Team Manager CHAMP!
Chapter 7
TUESDAY MORNING, Dennis arrived in the coaches’ new offices in the AgCentral Athletic Pavilion. Neil pointed him to a desk near the front of the office. The coaches all had cubicles in the new building with both a private conference room and a large conference room that could hold a team meeting. Of course, the coaches all had to teach classes, so it was uncommon to have the office full. In fact, Dennis was alone in the office for the first period and focused on getting his reading assignments from the previous day completed. Second period, Coach Lyle joined him for weightlifting in the new fitness room. Dennis had been lifting regularly since school began and maintained his records for his instructor at DMACC. Lyle signed off on the records each day.
Third period, Ardith was in the office and the two went over the plans for tryouts in the afternoon. Dennis had late lunch this year at 12:20. Only Natalie and Lana shared that lunch schedule.
“What’s got you down, honey?” Lana asked as she slid in beside him. “I’d think you’d be all sunny after spending the night with Tori. She was so turned on, I think she was dripping when you left yesterday.”
“I wish I’d been there to catch the drips,” Natalie said. “What’s up?”
“Tori’s planning to leave us,” Dennis said without any other preamble.
“Not soon, is she?” Natalie said. “I mean, you didn’t break up with her already, did you?”
“No. Not exactly. She said her cousins were going to visit over the holiday and she wanted to be free to enjoy them. But then she said she wanted to return to us after the holiday. I told her that wasn’t my decision and everyone would need to agree, just like we did on new girlfriends joining us. It makes me uncomfortable,” Dennis said.
“Yeah,” Lana agreed. “It’s like she wants permission to cheat on us and then go back to the way things were as if nothing changed.”
“I know she really wants to have a single relationship with a guy—and maybe a girl on the side. She just doesn’t want to share a guy with a bunch of other girls,” Natalie said.
“I understand that,” Dennis agreed. “I don’t understand how any of you can agree to share a guy. It doesn’t make sense.”
“We love each other too much to try to take you away from the others,” Lana said. “I admit, I’m looking forward to the day when there are fewer of us, just because it seems more manageable. But I’m not one who is letting go.”
“Me either, sister,” Natalie confirmed. “We should talk to the others and see how they feel. Maybe they figure it’s no big deal.”
“I can name five for whom it’s a big deal,” Lana said. “You, me, Amy, and Brenda. And Dennis. That’s half of us.”
“It’s two thirds of my lovers,” Dennis said. “Tori will go the other way and who knows what Judith will do?”
“She’s been getting wilder all the time,” Natalie agreed. “She might see Tori going and coming as permission for her to do something crazy.”
“I know this is a sensitive issue, but safe sex is important. If Tori plays around with someone outside our circle and maybe Judith decides to do the same thing, we’re all at risk.” He looked at Lana, with whom he had never used a condom.
“Let’s just make sure that Lana is the only one you have sex without a condom,” Natalie said. “And if there is a suspicion of an outsider with someone, I’m for limiting contact with my… um… other girlfriends to fingers only. I say others, because I can’t give up loving Lana and Amy and Brenda. I won’t give it up.”
The three agreed. Dennis had one more prep period and then walked with Neil to their statistics class.
Dennis and the cheerleaders put everyone who showed up for the session through a brutal workout, leaving everyone sweating and exhausted.
“One time with everyone in the gym for this kind of workout is fine,” Dennis said as he walked through the tunnel from the old gym to the new building with Sara. “But we have too wide a range of ages and abilities and sports to keep everyone together for the same level. I think we need to evaluate everyone and split them up into at least two and maybe three groups.”
“I agree. Even some of the younger cheerleaders were having problems today,” Sara said.
“Do you think we could split off the junior high and freshmen with the adults who aren’t athletes and have part of the cheerleaders go with them while the rest work with me and with the varsity and athletes?” Dennis asked.
“We need to make sure that people understand where to go and what we’re doing,” Sara said. “Do you think we could have the team managers help organize them?”
“Sounds good. I’ll get with them and assign jobs. They had about all they could handle today collecting the medical releases and parental permission slips. It was kind of chaotic. There will be more coming in tomorrow,” Dennis agreed. He had to rush to the gym to get things started for tryouts.
Lyle already had the potential wrestlers moving toward the weight room. He promised to put them all through the same evaluation cycle the basketball players got. Team managers were organizing themselves for instructions from the coaches with four weigh stations and new measuring equipment for the standing high jump, medicine ball push, and balance exercises. Dennis joined Ardith, Renée, and Pat.
“Okay, I’d like Debbie to work with Pat and Lana to work with Renée on the measurements. Height, weight, bust, waist, hips, inseam. We’ll let you have all the seventh through ninth graders while Dennis and I work with the tenth through twelfth graders on jump, strength, and speed.”
“Coach, we have a lot of body shapes out there this year,” Dennis said. “Some of our uniforms, like warmups and tear-aways, will need shoulder width and sleeve length, too.”
“Right. That’s on the form, isn’t it?” Ardith asked.
“Yes, ma’am. As well as equipment preferences and jersey numbers.”
“Okay. Lana, Debbie? Any questions?”
“No, Coach,” Lana answered. “I think we’ve got it.”
“Guide your coaches through it,” Ardith laughed, nodding to Pat and Renée.
“Tenth through Twelfth grade women, follow Coach Dennis. Seventh through ninth grade, follow Coach Renée,” Ardith called after she blew her whistle. “Do not assume this is your permanent place on the team! Every position is yours to be won. This is our starting point.”
“Seventh through ninth grade women, when you select your uniform number preference, remember that when you make varsity another player might already have that number. If they do, you’ll get a different number when you’re called up. This is most important to freshmen and eighth graders who should take a look at our existing roster of juniors and seniors,” Dennis called over his shoulder.
Everyone got to work measuring, jumping, lifting, and eventually running. The same was happening on the boys’ end of the gym where Dee Braxton was efficiently calling out measurements to Jill Matthews, her team manager. The guys were all sufficiently embarrassed to have their inseam taken by the attractive biology teacher. And to have the pretty freshman Jill writing them down.
On the other side of the boys’ court, the older guys were just as embarrassed to have Assistant Principal Jacobs taking their measurements and sophomore Trevor Miller writing them down. That’s the breaks.
Dennis was scrambling during the basketball drills. He worked first with the Angelines—both the JV and Varsity together—and then ran over to Coach Neil’s side to drill the Wolverines, JV and Varsity together.
“Listen up!” Coach Neil called to the boys’ teams. It was a wide range of ages, comprising the junior high and high school boys on three teams. “You need to focus on your ball handling. Coach Dennis is going to start dribbling and ball handling drills for all five teams at the same time next week. That’s after he’s worked you to a dropping point with fitness and conditioning exercises. If you can’t follow what he’s doing and focus on what he’s teaching you, you can’t be on this team. Do you understand that? You. Can’t. Be. On. This. Team. There isn’t a one of you on the court who can out-dribble our trainer. But I’m looking forward to you trying. Learn the skills. The dude’s teaching at DMACC and knows what he’s talking about.”
It was the first most had heard of Dennis’s involvement with the Bears—even though he was only doing clinics a couple of times a month. Some of the younger guys had grumbled about why the guy in goggles was trying to teach them ball handling. Dennis still wore his protective glasses on the court, though the glasses he’d gotten for fall sports were less like the goggles he’d worn the first year after he got his eyes done. Some of the older players pulled the younger guys aside and set them straight, but Coach Neil was not letting the point slide.
Dennis returned to his Angelines in time to help with a shooting drill.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to look at pairing things up. Most of you have worked together before, but we’ve got a few new faces and I don’t know yet where you fit. I will tell you that if you want to play ball, you’ve come to the right place. But we are going to work you unmercifully hard. I want to know how the new height some of you have is affecting your balance and performance. Diane, I’ve always known you were going to keep going up. Two inches since last season. That’s remarkable!” Ardith said, looking at her chart. “Karen, up four inches! Bobbie, up three inches! And what I’m seeing so far is that you are jumping proportionally higher, too. Now, when you come in for practice tomorrow—yes, I said ‘practice’—you’ll go to the new locker rooms here in the pavilion. Lana, Debbie, Noah will have your locker assignments and padlocks as you enter. And hey! Isn’t it nice to have another boy as a team manager for our JV teams? Welcome aboard, Noah. If any of you know another available team manager, Noah is going to need some help. I’d prefer a freshman girl, but it’s an equal opportunity situation. Coach Renée and Coach Pat aren’t going to be sending Noah into the locker room, though. You girls should put your heads together and get another girl in here to help him.”
“Coach said to arrive for practice tomorrow,” Dennis said when Ardith turned to him. “We don’t plan to cut anyone who really wants to play. But you’ll need to get with the program quickly. When we walk on the court, what do we do?”
“Win!” shouted the older girls. Some of the girls who had been in camp also joined in and figured out what the responses were supposed to be.
“How do we win?”
“Run, run, run!”
“Who are we?”
“Angelines!”
“Hit the showers and be ready to work hard tomorrow.”
“Coach, I want to check something with you,” Dennis said in the coaches’ locker room as the men showered.
“What’s up?” Neil said.
“I’ve talked to the cheerleaders and we believe we should split the conditioning exercises. We worked everyone to the max today, but I don’t think we should work the younger players like that every day. I could see a lot of them getting discouraged because they couldn’t keep up,” Dennis said.
“You’ve got a good point. How are we going to do it?”
“I’ll have my top cheerleaders accompany the freshman cheerleaders to the old gym and have them meet the seventh through ninth graders and the adults who come in there. We’ll also let the students who aren’t playing sports choose whether they want to work there or here in the new gym with the varsity players. I’ll have the varsity along with about half the cheerleaders with me to work on conditioning before we split up for skills practice.”
“Works for me. Lyle?” Neil said.
“We’ll stick with you up to the skills section,” Lyle said. “Then I’ll move the wrestlers up to the wrestling room. I didn’t expect to have girls on my team! It’s nice to have that Thoms, though. He… She… uh… they really know how to keep things organized.”
“They learned a lot last year,” Dennis said. “I’m glad they’re with you to keep things organized.”
“It will take me a little getting used to in order to use the right pronouns. Lydia and Josie are all over it with me,” Lyle laughed.
“Oh, geez!” Andy said as he and the other men jumped back from the showers. “Don’t tell me we’re going to have hot water problems in the locker rooms. We don’t even have the teams showering here yet. What gives?”
“Damned if I know, but I didn’t step in here for a cold shower,” Neil said. The guys all left the showers and got ready to leave for home. Neil promised he’d be calling the custodian yet that evening.
There was quite an uproar when the athletes were met the next afternoon and told they would have to keep using the old locker rooms a while longer because there was too limited a supply of hot water for showers. The new groundskeeper, Eric Sandler, also had a background in plumbing and was still crawling around in the pipes to figure out what was wrong. The answer was technically, ‘nothing.’
“The water heaters are working at optimum,” Eric said when he met with Neil. “They just aren’t designed to handle that much demand. These are more like what you would find in a small apartment building that would handle four apartments. You wouldn’t expect everyone in all four apartments to try to use hot water at the same time and they’d work fine. But to expect them to handle five or ten or more hot showers at once is just more than they can handle.”
That got the school board involved because they needed to talk to AgCentral and AgCentral had to talk to their contractor. The contractor told them to talk to the architect and that was where the whole thing blew up.
Of course, it took a couple of weeks before it got that far.
“Well, it’s going to be a full slate again this year,” Ardith said. “Would someone tell me how we ended up with two new seniors?”
“Um… Chris and Jennifer have been friends for a long time,” Dennis said. “Chris’s boyfriend decided to try out for basketball and he looks good. She’s Jaydyn’s older sister. She said everyone else was playing basketball, so she figured she should, too. I think she talked Jennifer into it. Jen put on some weight this summer and Chris wants her to take it off before the… um… uh… before graduation.”
“That sounded like you were about to say something else. I won’t push,” Ardith laughed. “Eight new freshmen and ten junior high players. If we had enough personnel, we could split into three teams. We just don’t have enough coaches.” She looked straight at Dennis. “Don’t even think about it. That brings us to sixteen in tenth through twelfth grades. I need you!”
Dennis smiled. It made him feel good to hear Ardith say she needed him. And, he supposed it was true. He focused on training and skills, leaving Ardith able to focus on strategy and plays. They had a reputation for running and she planned to maintain that this year with a full court press from the opening tip. They planned to never let up the pressure. Run, run, run.
Any girls who thought they wouldn’t need to work to play were in for a surprise.
“Now, tomorrow morning, we’ll still hold the team meeting in the gym as planned. I want all the girls there to witness the signing. You do know, don’t you?” Ardith asked.
“Yes, ma’am. We’re all thrilled Diane has this opportunity,” Dennis said.
“Of all the girls on the team, she has changed the most. At 5'10" now, she’s a serious ball player. She didn’t lose any weight, but it is definitely redistributed. I want you to work with her on getting that extra inch she needs to dunk the ball,” Ardith instructed. “She’ll carry a definite advantage into college if she can do that.”
“I’m worried about Natalie delaying her signing. She has five offers and I know she gets a call at least once a week,” Dennis said.
“Don’t be concerned. Several small colleges make their moves to try and tie up a player early in the season or before the season starts. But the competition really begins as the season is winding down and they see how the players have held together through their senior year. Then the offers start including scholarships. I’ll do my best for you. Remember, I want you to stay close to home, too.”
“I will remember that. Thank you, Ardith.”
“So, the coach from Iowa Northwestern will be here by eight o’clock. Most people will arrive soon after that. Principal Morris will need to make the morning announcements before she joins us, but it will be close to 8:30. There will be a photographer and I think the County News will be sending a reporter. Diane has asked that both her coaches stand behind her when she signs.”
Dennis had a puzzled look on his face. He supposed she meant Coach Andy from cross country and track.
“That means you, Dennis,” Ardith said, bringing him back to earth. “You and I will stand behind her. Her parents will be on one side of her and the college coach and recruiter will be on the other side. The principal and school superintendent will be beside us.”
“I didn’t know there was so much formality to signing a letter of intent.”
“An early signing like this is intended to increase the college’s visibility and to attract other top level players. Natalie is one they’ll be trying to attract at the end of the season by showing her who she’ll be playing with.”
“Okay. I’ve got it.”
“Then we’ll have the team meeting. We were only given first period for the whole thing, so we’ll need to get through the welcome and team assignments as quickly as possible. Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be doing only conditioning. Hold it to an hour and get people out of here for the weekend. We’ll start practice in earnest on Monday.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“My car’s in the shop. Can you give me a lift home tonight?”
“You know I’m always happy to do that,” he smiled. Yes!
“Coach, would you like to come over for dinner tonight? Natalie’s over to cook. We’d love to have you come,” Dennis said when they got to her house. He’d been working himself up to asking her since she asked him to take her home. He didn’t know why he was so nervous. It was just a family dinner.
She paused with her foot out the door and looked at him. The hesitation was only momentary.
“That sounds great, Dennis. I want to change out of my sweats, though. Come on in while I get changed,” she said. Dennis went in to wait, his heart thudding in his chest.
Whatever he might have been hoping for, he simply sat on the couch in her living room with a Dr Pepper while Ardith went to her room to change clothes. It didn’t take long before she was out dressed in a pair of form-fitting slacks and a tight sweater. She wore black sneakers with the outfit and looked sensational.
“Wow!” Dennis breathed. “You look spectacular.”
“Oh, it’s not really special. I wear it to school on occasion. But… I didn’t want to show up with your mother and sister and Natalie looking at me like I’m a tomboy. Which I am, but I don’t always look like that.” She held out her hand for Dennis to take as he stood up from the couch and didn’t let go as she led him to the door. She stopped to turn out the overhead light and turned to face Dennis.
“Seriously, Dennis. Thank you for inviting me out tonight.” She leaned in and kissed him softly. It went a little longer than she intended, but she managed to pull away before it became passionate. She opened the door and they left.
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