Gladiators of the Gridiron

I was the first hopeful student to show up to the tryouts. The trainers and coaches who were already there seemed a bit surprised by my early arrival but welcomed me nonetheless.

I introduced myself to them with a smile, eyes scanning them as I shook hands with all three.

There was the Head Coach (HC), the Offensive Coordinator (OC), and the Offensive Line (OL) positional coach.

I thought they were all meek, plain-looking pushovers. I could work with that.

The OC and the OL coach wouldn’t have bothered with me, as I’d be on the defensive side of the ball anyway. But the head coach being so weak meant that he wouldn’t refute me and I would be able to do as I please.

‘Sorry I’m late,’ I heard a voice say. I turned and looked at who had spoken: the first thing I noticed was that he was in a wheelchair.

‘Oh, you must be one of the new freshmen. Hey, I’m Luke Hoang, I’m the defensive coordinator (DC) for the team, I wish you the best with your tryouts,’ he said as he leaned over and extended a hand to me.

I shook it gently, looking him over as I did so. He was different.

For one, he was much younger than the other coaches, as they were men ranging from their mid to late thirties all the way up to their fifties, whereas Luke looked like he could’ve been in his senior year.

Aside from that, his dark eyes were the only ones that had mirrored my gaze. He didn’t just look at me like the others had, no, he was observing and analysing me, just like I was doing to him.

I grinned, maybe this one would be fairly competent. I was sure they’d see me for the blessing I was to the team.

‘Tyrese Samuels, call me Ty. I look forward to working under your care. After all, if you’re the Defensive Coordinator, we’ll be spending a lot of time together as I’ll be your star Cornerback throughout my time here,’ I said.

‘You’re an arrogant little freshy aren’t you? Seen plenty like you before. We’ll see how long you last,’ Luke said with a smile.

‘Trust me, you haven’t seen anybody like me before.’

***

I had already warmed up and done my stretches by the time the rest of my potential future teammates arrived.

The kids who had shown up seemed to be even more lacklustre than those I had met at the camp yesterday, not just with their looks and skills, but by how bored they seemed with the whole thing.

They appeared more interested in catching up with friends and making new ones rather than doing what we all supposedly came here for—playing football.

Maybe there are a few who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, I hoped, but didn't hold my breath.

The field itself was also even more unremarkable than the one that had hosted that stupid camp.

I was restless. I could feel the energy and tension building in me. I hated waiting, I just wanted them to get on with it already. I kept constantly checking the time on my phone.

At 1 o’clock, right on the dot, the coaches rallied us all together in the middle of the field.

‘Looks like we’ve got quite the turnout this year, always wonderful to see so many fresh new faces, and returning ones as well,’ the head coach said.

‘For those of you who don’t know, and those who already do, I’m Coach Long, I’ll be your head coach this year. Now, just because you were on the team last year, doesn’t mean you’ll get a free pass onto the team this year. Everyone will have the same opportunity as the man beside them, always. I’m a fair coach, and I want everyone to have their chance to shine. Winning is great, but your guys’ happiness is the most important thing.’

I almost threw up in my mouth. Was it too late to enrol with a different school?

‘So, with that said, I want you to gather ‘round in your preferred position groups. Offence that side, defence that side. Your respective coordinators will point you to the specific cone for your position. And don’t worry, you will be able to play both offence and defence if you want to.’

I made my way over to the side designated for defensive players, Luke was there, calling out which cone on the field represented which group of players.

This one was DBs, that one was Linebackers (LB), and Defensive Line (DL) should go there.

There was a good mix of experienced players—sophomores, juniors, seniors, as well as fresh-faced, and quite nervous-looking, freshmen all around.

I took up my position next to the cone for DBs and looked around, I couldn’t help but notice that most of the freshmen on the offensive side had gathered around the cone for QBs.

Luke wheeled himself along the turf and looked over the three defensive groups once they had sorted themselves out.

He had a couple of words with a player from the group of Linemen as well as one of the LBs before wheeling himself back to the front and centre.

‘Alright, we’ve got some nice players here. If you want an offensive position as well, just head on over to Coach Norman—the Offensive Coordinator—and let him know. He’ll sort ya out. But for now, let’s start some exercises to see if ya got what it takes.’

He blew his whistle and ordered us all to line up. And then he told us to run. Up and back along the full length of the field as fast as we could.

He blew his whistle and I shot off like a bullet. I left the others in the dust and finished first, hardly even out of breath as I looked at Luke, grinning at him as he timed everyone on a stopwatch.

Next was an agility test, more running, but with sudden stops and turns, backpedalling and running laterally.

This was done one at a time, it was hard to tell how fast I had gone and how fast others were compared to my experience of doing it, but I felt confident I was the fastest through the course.

This was followed with more and more exercises, all testing various parts of our physical attributes: our balance, our leg strength, arm strength, core strength, our jumping power, our reaction speed, and all of it tested our stamina as well.

All of it was a solo test, something that pitted us only against ourselves, but our results were still obviously compared with everyone else around it.

It was good to finally be working, to be competing, even in this isolated fashion where our only true opposition was ourselves.

An hour had passed before we were finished with this preliminary stage of the tryouts. Some people were so worn out they couldn’t even stand anymore.

‘Great job everyone. Get some water, catch your breath, then come back here in five,’ Luke said.

Five minutes later and we were in front of him again, everyone standing on their feet.

‘When I call out your name, go and stand by the white cone. Josh, Mac, Isaiah …’

Everyone moved over when they heard their name, there would’ve been over twenty people in total before he stopped.

‘Now. Unfortunately. All you whose names I just called out,’ he said as he turned to address them. ‘Ya didn’t make the cut. You’re not ready to be on the team, either of them.’

Most of their hearts sank, but some of them looked disgustingly relieved to have not made the cut.

‘As for the rest of you, congratulations. There’s a definitive place for you in our program. Whether that is on the varsity or the JV (junior varsity) team is yet to be decided, however.’

I looked around at the remaining faces, some were relieved, others were unfazed, like they had been certain they’d make it this far, and some were still worried about making it onto varsity or not.

‘When I call out your name now, head over to the cone for Linemen. You’ve been selected for a position group based on your performances in the previous tests.’

He started listing off names again. Some people who had originally lined up for DL weren’t called, and others who hadn’t originally wanted that position did get their names called.

The same thing happened for both the LB group and the DB group as well. But the only thing that mattered was my name was called for the selection of DBs.

‘The next step in our process is going to pit you against each other, and those who have made it through on the other side of the ball,’ Luke said as he gestured with a nod to the other half of the remaining hopefuls on the offensive side.

‘This time we’ll be using drills based on your position groupings, and with more of the kind of thing you can expect to find in an actual game.’

I was thrilled. A spark of excitement coursed through me, and I had gotten a second wind, completely forgetting any of the fatigue and exhaustion brought about by the earlier exercises.

The real battle, the real fun was about to begin.