Hey, Coach! ch. 14

"So I stood on my head. When Fudge saw me upside down he clapped his hands and laughed. When he laughs he opens his mouth. That's when my mother stuffed some baked potato into it." from Tales 4th Grade...










The next week didn't play out quite the way Scotty had anticipated.  Little Brother and The Girl became inseparable, texting, meeting at lunchtime down on the gym floor, going over practice plans.  Little Brother brought her a dry erase board for her to construct plays and he gathered stray basketballs at practice.  All of this was after they had to present the idea of a team in the first place to the athletic director, Mr. Aikers.  He hadn't anticipated a fifth grade team, not this year around, because, well, there was no gym space another team.  Scotty, Little Brother and an Eighth Grade Girl made their case, that there were enough boys for a team, and that she would coach.  "Do you plan on practicing, though," he asked as if the most obvious problem that they hadn't considered.  "You know it's not just about the games, you know that, right?" He had no idea.  They told him about the available court and that everybody was just fine with us practicing there, although nobody really knew about it except for the boys themselves, who were quite convinced that none of this could ever work out anyway, so gladly agreed to meeting right before dinner time at 5:00 which gave the coach time to get there from her practice.  "Well, we are going to practice at my house," Scotty said. "I have a court."
"It's winter," Mr. Aikers through out there, like it was such a big deal.
"We shovel it regularly, so that it is not slippery." As Scotty said this, it began to dawn on him just a little bit that this sounded a little far fetched.
"I mean, you three, really, I love your spirit for the game, truly, but but can you imagine if somebody slipped out there in the afternoon like that, got hurt...." He pushed up over his slender rickety chair and grasped his hands together.  "There's just no way that this team application could work without a facility available."
"What if there was a roof over the court," The Girl said. "Then there would be no snow and it would be safe.  We could still play our games on the weekends at our school."
"I think what I am saying you three is that maybe this is a good year to get ready for next year.  6th grade always has half of a gym available, and you all will be that much better for the wait." Mr. Aikers didn't look like this was his favorite thing to say or do either.
"I will tell you what, just maybe Corey and her teammates would be as kind as to scrimmage with your boys team, for fun some night at practice, what do you say?" And there it was, the dream squasher.  So many little plans and possibilities right out the window, just like that. Little Brother wasn't crushed.  He had been working harder than anybody, serving cookies, help shovel, holding clipboards in cold weather.  "Oh, well, next year," he said.  He pulled his backpack up over his right shoulder.  "We get a ride home in exactly six minutes." As they walked out of Mr. Aikers gym office, The Girl, already dressed for 8th grade practice, looked out onto the gym floor.  The 8th grade girls barely had enough players to make a team, seven altogether, and Suzy Wetzill could only come three days because of band.  The floor was wide open.  She set her duffel bag on the sideline. A ball came bouncing in her direction.  She scooped it up and handed it Scotty.  "Go ahead and throw this back over to them, I have an idea."