Slapshot

Chapter 1: Off Limits

Jonathan's POV

"We won't be able to play otherwise." Coach Jamie says, shaking his head.

"But coach!" My friend Tom steps in. Everyone starts yelling at once.

"What am I supposed to do, boys?" Coach says, shutting us all up. "If you want to continue playing, you're gonna have to deal with it."

Everyone sighed again. "Is there anything else we can do?" Jake asks the coach.

Coach shakes his head. "You guys don't realize that we're nine players short to twenty. And that's the bare minimum to allow us to play. So tryouts are open." All at once, everyone started talking again, and the changeroom's walls were echoing with complaints.

"Hey!" I shout, and everyone immediately quiets down. "There's no way around this. If we don't have enough players, we're not playing this year. So rally up some friends for tryouts on Friday." I say, and the boys start sighing again. "It's not a big deal. They're just girls. If they're good, what's the problem?" I ask.

"They're gonna distract us." Monroe sighs.

"Then grow up!" I answer. "If we don't reach twenty, we're not allowed to play! Get your grandmas on the ice for all I care." I say with a scoff.

"Yeah!" Tom calls, and I silently thank him.

"Grant High Sharks are the team to beat! We're going for another championship, and we're gonna win!" I shout, and everyone cheers along.

"Grant! Grant! Grant!" Everyone chants, and I give a sigh of relief as Tom breaks and everyone buzzes out of the change room.

Coach sighs, patting me on the back. "What would I ever do without you, Jon?" He says, and I chuckle. "Girls aren't too bad, are they? I doubt we'll even have any." he says.

"I really don't think we'll have many." I shrug as well. "But we'll take what we're given." I say.

Last year, the Grant High Sharks had moved on in the playoffs to the semis, then the finals where we won. We had a great year, with amazing players. Unfortunately, almost half of our team was made up of grade 12 students who had already graduated and were gone this year. This year, we had a big group of seniors with a few juniors, but it still wasn't enough to qualify.

I honestly didn't know why we didn't have more people jumping at the opportunity to play on our championship-winning team. Our first tryout was held last week, and only two people showed up. We were forced to hold another one in two days, but this time, Coach was opening up our team to let girls play as well.

I didn't like the idea at first, but I soon realized it wouldn't be that bad. As long as they were good, they would fit in fine. I'd even consider them some of the boys. But all my teammates had other opinions.

I don't really know why they were so against having girls on the team, but because Grant didn't have a girls hockey team, I assumed that girls from our school would be jumping at the opportunity to play. Boy, was I wrong.

"Hey, Jon, do you need a ride home?" Tom asks me as I step out of the change room.

"Yeah, sure. My dad had to take my car in for servicing this morning." I say, following Tom.

"So... you're completely cool with girls joining our team?" Tom asks me.

"Yeah, why not? If they're good, it doesn't even matter that they're girls." I say, and Tom nods.