Team Manager COACH!
Chapter 36
TUESDAY WAS A JUBILANT day for the Angelines. All afternoon classes were five minutes short so they could have an afternoon pep rally for the Angelines. The girls ran onto the court in their warmups, and in an amazing show, Amy, Judith, and Diane lobbed the ball toward the basket one after the other. One after the other, Daniella, Roberta, and Natalie slam dunked the lobs. They were all right on target and the student body went wild cheering them.
When the cheerleaders got in front of the students, the cheering got organized, as the Angelines all did layups under Lana’s and Dennis’s guidance. Eventually, Principal Morris managed to get their attention and introduced the team, managers, and coaches. The team had to be cut to fifteen who would play in the regional tournament. That meant three girls were dressed and joined Lana as team managers, while Dennis joined Ardith as her Student Assistant Coach. No one was particularly surprised when Karen, Jaydyn, and Shelby were named as team managers.
“We want to take this opportunity to make a very special announcement,” Principal Morris said as she called the students to calm down. “Daniella and Roberta, please join me.” The girls came to stand on either side of the principal. “Last season, there was a lot of chaos surrounding our sports seasons, our school administration, and the rush to celebrate the Angelines’ 3A State Championship. So many of you are probably unaware that these two young women were voted to the 3A All-State team as forwards. Yesterday, I met with Roberta and Daniella Armor and State University head coach Kristin Kemble as these two signed letters of intent to continue their basketball careers at State University. They’ll be joining older sisters Zoe and Eva on the team next fall. Congratulations, Roberta and Daniella!”
The cheering was loud and long as the twins hugged Coach Graves and waved to the students.
Of course, when the assembly was over, the team had to wait for the game at 6:00. Dennis greeted the Bulldogs team when they arrived and directed them to their guest locker room. For the tournament, the visiting team used the junior high locker room with the home team in their familiar surroundings. And the Angelines were familiar. The student body didn’t realize during the pep rally that most of the girls wore nothing under their warmups. So, while Dennis and Lana taped up ankles, all the girls were running around in various stages of undress.
“We don’t want to get our uniforms and warmups all wrinkled and sweaty before game time,” Judith explained lamely. Dennis looked up at her bare boobs and estimated they might have grown a little more this year. She was never going to be as big as her sister, but that rack sat proudly on her chest as she leaned back on the bench.
“We don’t either,” Rae said, as she took Judith’s place on the bench. She, too, was topless and wore a tiny scrap of transparent fabric over her pussy. The Team B cheerleaders were on for the first game of the tournament. Rae pretended not to pay any attention to Dennis as she absently played with her nipples and occasionally stroked her pussy through the thin panties. Natalie scooted up behind Rae and reached around her to play with her breasts. Rae gasped and then settled back against Natalie’s bare chest.
“Are you auditioning?” Natalie whispered in Rae’s ears.
“Um… Not exactly. Oh, that feels good,” Rae panted. “But I wouldn’t mind cheering from the sidelines.”
“Hmm. We’ll see. If you keep flashing your pussy at him, though, Dennis might think it’s an invitation.”
“I wouldn’t, like, scream or anything. But he wouldn’t really, would he?”
“I doubt it, but you need to know you’re playing with fire and Dennis has a very long match.”
“Oh, God.” Rae stiffened up as Dennis finished her tape and ran his fingers up the inside of her legs about half way up her thighs. Natalie thought she might have come. She jumped up and ran to her locker to begin putting on her own uniform.
“Please don’t recruit anyone else,” Dennis whispered to Natalie as he taped her ankles.
“Baby, you are a recruiting poster just sitting here. I don’t think any of the new girls want to become your girlfriend, but several would like to try you on for size,” Natalie said. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect you. Even if I have to do her myself.” They giggled and then the room started getting serious as they focused on getting ready for the game.
At five-thirty they hit the floor for warmups and were obviously a little tense. Last year they had come from nowhere with only eleven games behind them, and won the regional and state tournaments. This season, they were twenty and one and every team was out to beat them.
When the teams were introduced and stood to face the flag, the announcer surprised them all.
“Please stand and join in the singing of our National Anthem, led by local singer Margaret Enders.” Peg’s clear voice rang out in the gymnasium as people joined in singing the anthem. Then it was time to play ball.
In their previous meeting this season, the Angelines had rolled over the Bulldogs from the opening buzzer. The Bulldogs were at this tournament to show how much they’d improved. At the end of the first quarter, the Angelines led by just one point, 10-9. In the second quarter, it looked like the Angelines found the clutch and shifted into high gear. They outscored the Bulldogs by nineteen and ended the half leading 32-12.
True to her word, Ardith made sure every girl on the team got playing time, but they still outpaced the Bulldogs for a 62-28 victory. Forty-three of their points came from the deadly combination of the Armor sisters.
Dennis and Lana removed tape in the locker room and collected everyone’s uniforms and game underwear in the laundry bags as the girls all stopped for a naked hug and kiss. He was surprised to find Jaydyn, Karen, and Shelby naked in line for kisses, too.
“We’re still on the team,” Jaydyn said brightly. “This is like lettering!” Dennis just laughed and made sure he gave each of them a nice squeeze when they kissed.
“Are you doing okay, honey?” Dennis asked as he drove Lana home after the game.
“Everything’s changed,” she sighed.
“What? What’s changed?”
“I turned sixteen and now you’re seventeen. It’s all different.”
“I don’t understand, sweetheart. Tell me what’s different,” he said. Usually, he was pretty good at reading and understanding his girlfriends, he thought. But he was drawing a complete blank now.
“When I was fourteen and started with those awful cheerleaders, I kept telling myself I could get them to delay making me give up my cherry by telling them I’d promised I wouldn’t do it until I was sixteen. That seemed to get me past the danger point of basketball season and next year would be another year,” Lana said as Dennis pulled to a stop between her house and the barn. It was in a less direct line of sight from the living room, so unless her mom was looking out the kitchen window, they were mostly unobserved.
“I’m glad we put an end to that,” Dennis said fervently. “You don’t have to worry about anyone forcing you to give up your virginity.”
“That’s just it. Even after I joined the Angelines and you were all so good to me, I kept congratulating myself and saying, ‘I’ll still be a virgin when I’m sixteen.’ Even this summer, when we… um… experimented a little in the field, I kept telling myself not to do anything else until I was sixteen. It seemed so far away. And now, all of a sudden, I’m sixteen. There’s no excuse for me not to make love to you. Our parents—none of them were still virgins by the time they were seventeen. Your mom had Peg when she was seventeen. My mom would have had me if she hadn’t had to go back to Sweden. And here I am: Sixteen and still a virgin with no earthly reason not to just give it up and make love to you.”
Before Dennis could answer, Lana was leaning over the console, kissing him fervently. Dennis’s hand was on her breast, though holding it through her winter coat didn’t have quite the same charge as holding it naked in his hands. Naked. Lana was pulling at her coat and clothes. Dennis pulled back.
“Wait. Wait a minute. Honey, wait.”
“What? I’m sixteen. I’m ready. Like Natalie was.”
“Honey, our age isn’t a magic number that says we have to do something because that’s how old we are,” Dennis sighed. “And I’d never do something like that with you in the back seat of the car. Honey, you are special to me and I’d want our first time to be as special as you are.”
“But I should do this!”
“Lana, that tells me more than anything that you aren’t really ready. When we make love—and believe me, I am going to love making love to you—it won’t be something you do because you should. It will be what we do because we’re so deeply in love and have taken such good care of each other that we just naturally find ourselves making love. And it will be as special as our relationship is.”
“Really? You really won’t get tired of waiting for me? You won’t stop loving me because I won’t make love?”
“My sweet, sweet girlfriend, my love for you goes way beyond anything we can do together to consummate it. I love you and I will never stop.”
“Can we just kiss and make out some more then?” she asked. What could he say?
Wednesday and Thursday were early-out days for parent-teacher conferences, so Dennis had to be in his Bartley fourth period class at 9:30 and couldn’t go to Boone. As it happened, both Bartley and DMACC had no classes on Friday and Dennis didn’t need to go to Boone for the rest of the week.
There was another pep rally on Thursday afternoon as the Angelines would play the Warriors in the regional semifinals on Friday night, but the Wolverines would also be playing the Bulldogs in the boys’ quarterfinal after the girls’ game. Principal Morris made a big deal out of the Wolverines 14-7 first winning season in over twenty years. The Angelines, of course, were now 21-1 and were headed into the regional semifinals against a team they’d not met in regular season play.
But Friday was a drag for everyone.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish there was school today,” Natalie said.
“Can’t even escape by going to DMACC,” Brenda agreed. “All we can do is wait for tonight and tomorrow.”
“Need help with the uniforms, Dennis?” Amy asked.
“They’re all done,” he sighed. “Is this some kind of holiday or something?”
“Um… It’s Gambia Independence Day. We should celebrate,” Daniella said, looking up from her phone.
“Cool. Where can we get a Gambian flag? What does it look like?” Roberta asked, getting into the search.
“Red, white, blue, and green,” Judith added. “Just simple stripes. Looks kind of cool. See?” She held out her phone to those who weren’t currently searching. “Oh, and it’s not just Gambia. It’s the Gambia. Technically, the Republic of the Gambia. The smallest country in Africa.”
“Sounds like someone’s Twitter handle,” Amy said. “We have the Gambia, but tomorrow someone will have an account called The Real Gambia.”
“Our teachers should be happy we learned something on our day off,” Lana said, yawning. She curled up in a corner of the sofa and went back to sleep.
“According to my mother, the teacher contract with the district provides thirteen professional development days per school year. We have the day off, but teachers don’t,” Diane said. Her mother was on the school board and Diane was reading a text from her.
“So, that means there’s nothing to do but fuck, right?” Tori asked.
“No exhausted players before the game,” Dennis said.
“You could do all the work. I’d just lay there and shout out my joy!” Tori said.
“Why don’t we have lunch and go out to your place just to shoot around a little.”
“Sure. That sounds good. But just shooting and not scrimmaging.”
They made sandwiches and ate, then headed to Tori’s barn.
The time finally came to go to school to get ready for the game. They might have been a little early, but 3:00 sounded reasonable for the crew. The rest of the Angelines felt similar and all showed up before 3:30. Apparently, the Warriors felt early was better than late and they showed up to stretch and get ready at 4:00.
“We could just go meet them in the gym now and have it over,” Natalie said.
“Let’s not deprive our fans,” Judith reminded her. “Look! Dennis ironed our underwear again!”
Brenda had played the previous night and didn’t have another game until Wednesday, so she’d joined the team in the locker room as if she was still an Angeline. She’d done well the night before with no sign of her injury, but the Bears had lost anyway. She helped tape up the players and cheerleaders.
Both cheerleader teams would work for the games. The Angelines played the first game and Team A cheerleaders were dressing for that. After their game, the Wolverines would face the Bulldogs and Team B would cheer for them. It all worked out so that both cheer squads got equal time.
“Is Peg singing the anthem again tonight?” Amy asked. “That was so sweet Monday.”
“No. We talked about it,” Dennis said. “She said singing the flag hymn was okay, but it wasn’t like singing to Jesus. I suggested that Jesus would enjoy anything she sang, but her theology is focused on church music. I think that’s okay. I’m not going to try to reason with her about other music. She should just sing what’s in her heart.”
The anthem was led by the school pep band and the game against the Warriors was on.
The Warriors were 15-7 for the season and came out strong. They played good clean ball and the Angelines led 14-13 at the end of the first quarter. It seemed the Warriors depended on one six-foot senior to drive the team and she was matched up against Daniella in the first quarter. In the second quarter, though, she seemed confused by having Natalie switch to cover her. Natalie was more aggressive on defense than her sister and forced several turn-overs, including blocking a shot by the Warrior and stealing the ball. Meanwhile, Daniella was freed up on the outside and sank three three-pointers. They ended the half in a more commanding lead at 30-17.
The Warriors weren’t through. They came into the third quarter with renewed drive and outscored the Angelines in both the third and fourth quarters. They were unable, however, to overcome the severe deficit they racked up in the second quarter and the Angelines won the semifinal, 52-43.
“You guys were awesome,” the senior said as she shook hands with the team after the game. She leaned in close to Natalie. “You need to really get the rest of those girls on your team performing. There were two seniors on our team last year who were as awesome as your sisters. The three of us outscored nearly every other team we played. But they graduated. I love my teammates, but I don’t have anyone to depend on like the girls I lost. I hate to think you’ll have no team that can match your play next year. Good luck!”
The varsity boys faced a Bulldogs team that was out to avenge the loss dealt to their girls by the Angelines earlier in the week. The boys looked a whole lot better than they had the previous year, but their season came to an end with a 50-60 loss. The Angelines had all stayed to cheer for them, right to the bitter end, but it was to no avail.
A rare oversight, however, caused both the Bulldogs and the Wolverines to turn away from each other and go to their locker rooms without a handshake line. No one really noticed.
The party was at Debbie’s house. Lon and Ruth had agreed to host the crew in their family room. Dennis checked to be sure there was no keg of beer or other alcohol waiting for them. He’d had a bad experience in the spring. But Debbie had not had a party since that night and she was as much a part of the crew now as anyone.
The first party Dennis had attended was at Debbie’s house several months before at the beginning of track season. He’d participated in his first-ever embarrassing game of Truth or Dare. They’d all come a long way in their relationship since then. He didn’t think anyone would ask him how long his cock was again. They’d all seen it.
“Dennis, you need to keep basketball practice going in the off season,” Natalie said. “That girl on the Warriors team said she had two strong players last year and the three of them pretty much outscored every opponent.”
“Sounds familiar,” Tori said.
“Well, here’s the thing,” Natalie continued. “Tonight, Daniella was high scorer for our team with fifteen points. The girl we all had trouble guarding had fifteen points, too. The difference was that I had fourteen and Roberta had ten. The second and third highest scorers for the Warriors had seven and five. I feel terrible that we may have held some of the rest of you back this season and you didn’t get enough experience in to succeed next year. We need to work all year round so we have enough strength developed to have a good year next year as well.”
“Oh, don’t feel bad,” Amy said. “We’re all cheering for Roberta and Daniella at State and Brenda at DMACC. It’s going to be hardest when we don’t have any of the three of you or Dennis either. Or Tori or Leanne or Diane or Debbie. We’ll be fine next year.”
“I agree,” Dennis said. “Here’s the thing. Everyone on our team works just as hard as everyone else, whether they’re playing or not. When we split up to scrimmage, we end up with well-balanced teams who can both take it to the other. I also agree that we need to work year-round to stay sharp. That might be harder to do when there’s track and volleyball and cross country…”
“And softball,” Tori chimed in. Coach Janet had announced that she’d be coaching a girls’ softball team during the summer while the boys were playing baseball. The meadow behind the school had already been staked out for the creation of a softball diamond. The school grounds looked like a patchwork with the new fieldhouse construction having begun.
“And softball,” Dennis nodded. “But I’ll make sure all our conditioning exercises are as good for basketball as for the other sports, and whenever we can, we’ll use Tori’s barn for practice.”
The crew practiced seriously, both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Dennis drilled plays and made them work on ball control rather than scrimmaging. They all stayed out at the barn Saturday night, but there was little sex going on. Everyone had become focused on the regional final coming up on Wednesday. Everyone was home in his or her own bed Sunday night and ready to get to school on Monday. Dennis and Brenda would be in Boone, but the rest of the crew was looking forward to celebrating at school.
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