Team Manager CHAMP!
Chapter 31
“OBJECTION,” Drake said during Dennis’s deposition. “My client is not on trial. He is a witness for the prosecution. It is irregular for the district attorney to ask such irrelevant questions. Dennis, you may answer if you deem fit.”
“We need to ascertain whether his presence in the building had anything to do with the presence of the accused,” the DA answered.
“I was studying late and fell asleep. I didn’t intend to stay that late,” Dennis said.
“Do you often study late in the coaches’ office?” Madeline asked.
“As a coach, I’m privileged to be in the office whenever the building is open. I usually study in the mornings but I got a little behind during basketball tournament time. I was trying to get caught up,” Dennis said calmly.
“And when you woke up and heard voices, you immediately called 9-1-1?”
“No ma’am. I called Sheriff Moran directly.”
“And why did you call a direct line instead of the emergency number?”
“I knew I wouldn’t have to waste time explaining who I was or why I was in the building.”
“Why?”
“Because the sheriff and I know each other and often talk.”
“I see. What were your actions immediately following the call?”
“Um… Either during or right after the call, I closed and locked the door to the coaches’ office and turned out the lights. Then I just crouched down by the wall until the um… accused broke the window.”
“Objection,” the defense attorney said. “It has not been established who broke the window and the witness has already testified that he did not see the faces of either party to be able to identify them.”
Dennis had already answered questions from the attorney for the defendants. It had been harrowing. The attorney had tried to emphasize that Dennis was illegally in the building and should be charged with trespassing, therefore making him an undependable witness. Then he basically accused Dennis of attacking the first guy who tried to unlock the door and causing grievous, life-threatening injury. Dennis was exhausted. It had been going on all morning.
There was a question regarding whether the vandals would ever be tried in Bartley County. They were still being held in Des Moines, as Federal authorities worked on mopping up the entire operation of Warner Affiliated Farms. The SEC had moved in to halt the operations of the group and commissioned AgCentral to dispose of all the livestock. They watched and reviewed that function, assuring that the livestock brought a fair market price, even though most of it went to AgCentral.
That wasn’t as much as one might think. Warner Affiliated Farms was a loose-knit organization of independently owned and operated farms, most of which were at arm’s length from the parent organization. They functioned on a contract basis to supply pork to the corporation. WAF was essentially a marketing arm and clearinghouse for the products and only operated the shipping center and slaughterhouse.
It was still a mystery as to why the executives of WAF—who had all been arrested—bore such animosity toward AgCentral that they would attempt to destroy the company through various acts of sabotage and discreditation. The faulty portions of the construction at both the athletic pavilion and the new factory farm near Bartley had been traced to a single county inspector who had also been arrested.
The District Attorney wasn’t happy about the case, mostly because of the Federal involvement, but reluctantly agreed that Dennis was her only witness to anything that occurred before the sheriff and state police arrived on the scene. She couldn’t really press any charges against him unless the school stepped up with an accusation, and she’d already found that school district was as closed to outsiders as possible.
Dennis made it back to school in time for conditioning and track practice, bemoaning having missed all his classes that day.
The last six weeks of school were as chaotic as the seniors had expected. They were running in track meets twice a week and rushing through final papers, exams, and preparations for graduation.
Dennis discovered that he needed one more class at DMACC in order to complete his Fitness Specialist Certificate, even though he would complete all the work for his AA in Exercise Science and Kinesiology in time to graduate from Bartley.
“It’s a small delay in receiving your diploma,” Ms. Duval said when the guidance counselor met with Dennis.
“But don’t I have all the credits I need to graduate?” he asked. He did not want to delay graduation. He was ever mindful of the law stating he could have no relationship with Ardith until thirty days after he graduated.
“You really don’t want to do that,” the counselor continued. “If you graduate before you take the course at DMACC, you’ll have to pay for it yourself. If you take the course and then we issue your diploma, the school district pays for the course.”
“How much does it cost?” Dennis asked through gritted teeth. He’d just recently deposited a check for $25,000 from AgCentral.
“It’s $174 per credit hour and this is a three-credit class. That’s…”
“$522,” Dennis said, looking at his phone calculator. “I’ll pay my own tuition for the last class so I can have my diploma on graduation day.”
“You are dead set to be finished with school. If you are sure that’s what you want, I’ll put through the necessary paperwork for graduation.”
“Exactly what is the date of when I am officially graduated?” Dennis asked. “Is it as of commencement? Or at the end of the school year? Or do I need to wait until I have my diploma in hand?”
“The date of graduation is the date on the diploma, which will be entered as May 15. Your DMACC associate’s degree will be entered as May 6. You are certainly intent on these dates!” Ms. Duval said, shaking her head.
“They’re important to me,” Dennis said. “Thank you for facilitating my request. I know it’s unusual, but I’ll pay for the last class at DMACC on my own.”
The counselor nodded to him, congratulated him, and watched as he headed out the door. She hesitated before entering the graduation date on his paperwork, almost overriding his decision, and listing the date as August 4 when the DMACC summer term would end. She shook her head. It was his money, she assumed. She entered May 15 on the application for graduation.
“Our world requires that good, decent, moral citizens stand up for what is right,” Madeline said in her speech at Salter.
The party candidates for Attorney General had been invited to speak at the convocation before the April primary. It was one of her last campaign stops before the vote. It happened to be on campus tour day for the four incoming students.
“Dr. William Salter, for whom this prestigious institution was named, came to Iowa to find a population that was unchurched and deep in sin. He set about organizing his life so he could reform the State and bring it to an understanding of morality and God. He set his sights first on slavery, finding he was able to praise Iowa as the only territory west of the Mississippi that was free and was significant in the underground railroad. His leadership in the church and in the community led to the establishment of numerous colleges and churches. It is a heritage of which we can be justly proud.
“But what would Dr. Salter think of the Iowa of today? Would he find it just as immoral as the noisy place he found in 1845? We have lost significant moral battles in this state because the attorney general has held his hand from supporting those who challenged the growing wave of immorality in the state. It is not too late to stem that tide. We have suffered setbacks in the preservation of marriage, in abortion laws, and here in Iowa there is a shocking trend of group marriages that are tolerated and even supported by the communities. We have gangs of teens pitting school against school as corporate aggregates fund battles on our turf. We have unprecedented waves of teen sex, many resulting in venereal disease or pregnancy. We may not be able to stem this tide with mere rhetoric. We must investigate and prosecute every fundamental infraction of the laws we still have and drive toward representation that will enact laws that support the fundamental values of family, decency, and moral behavior. That is the pledge I bring to you as your candidate and that I will drive as the next attorney general of this great state.”
Her speech received some applause, but was not overwhelming. It was always hard to bring a message of morality to students. They were too wrapped up in the life of freedom and loose living to take a message of morality seriously. Most of them should just get a job and learn what life was really about.
“I have no idea if her opponent is any better than she is,” Dennis said to his exercise class. He asked for two minutes to address what he’d heard at his campus visit. “I would never imagine that I should campaign for someone in a state election—even a primary. But she’s made it personal. She singled things out that are part of the open, loving, and caring character of Bartley, Iowa. I’m a new eighteen-year-old voter and I’ve faced her interrogations in deposition. I won’t stand idly by and let her turn the state against us here if I can help it. If you are a voter, I urge you to go to the polls in April and vote for someone else.”
He went directly from that little speech into his warmup routine and the cheerleaders upped the tempo, encouraging everyone to work a little harder, and leading chants of “Just say no—to Courtney!”
The sleepy town of Bartley became a hotbed of anti-Madeline Courtney voting in just the week before the election. Word of the sudden political interest in the little town of Bartley spread and a television station in Des Moines decided to run a human interest story on the uprising. They were pointed toward Dennis as the instigator.
“I’ve had to study the various roles of our branches of government here at Bartley High School,” he told an interviewer. “I find that it is the role and responsibility of the attorney general to fairly and justly prosecute breakers of state laws, and to protect the state and its people from infringement on the rights guaranteed by the constitution. In Ms. Courtney’s speech, I heard her promise to essentially use selective laws to bludgeon people into conformity with her particular morality. For some reason, she has chosen to target Bartley as an example of the behaviors she opposes. She made it personal and we won’t roll over for her.”
The human interest story hit on a slow news day, the day before the primary election. It was picked up by the network and eyes suddenly focused on the state attorney general party primary. The video of Dennis’s arrest in the hospital suddenly got hundreds more hits on YouTube. He was more of a celebrity for calling out the district attorney than he’d been when he stopped Les Steinman from shooting up the school. But even that crept into one of the reports.
Dennis was called several times and a television crew was present at the poll when he went in to cast his vote.
“I voted for someone other than Madeline Courtney,” was all he would say.
In all honesty, Madeline didn’t stand a chance against the incumbent AG she was running against. He was popular and had upheld several cases that protected the state’s rights against the national government and had spoken out in favor of the SEC action in closing down the corrupt management of WAF. Even the independent farmers who were part of the affiliation were pleased to have the corruption weeded out and several had already made agreements with AgCentral. Madeline lost by a landslide.
Unfortunately, her loss brought attention to the brief comments made by Dennis. Because of the timing, her defeat was laid at his feet.
“I just want to go someplace quiet and study for a while,” he moaned when yet another interviewer called him.
“I don’t know what she could expect,” Natalie said at lunch a few days later. “She looked right at us when she was giving that speech down at Salter. She accused Dennis of abusing his team when she thought he was a faculty member. She started an investigation of Coach Lyle and his family right before the State Tournament. She had Dennis arrested in the hospital for being in the athletic pavilion after it was closed for the night. What could she expect?”
“Well, at least that’s behind us now,” Amy said. “What’s the status of the upcoming trial?”
“There’s not going to be a trial from what I understand,” Dennis said. “The guys who broke into the athletic pavilion have already turned state’s evidence against the execs from WAF who hired them. They agreed to plead guilty to breaking and entering, damaging school property, and reckless discharge of a firearm.”
“They were trying to kill you!” Lana screeched.
“Shh. Sure they were. But that was incidental. They didn’t have me in their sights. The bullet holes in the coaches’ office were scattered all over. They just wanted to scare me. Fuckers,” he said under his breath.
“We have to go to the old gym for graduation gown measurements,” Nat said.
“I can’t believe I’m ordering a graduation gown!” Lana said, the topic of the trial suddenly forgotten.
Track was almost an afterthought for the seniors. They missed as many meets as they attended. Jaydyn, Judith, and Janice continued to dominate the women’s 100, 200, and 3,000 meter races. Tori was doing well in the 400. Lana managed a 5-4 high jump in one meet but was never able to repeat the feat. Dave was placing well in the 100. But the younger guys on the team, while showing dedication, weren’t quite up to the level of competition they were facing. They weren’t throwing any races, though, and the team often placed in the top four of eight-way meets.
Dennis met with the team managers from all sports for a luncheon funded by the department. Coach Neil and Coach Pat attended to recognize the contributions of the team managers to the department.
“It has helped to have a team manager who was the central contact for all team managers,” Coach Neil said. “Dennis, we’d like to recognize your contribution to team management as well as your coaching of the girls’ basketball team.” The managers applauded and Dennis stood up.
“You’ve all been great this year and we’d like to award each team manager with a patch that you can put on your bag, your kit, or your jacket, as you see fit.” As he looked at the other team managers, he saw five with red waist packs. “I’m putting mine on my kit,” he said, patting his own red waist pack. It had become so much a part of him that he automatically put it on with his belt in the morning. “Coach has also left it to me to announce that Olivia Factor will take over as lead team manager next year.”
The other managers applauded. They’d all learned to depend on Olivia during basketball season when Dennis was tied up with the Angelines. She was a natural choice and had been the department’s statistics coordinator ever since she joined two years ago.
“There are… Wow!… six of us graduating this year. You all know what that means. We need more team managers,” Dennis said. “We have ten, no, eleven sports here at Bartley if I’ve counted correctly, and I include our cheerleaders in that number. They could use a team manager as well. That means we really need to do some recruiting. The coaches have come to depend on team managers—on you—to keep their teams running smoothly while they focus on getting them to play well. Making sure equipment is where it needs to be, that uniforms are clean, that statistics are kept, that taping and training are seen to, and a hundred little jobs that you’ve all picked up this year make our athletic department strong. We’ve shown that team managers are truly part of the team. We aren’t just water boys and bat girls.”
There was a solid round of applause and Dennis decided it was time to wrap it up.
“When I finished my freshman year here, I was hurt and angry and hated everything about Bartley High School. But I found it didn’t need to be that way. You’ve all participated in our anti-abuse training. It’s in your hands now. I’m a little sad to be leaving the ranks of team managers here and I think you’ll all feel that way when you graduate as well. Nonetheless, I feel that team management has done more to prepare me for the world outside than anything else I could have done in high school. Good luck to all of you next season.”
They applauded and that was the end of the recognition luncheon. Perhaps it wasn’t as glorious as the dinners held for each varsity team, but it was an important part of being in the department.
“Are you ready for finals at DMACC?” Natalie asked as they cuddled together that night. It was rare that the two of them spent time alone. Amy had gone to Salter to spend the weekend with Brenda. Lana was with her family to celebrate her brother Nils’ birthday. Ardith was on a retreat with coaches from Salter.
“I have my final speech to give yet. I kind of practiced it on the team managers. It’s a little more generalized for the speech class, but I think it will do well. There’s not really much else I can do in my Intro to Marketing class or Encounters in Humanities. If I don’t know what they’ve taught me, I’m shit out of luck.”
“I can’t believe you’ll get a high school diploma, an associate’s degree, and a training certification all at once.”
“Well, I won’t get the certificate until August. I have to take a stupid hybrid online class in the marketing department on selling. I suppose people who have a training certificate have to sell their services. For me, the certificate is a pre-req to having my job at Salter this fall.”
“I’m so simple compared to you. I just want to go to school and play ball and then find a teaching job somewhere that I can coach little girls on playing ball and loving the game,” Natalie said. They stopped to kiss for a while, moving closer together in the relaxed environment of Dennis’s big bed. It seemed enormous for just the two of them.
“I don’t think that’s so simple,” he said. “You really are the personification of ‘play for her.’ There are more little girls at Bartley High School who want to grow up to be like Natalie than there will ever be little boys who want to grow up to be like Dennis.”
“They should wise up. If they grew up to be like Dennis, they’d have girls who grew up to be like Natalie getting ready to jump on their cocks for another ride,” she giggled.
“I want you, baby,” Dennis sighed. “I want you so much.”
“Guess what! You’ve got me.” Natalie pushed him onto his back and threw a leg over him. As she settled down on him, she continued, “Or I’ve got you. In me. Oh, God, Dennis. Make love to me forever.”
It didn’t take forever that night, but it was repeated later.
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