I Say I Can(sequel to WSGCPF)

Chapter twelve

The whole day at school is getting to know you worksheet which is cool and all because it gets me out of normal school work but they suck. For real what kind of a question is "duck,goose, or chicken?" How does that help you get to know me and my preferences. I am so excited for football practice today. I walk out to my car and pull out my helmet and my duffel bag that's filled up with the rest of my gear, water and food. Cole and mark meet me at my truck and get out all of my extra footballs out of the bed of the truck.

"I am not ready for practice"cole says with a sigh.

"Yeah you're gonna work us so hard" mark agrees.

"Well you all need it" I reply with a shrug. We all run to the locker room and then I meet them all in the boys locker room after they're all dressed.

"Okay everyone now that everyone is here we're gonna go over a few things." Coach announces.

"First last season we had an increase of team members that were on medical leave from concussions so were gonna want to try to minimize that this year to get in more practice time."

"How are we gonna go about that coach?" Dan asks.

"Well captain will run conditioning on the endurance side and less on the drills side so there three days of endurance and two of drills." He pauses to take a breath while chatter breaks out concerning this new idea.

"We will also be doing more scrimmages so that way on endurance days we can practice drills in real time."

"We will of course keep the old plays that worked best last year and just change the names so hopefully no one catches on"

" next on the agenda we will have multiple different people run practices this year as to get a variety Delilah will do mondays Wednesday and fridays until the games start and then just mondays and Wednesdays. Then Tuesday and Thursday will be changed weekly with other members."

"Who's this weeks" cole asks.

"A schedule will be posted by the end of practice today me and Delilah will talk it over a little before practice."

"Okay Delilah what sounds like a good thing to start with?"

"How about five Laps around the field?"

"You heard her stop sittin around and get to it"

The team runs out of the locker room and I talk to coach.

"Who do you think should go first?"

"I think cole and Brent have some food ideas for the team so them this week and then go from there?"

" yeah sounds like a plan, why don't you go catch up."

I run out to the field and run my five laps around the field at my own pace. It takes about fifteen minutes for everyone to be done which is pretty good.

"Water break," I shout. " stretching then push ups in five minutes."  That's the last thing I want to be doing but I know it's what the team needs and I'm not gonna be one of those captains that doesn't do anything.

I chugge one of my water bottles down so I don't pass out from dehydration and go sit on the fifty line.  I look at my watch and it's been three minutes so I leave them to it for a while.

"Hey babes" I look up and see gage.

"Hey what's up buttercup?"

"Nothing much I was just checking in" he leans down and I give him a quick peck on the lips.

"Cool," i look at my watching and it's been five minutes. " boys it's time for stretches let's go unless you want to pull a hammy"

The team starts to trickle over so I stand up ready to lead the stretches." Let's do the normal routine, well keep it to once instead of twice.everyone good with that?"

Everyone starts to nod and so I go ahead and start the stretches. "Let's not forget that tryouts for the team start in two days so you'll all have to be in prime condition to land a good spot." Everyone groans in unison. "I don't feel like trying out this year" cole whines in frustration. " well you know which team you're on if you don't so that's up to you"

"Once you're back in your spot you'll feel a lot better and we all know it" everyone knows I'm right so they all pipe down and continue to stretch their right glute.

"Okay guys lets start our push ups, just do as many as you can today before your arms feel like jello." I pause for a second "but whoever gets the most or whoever gets more than me gets as much jello as they want on me."

"Let's go bro,12 pounds of orange jello here I come!" Ryder yells.

"On three one! Two! Three! 1,2,3,4,5, come on count along you know the rules,8,9,10,11,12,13,14....." we go at this for a long time until it's just me and Ryder left we are at 52 and my arms feel dead but I keep going, until I get to 65. Ryder gets to 66 just so he can get the jello and then he collapses on the ground and imitates sponge bob as he says "water..." everyone lets out a low chuckle and moves to go grab some water.
"Okay go get some water and then come back on the field without your gear or anything."
We take a short water break and then come back onto the field.

"Okay in order for use to play good we have to feel good so everyone lay down on the field and just relax. We need to get in the right headspace."