Team Manager COACH!
Chapter 19
AS SOON AS THEY were out of the showers, Dennis and his girlfriends loaded into three cars and drove to Boone for the Bears’ first home basketball game. Brenda had played in two exhibition matches the week before, but they were both away and too far for the crew to travel with their schedule. The game started at 5:30 and Brenda was bouncing on the bench from the opening tip-off. They all assumed she might not get to play. She’d warned the crew about having only gotten a couple of minutes in the exhibition games.
The Bears stayed almost even with the Honeybees through the first quarter, trailing by only one point. And to her surprise, Brenda was brought in for the second quarter. The game suddenly changed. It was obvious that the Bears weren’t used to playing the fast break all the time, but when they spotted Brenda downcourt, they threw her the ball and she sank the shot. They did it again. And again. She ended up the high scorer at sixteen points, but that wasn’t enough to top the Honeybees who won 64-59.
The crew was all crazy excited as they made their way courtside to greet Brenda. When they got there, they found Ardith already hugging their girlfriend.
“My first college player!” Ardith exclaimed.
“I’ll make you proud, Coach,” Brenda said.
“I know you will.”
“They gave you number 0? Seriously?” Amy asked as she hugged her girlfriend.
“Somebody decided it would be cute to make my jersey number the same as my dress size,” Brenda laughed. “Will you guys stick around while I shower? I’ll be out in fifteen minutes.”
The crew all enjoyed talking to Ardith for the interim while the arena cleared of people. They were all ready to leave when Brenda got back.
“Can you give me a ride?” she asked Dennis. “I’ve got my stuff for tomorrow and I’ll just leave my car here overnight.”
“That makes sense. I can pick you up in the morning and we’ll be here in plenty of time,” Dennis said.
“Pick me up? Out of your bed?” Brenda asked.
“Oh! You mean a ride to my home! Of course. You still want to sleep with this high school student?” he asked.
“I had to fight off two other players who volunteered to take my place,” Brenda laughed. “Did you see number 22? Donna Parks? She had a broken leg when we played our first game last year and was the team manager for Richland. She didn’t seem to be on tonight, but she’s been murder in practice. I love being on the same team.”
Brenda was talkative and not at all down about having lost the game. When they got home, she was still a bit hyper. She took that out in Dennis’s bedroom, being uncommonly aggressive when they got to bed. Dennis finally managed to wear her down after her fourth big O. She curled up beside him and went to sleep.
What Dennis had forgotten was that Wednesday and Thursday were early out days at Bartley and he was supposed to attend his classes at the high school instead of going to DMACC. He shrugged it off, decided to just tell them he forgot, and went to the wrong class. The DMACC classes were more interesting than the Bartley classes anyway.
He was under instruction from the joint coaches to work all three basketball teams hard for a full hour.
“For all of you who come to work out after school each day, the first half hour today will be our usual workout. You’re welcome to stick around for the second half hour, but it will be more vigorous. The coaches have decided their basketball teams need to be in much better condition than what they see. I’ll tell all you athletes playing basketball—and I see some of Coach Byers’ wrestlers here, too—I think the cheerleaders up here with me can outlast you!” Dennis shouted as they began loosening up. “Let’s hit it! One, two, three, four!” The cheerleaders moved into the well-practiced routine of getting people loosened up and their blood pumping. They hadn’t really done deep conditioning exercises since volleyball season had ended, so they were all a little worried about Dennis’s boast.
At the end of an hour, everyone in the gym was gasping for air and taking gulps from their water bottles. Nearly half of the ‘non-athlete’ participants had stayed through the second half. People sprawled on the bleachers.
“Is this basketball practice or Sunday at the beach?” Coach Griffith shouted. “Make your potty runs and report to your team managers for shooting drills in five minutes. Ready set go!” Everyone scattered. The wrestlers were the slowest to move, headed to the training room where mats were on the hardwood. Among the wrestlers was Corinne Klinefelter.
“Hey, Corinne,” Dennis said. “Are they letting you wrestle the boys? Give them experience of what it’s like to get pinned?”
“Coach Byers called me up and invited me to be on the team. Rita, Jennifer, and Denise are all out for the girls’ team, too.”
“I didn’t know the girls had a team. It’s not on the IGHSAU website,” Dennis said.
“It’s not sponsored by IGHSAU,” Corinne said. “The IaHSAA sponsors it. We had to go through a whole informational meeting with parents and sign waivers in order to wrestle. Coach had to have guys demonstrate various grips and holds that a girl might find invasive and we had to agree to them.”
“Like?”
“Techniques that involve grasping to restrain a wrestler through the crotch and across the chest,” Corinne said. She grinned. “Want to become a wrestler?”
“Let me know if you need any conditioning help. I’ll do what I can.”
“You know that little volleyball team manager, Thoms? She’s become the team manager for the wrestlers and she’s a slave driver. I mean they. While Coach has wrestlers on the mats, the rest are supposed to work weights. They walk around with a clipboard and mark down our weights and reps and sets. I mean a real tyrant!” Corinne said. Dennis was pleased she was using Thoms’ preferred pronouns even when not addressing them directly.
“That’s great. I’ll get with them as soon as I can and figure out if they need any help cracking the whip.”
Everyone was back on the court and Lana had a rack of basketballs under the basket.
“Line up outside the three-point line. Layups. We’ll start with right side shooting and left side rebounding. Feed the balls back to Lana. Don’t collide under the basket. This isn’t blocking practice,” Dennis called.
As he fed basketballs to the shooters, the rebounders fed them back to Lana. Ardith stood in the foul circle and observed, making notes about each player. When everyone had shot a couple of times from each side, she had Dennis switch them to dribbling practice. Finally, they went back to free throw shooting. In an hour, everyone was dripping sweat and ready for a shower.
The other thing Dennis forgot was that since they were out of practice by 4:15, they’d decided to video a workout session at Tori’s farm. He met Olivia, her boyfriend Jayden, and the cheerleaders, and they headed out to the farm. Jayden, who was the assistant manager of the JV team, had agreed to help Olivia with the recording. Of course, the girlfriends were all out to help as well.
“You know, this is really hard after the workout you put us all through this afternoon,” Fred complained.
“And we need to go into town and get another set of workout clothes,” Claudia said. “We definitely can’t wear what we were wearing for the after-school session when we tape right after. It’s all pitted out. Are we going to tape another long session?”
“No,” Dennis said. “My objective this week is to get half a dozen fifteen-minute routines in the can. These will be the basic intro routines for people just getting started. I want to have a different form for each of the levels a person might go through. They’ll differ by length and intensity.”
In just forty-five minutes, they managed to get a fifteen-minute routine recorded. They stopped to watch the replay on Olivia’s computer and commented about what they needed to do to improve the quality.
“Definitely need background drapes,” Rae said. “Although, I think having a progression that shows how you are moving from an equipment shed to a studio will be good and add credibility to your work as truly being self-started.”
“That’s a good idea,” Dennis said.
“We’re going to need showers after each session. If we do two in a day, we’ll need to shower and change clothes between,” Roz said.
“We’ve got that covered,” Tori laughed. “We have a changing stall and a shower stall.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We often come out here after a hot and sweaty time in the field or playing. We just strip and leave our clothes in this stall and shower in this one.”
“All together?” Sara asked.
“Um… Yeah,” Debbie said. “It kind of works better that way because it’s a handheld shower and you need someone to point it.”
“But with Fred? And Dennis?” Sara said speculatively.
“Well, it’s up to you all. I’ll gladly take Dennis in the house and clean him up myself,” Tori said. “And Fred—well, he’s one of the girls, right?”
“Honey, I would still hold the water for you,” Fred drawled with a swish.
They all got a laugh out of that and Sara gave him a kiss on the cheek, like she would do with any of the girls.
“You’re so sweet. Olivia, how’s the sound? I keep thinking it sounds kind of hollow when we’re doing the routine.”
“You’re right,” Olivia answered. “I’m going to look into getting a mike on Dennis. If we can find some music I can use, that will go a long way toward filling the hollowness.”
The group broke up and headed to their homes, promising to see each other on Thursday. They chose not to shower in the barn that night.
Thursday afternoon, the conditioning exercises were just as strenuous as they’d been on Wednesday and a few players were second guessing whether they should stick it out with the sport. They all followed through, though, and the coaches rewarded them with their first scrimmages. Dennis called the students who weren’t on any teams together to give them some encouragement.
“You all don’t need to feel obligated to do the full hour that we put the teams through,” he said to the couple dozen who were there just to get fit. “We’re being extra hard on them to get them in the right head space for practice. But you’re here for a different reason. I’m not trying to kill you.”
“I wouldn’t mind much, except that I can’t keep up,” Ray Dietz said. Dennis knew Ray as the grandson of Wilmer Dietz who had made him a good deal on his car. He wanted the freshman boy to stick with it.
“You really don’t have to keep up this week. Well, I guess the week is over since there’s no school tomorrow. Next week, I’m going to split the group and you’ll get your own group of cheerleaders to lead you on a workout that is just a little less fast-paced. And as practice progresses over the next two weeks, you’ll see the conditioning exercises getting shorter for the teams so they can spend more time practicing skills and plays. Before long, you’ll be doing harder workouts than the teams are.”
“Is that supposed to be encouraging?” Darrel King asked.
“You are one person I’m not worried about being able to keep up, man. You toughed it out through the whole cross country season and made some good strides. Hopefully, the inside air will be a little easier on your lungs,” Dennis told the asthmatic runner. “What I really want to say is, don’t get discouraged. In a lot of ways, you folks are all more important to me than the team members. They’re here so they will perform better in their sport and get more fans cheering for them. You’re here to improve your own health and fitness, and I think that’s a far better motive.”
“Thanks, Dennis,” Becky Davis said. “I’m sure not all our motives are as pure as you make them sound, but it’s encouraging, nonetheless.”
The group headed for their showers and Dennis quickly went to join the Angelines for their skills drills.
“Hey, Dennis,” a voice called for his attention just as he was emerging from the coaches’ locker room after practice. He spotted the speaker and tensed up. Si Goodman hadn’t made any threatening gestures toward Dennis since their truce a year ago, but he was the last of the JV team that assaulted him who was still playing ball. Dennis just didn’t feel comfortable around him.
“Yeah, Si. What’s up?” He tried to sound as casual as possible.
“So, you’re still managing the Angelines?”
“Yeah.”
“My sister’s on the team and can’t stop talking about it.”
“Janice is a natural athlete. She’s going to do well.”
“Look. I’ve heard about what you do with the girls in the locker room. I just want you to know that if you touch my sister, I’ll kill you,” Si said.
“Gosh, Si. Are you afraid she’ll do something you’d do?” Dennis held his ground in front of the bigger basketball player. Si had bulked up during football season and was not only a couple of inches taller than Dennis, but outweighed him by at least thirty pounds. Still, both boys knew that an open confrontation between the two now would end with injuries—and they wouldn’t all be to Dennis.
“Just stay away from her.”
“Just stay away from me.” Dennis turned his back on Si and headed toward Ardith’s office to check in before leaving for the weekend.
“Come on, you guys. You all know the routine. Let’s do it and get it right for a change,” Dennis growled at the cheerleaders backing him up for the video.
“Geez, Dennis. Lighten up. The way you’re barking out the commands today, nobody’s going to follow this video anyway,” Claudia said. Dennis turned to snap at her, but Natalie intercepted him.
“Come with me, lover,” she whispered. “Let me help you.” He followed her into the stall that was designated now as the changing room.
“I don’t need sex right now, Natalie,” he hissed.
“Believe me, I’m not offering,” she shot back. “What’s wrong, baby? Something’s eating you and it’s affecting your workout and the way you’re reacting to your team. This is your team, Coach. They depend on you.”
“Shit!” he spat. “I know. I’m being an ass. Maybe we should cancel the rest of today’s shoot. It’s me that’s messing it up.”
“What is it?”
“Si Goodman. He threatened me after practice if I touched his sister. Janice is a great girl, but neither one of us has any interest in the other. He just figures that since all the players last year were my girlfriends, I expect all the girls this year to be, as well. And if he so much as touches me, I’m gonna to go apeshit on him.”
“Easy, honey. If he touched you, we’d all go apeshit on him. In fact, we might anyway. He’s one of them, isn’t he? That hurt you?” Natalie asked.
“Yeah. I just can’t help but cringe every time he walks by.”
“Take a deep breath and go tell your team you’re sorry. Shh. I know it’s hard, but if you can’t convince them, they won’t be your team. Right now, you’ve got eight girls and two boys out there who think you walk on water. And think about the eleven of us who are just here because you are and we want to be near you. Lead us. We just want to be with you. We’ll take care of the other matter afterward. Can you do that? For me, honey? For us?” Natalie said, kissing him.
“Yeah. Thanks, Nat. I should have talked to someone before I ever came out here. I’d better go see if I can make it better.”
Dennis went out to face his team.
“Hey, guys. I’m sorry I’ve been so pissy this afternoon. It’s really all my fault. I had something happen at school that set me on edge and I didn’t mean to take it out on all of you. Do you think maybe we should stop and try this tomorrow? I don’t want to spoil things with you. Especially since this is the first recording four of you are here for,” he said to the group.
“We should have known something wasn’t right,” Sara said. “Sorry we weren’t better at our moves.”
“Well, you know the first rule of cheerleading, right?” Fred said. “Smile! If you can’t smile today, maybe tomorrow will be better.” His response was greeted with a mix of groans and laughter.
“Maybe we should work that into a routine,” Rae suggested. “We tell people to smile all the time during our conditioning exercises. But during the taping, none of us says anything except Dennis. We imagine a group in front of us working out and encourage them to have fun and smile.”
“You know, that’s a good idea,” Dennis said. “Somehow the recordings have missed that element that we’ve developed with the live sessions. Kind of that snap we started getting during cross country training.”
“Maybe we could split and half of us be beside you leading while the other half are in front of you following,” Donna suggested. She’d created some of the routines in the first place, even though she had only joined the video team that day.
“Some of your girlfriends might even be persuaded to join in if needed,” Tori called from the side.
“If we can move,” Debbie said. “We’re either going to be the most fit athletes in the school or we’ll be dead.”
“Okay. Let’s think about how we can liven this up tomorrow and keep each other’s smile on,” Dennis said. “Really, I can’t even imagine doing this without the support of all of you. Thank you for being part of the team.”
Everyone gathered their things together and rushed to give each other hugs all the way around. There were a couple of unexpectedly tight hugs from girls that he tried not to read anything into. Dennis even got hugged by both Fred and Doc. He really liked Rae. And Sara. And Roz. But he really didn’t want to even think about having another girlfriend. Just friends. That’s all he wanted.
“I hate him. I hate him. I hate him!” Dennis punctuated his words by slamming his fists into a bale of straw in Tori’s barn. The cheerleaders had left in a better mood after his apology, but as soon as they were gone his girlfriends all wanted the scoop on what happened. It just boiled over when he recited what Si Goodman had said and how he responded.
“I hate him, too!” Lana screamed, punching the straw as vigorously as Dennis. Then she turned to her boyfriend and collapsed in his arms as they sobbed together. The whole event had shown how fragile the scabs that covered their mental wounds were. If it happened to one, it happened to both.
The girlfriends pulled the two into the changing stall and onto a bed of straw and sleeping bags so they could all hold each other. Roberta and Daniella pulled Tori and Debbie aside to quietly tell them what had happened to both Dennis and Lana. They were horrified. Neither had been part of the team when the revelations had come about the past winter and early spring. Both were ready to go find Si Goodman—and last year’s cheerleaders—and teach them a lesson.
“You’re so angry and frustrated,” Amy said. “Will sex help? I’m willing.”
“No!” Dennis declared hotly. “I’m not having angry sex with any of my girlfriends. I’m not angry at you and I won’t take my anger out on you. I’ll cool down. I think I need to go for a run. I just had things bottled up for too long. I’ll be okay.”
“We know you’ll be okay, Dennis,” Natalie said. “You’re good and kind and love us so much. We just want to be here for you. If we can share your burden, we want to help in any way we can.”
“Share the pain,” Diane declared. “Dennis, when you hurt… Lana, when you hurt… we all hurt with you. We’ll all do whatever you need.”
“You guys are so good to me,” Lana whimpered. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Dennis said. “We’ll get through it. It’s just a reminder. Like that stupid thing with the handcuffs. I shouldn’t let it bother me so much. It’s over and past.” His stomach growled.
“Um… Maybe we should get some food,” Tori suggested. “Not that we can eat our problems away, but it’s been a long time since lunch and we’ve all worked out hard.”
“Where are we going for food?” Leanne asked.
“My house,” Lana said, looking at her phone. “Fru Elsa says she has enough food for all of us.”
“Oh, that’s so nice,” Daniella said. “I was afraid we were going to have pizza again. I like pizza, but I think I put on five pounds during volleyball season.”
They loaded in cars and headed for Lana’s house. She rode shotgun in Dennis’s car and kept a hand touching his leg.
“I’m sorry I brought that all up and let it overflow on you, honey,” Dennis said to her. “I know every reminder is as hard on you as it is on me.”
“It felt… better this time. I was sharing it with you. I’m feeling less like a victim these days. Oh, I’d still be happy to cut the tits off those three cheerleaders, but I don’t even know for sure which boys stuck their dicks in my mouth. Next one who does though, is going to pull back a bloody stump when I spit the remains of his dick out on the ground.”
“Ow! That just made my cock shrivel up inside of me,” Dennis laughed.
“Don’t worry, honey. Your dick is safe from me. One day you can stick it in my pussy. Maybe I’ll get brave like Amy and you can stick it in my butt. You just can’t stick it in my mouth,” Lana said.
“Sweetie, I will never try and never ask. No matter what we do, I’d like your lips on my lips. The only thing I want in your mouth is my tongue,” Dennis said.
“Mmm. I think my lips just got slick.” He glanced over at her. “The other ones,” she giggled. He groaned.
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