the front, though, Dennis could see several of the distinctive maroon jerseys of their team. When they rounded the turn to head for the final stretch, Janice was far in the lead. She crossed the finish line and entered the chute in 20:54. The next runner was a minute behind her.
Diane came in sixth, Tori in fourteenth, and Judith in twenty-seventh place. Other Bartley runners took twenty-ninth, thirty-sixth, thirty-eighth, and several more, stretching out to eighty-eighth at 36:51. Team points were tallied and Lehigh Academy came in first with 48 points while Bartley got second with seventy-eight. The school was still jubilant to have won a high honor among eleven schools.
It was a similar story for the guys, but they did not have the depth of runners that the girls did. Dennis crossed the line in 17:00, a minute before his nearest opponent. Donnie Oswald was the only other Bartley runner in the top fifty, placing seventeenth. The other ten Bartley runners managed between 50th and 116th. In spite of capturing the top individual honors, the Bartley Wolverines placed ninth of eleven for the team.
It began to look like the Bartley boys would maintain their reputation as mediocre athletes, while the girls continued to excel.
On Tuesday, the school was buzzing with excitement over the first ever volleyball match that would be played in the Bartley gym. The match was slated against the Eagles at 6:30. Before the match, Dennis worked with the cheer teams. Janet had divided the ten cheerleaders into two squads because the rules for most sports indicated a maximum of six cheerleaders. Squad B would be taking the volleyball games. By and large, they were the younger cheerleaders, but they worked just as hard as Squad A, who would take the football games. They all seemed pleased about the arrangement because each would be leading a varsity team. And the two squads worked together on routines, supporting each other.
They were nervous about their first game and didn’t know if they’d even have fans to lead. The boosters, of course, had been out drumming up support and making sure the Angelines volleyball team had a houseful of fans.
“Don’t worry about a thing. You’ve got this,” Dennis said. “You’re strong and fit and you’ve been getting the athletes to follow you, so you can handle the fans. After all, team, you’re Angelines!”
“Right, Coach!”
“Dennis, can you come down to the locker room? Coach Fisher is asking for you,” Thoms said when she found him with the cheer squad. ‘They,’ Dennis reminded himself. Thoms preferred they/them pronouns and he wasn’t going to go against their wishes.
The locker room was the last place he imagined Coach Fisher wanting him. He’d worked with her team managers, but had not been invited to even observe a practice. He followed the freshman manager to the locker rooms and they pushed the door open.
“Everyone decent?” they called into the room. “Man coming in!”
No one screamed, so they held the door open and Dennis went into the locker room. Most of the girls were fully dressed in their uniforms. A couple—his girlfriends, of course—didn’t have their jerseys on, but they practiced in their spandex bras most of the time anyway.
“Ah, Dennis,” Pat said. “I’m sorry to draw you away from other duties, but you did an excellent job of taping Lana last week. I’d like you to do it again, if you will, and show Shelby and Thoms the process again. We have two other athletes that could use tape as well. Do you mind?”
“Of course, Coach. Lana, you know the routine, have a seat.” He looked around and spotted his stool in a corner. He pulled it up close to the end of the bench and Lana stuck her foot out over the end. “Shelby and Thoms, I’ve advanced some since I started taping ankles last year. A significant item is to start with pre-wrap—this blue roll. This prevents the tape from sticking directly to the skin. If you ever work on guys, they’ll really appreciate the tape not sticking to their hairy legs.”
The girls laughed with him as he told them it was much easier to remove the tape after the game with pre-wrap as well. Then he got the white athletic tape and did an anchor strip at the top and bottom.
“This can all be done with a single wrap, but Lana has been rolling her ankle a lot. So, we’re going to start with a couple of stirrup strips that pass under the arch and up onto the ankle. Next, we’ll do a couple of horseshoe wraps here at the base of the ankle, right over the Achilles tendon. That will lock out the roll. Finally, we’ll use a continuous strip to do a figure eight and a heel lock. Once you have this done, Lana’s foot will be prevented from pronating on her when she shifts her weight. I’ll make sure you two have plenty of supplies to practice on each other or other team members. Lana knows how to do a continuous wrap and will be picking up the type I just showed you before basketball season. Who else?”
The demonstration went so quickly and smoothly that Pat reached over to test the wrapping job herself and pronounce it good. Dennis was surprised that the next person to sit on the bench for wrapping was Daphne, the coach’s daughter.
“Daphne’s been complaining of pain in her ankle,” Pat said. “I can’t find anything specific wrong, but I don’t want to take chances with her. Do you think stabilizing with tape will work for her?”
Dennis pulled Daphne’s foot toward him and examined it carefully, wiggling it back and forth and up and down. He noted Daphne winced a little when he squeezed the back of her ankle.
“Coach, based on the pain point, I’d say she’s had a minor stretch of the Achilles tendon. It seems to be causing pain at extremes of flex and extension. If you don’t mind, I’d like to use kinesiology tape for this to support the tendon and limit the strain on it.” He looked up at Pat’s furrowed brow and waited for her response.
“Yes,” she nodded. That was all she said.
“Shelby, Thoms, and Lana, kinesio tape has stretch to it. We’re going to apply it directly to the skin at about a fifty percent stretch.” He cut a piece of tape and peeled the backing off just the first two inches. “We start at the arch and then stretch the tape up around the heel onto the tendon.” He then applied a second piece of tape around the stress point at the heel and around the tendon just a bit higher.
“That’s all?” Daphne asked when he’d finished both ankles.
“I don’t want to completely disable your ability to flex and extend,” Dennis said. “Put your socks on and stand up.” Daphne stood and bounced a little.
“Hey! You know how your shoe supports your arch?” she asked her mom. “This is like I’ve got an arch support on my Achilles tendon.”
“Well, let’s see how you do tonight. I want to know if you experience any twinges or discomfort. It’s only our first match and I don’t need you disabled before we start the season,” Pat said. “Thank you, Dennis. Managers, I want you to review what you’ve just seen and practice it. We can’t have Dennis running into the girls’ locker room all the time.”
There were a couple of snorts from his girlfriends and Dennis slipped out of the locker room quickly.
The game was good. Pat moved players in and out of the rotation almost as frequently as Ardith did on the basketball court. She was looking for the perfect combination. Shelby was kept busy going to the officials’ bench to update the player changes. Each game was played to twenty-five points. The first was close, but the Angelines opened the margin on the next two. In a best three of five match, the Angelines won 3-0.
Dennis and Brenda were in Boone in time to start their eight o’clock class Wednesday morning. The hour drive meant they had to leave before even his mom and sister had to go to work.
“It’s almost the exact same course in English we had as seniors,” Brenda sighed. “I wish they got coordinated. I guess a lot of people arrive at college not understanding basic sentence structure and where to put a period.”
“At least this is the only English class you have this year. When I get back, I have junior English lit. At least this comp course is different from that,” Dennis said.
They walked across campus in the ten-minute break for their nine o’clock class, Intro to Physical Education. The class was taught in the sports facility, but wasn’t a practical application course. They’d be studying hard on this subject.
Brenda had Monday and Wednesday afternoon courses, but she had plenty of time to get Dennis back to Bartley and drive back to Boone before class. Dennis had lunch at Bartley at 11:10, but his first class didn’t start until 11:35.
“This drive’s going to get tedious, isn’t it?” he asked.
“And expensive. I’ll be driving 200 miles a day to and from class on Monday and Wednesday. Friday, I don’t have to go back, except that will change once basketball season starts. And you don’t have to go in and back on Tuesday and Thursday, so I’ll make that drive alone. Geez, this is going to be hard,” Brenda said.
“I’ll pay a hundred dollars a week for gas,” he said.
“That’s way too much! You only travel three times a week and I have to go at the same time.”
“But I’m the reason you have to make the extra trip.”
“That’s only twice a week. Still… How about fifty. That will still probably pay for all the gas I use, but I’ll have maintenance and insurance to cover. Fair enough?”
“Fair enough.” They drove through the Iowa countryside in silence a few minutes before Dennis spoke again. “Brenda, I’m glad we’re taking these classes together. I was really worried that you’d be gone and I’d never see you again.”
“Boyfriend, we can’t know what will happen tomorrow or next week or next year. Right now, I’m happy we’re together.”
While news of the cross country and volleyball victories was welcome at Bartley High School, by Wednesday morning all eyes were focused on the football team. Dennis barely made it into the cafeteria to sit with his girlfriends for lunch in time to hear Daphne complaining.
“What are they going to do? Just skip the fact that we have a volleyball game tomorrow and only pay attention to the boys’ football team Friday? That’s so unfair.”
“Last year no one even knew we existed until we’d won a couple of games. As soon as we had a winning season going, then people started to show up and get excited. But mostly there’s only ever been boys’ sports here,” Natalie explained.
“I loved Janice beating all but four guys on the football team Saturday,” Lana said. “We’re going to be all about girls’ sports this year.”
“And Dennis,” Leanne said. “You wouldn’t believe the number of people here in school who still think you’re new. Not only did they never pay any attention to you before, you don’t look anything like the kid who started managing the Angelines last year.”
“I don’t mind not being recognized. I’m looking for a quiet and peaceful year. Knock on wood.” He rapped the table and then laughed. “Or plastic. Hey, Daphne, how’s your ankle today?”
“Not bad. I iced it last night after we got home. It just feels tired right now,” she answered.
“We should tape it before your practice today and again before the match on Thursday. Have you put on more height recently?” Dennis asked.
“At least you didn’t ask if I’d gotten bigger,” she laughed. “Yeah. I put on two inches this summer.”
“I kind of had a growth spurt this summer, too,” he said. “I thought all I felt was sore from working on the farm, but now that I think of it, a lot of what I felt this summer, and even now, could be attributed to my body adjusting to a longer frame. Make sure you do a lot of stretching exercises so your muscles and tendons adapt to your longer legs.”
“Oh. Okay, I’ll do that. See you after school to get taped up.”
Everyone scattered to class.
After school, Dennis taped Daphne again and then observed Shelby as she taped Lana. Lana was good at giving feedback about how tight the tape was and anyplace that it was binding. Shelby took the task seriously and did a pretty good job of it.
“She’s not as much fun as you,” Lana whispered to Dennis. Then she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and headed to the floor for warmups. Shelby and Thoms went straight out and took their position to lead, though they were often following the girls who knew the routines better.
“Hey, Dennis,” Olivia said when she saw him in the hall outside the coaches’ offices. “Coach said you might need some help setting up a website. Got a minute to talk?”
“Yeah, Olivia. I don’t have anything until time to go work with the cross country team.” They went into the office and Olivia pulled an extra chair up to the table where she had her laptop set up.
“How do you plan to use your site? That will give me an idea of what features you need. So, just tell me what you expect you’ll do and how often,” she said.
“I think there are three main elements,” Dennis said. He’d been giving this a lot of thought. “First and most obvious is a fitness blog. I anticipate that it will be a mix of topics from general health and diet, through injury prevention, and exercise tips for getting in shape. Second, I want to create a library of exercises that people can pick and choose from to design their own fitness program. And third, I’d eventually like to actually have fitness sessions with video that people can follow along with.”
For the next half hour, they talked about various features and how people would find things on the site. By the time the football team clattered into the locker room after practice, they had a pretty good idea of what direction the site would take. Dennis would need to pay for his domain, but Olivia was happy to create the site for the credit it would give her as a sample of her work. Dennis headed out to meet the cross country team for conditioning exercises.
Thursday night, the volleyball team fell to the Cardinals 1-3 in an away game. Dennis and the rest of the girlfriends went to the game and yelled loudly in response to the cheerleaders, but the game was over an hour away and attendance by Bartley fans was sparse. After everyone got back to Bartley that evening, the girls took special care of their girlfriends on the volleyball team, taking them to PJ’s for burgers and fries.
“It will get better,” Dennis said. “We’re an inexperienced team and are facing girls who have played years together. You can’t expect to master the sport all at once.”
“We did with basketball,” Roberta complained.
“You’d been playing basketball all your life,” Dennis reminded her. “You’ve hardly ever played volleyball, especially under high school rules. You lived and breathed basketball, even when you didn’t have a team.”
“I suppose so,” she said. “You’re so good to us, Dennis. I wish you were handling the training. We aren’t getting out with the cross country team for conditioning exercises now that everyone has started practicing after school.”
“Believe me, I wish we were still running in the evening instead of afternoon,” Tori said. “The heat was miserable today. Of course, if we ran in the evening, we would have missed your game.”
“We’ll all get better,” Natalie said brightly. “And it’s only two months till basketball season!”
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