Page 34 of Saving the Halfback

“Let me help,” Ethan’s deep, gravelly voice said. I froze in place as he tugged on the shirt.

“Thanks.”

“Keep your eyes up when you move, not down at your feet.” He said nothing more as he moved far away from me.

Lachlan met my stare briefly, and I widened my eyes as if to say,see? We should say something.He shrugged. I wasn’t sure if he got my message, but the coach blew his whistle, so there wasn’t time to ask.

Coach Jamieson came running up to me. He was a big guy, and when he spoke, his voice was deep and vibrating. “Bailey,right? You and the other new players are coming with me to practice our tackles.”

I nodded and followed Coach Jay—I’d noticed most of the players called him that. He brought the other two newbies out and went over forms of safe tackling, how to tuck in to prevent head and neck injuries. I’d thought tackles were just running at one another, but that wasn’t the case. Hit too high, and they just flick you off them; aim too low, and they had a higher chance of escaping the tackle. The best aim was right for their hips and thighs.Eyes to the thighs, Coach Jay kept saying. He talked about foot position and shoulder position and body weight shifting, and to be honest, I was shocked how much detail actually went into tackles.

After Coach Jay got us comfortable with a few tackles and stances, he had us join another group. We were split into two different lines; the first person in line A held the ball, and the first person in line B was the one tackling. There were orange cones set up, and basically, we had to prevent the player with the ball from getting through to our set of cones. Simple enough.

I was able to watch a few tackles before it was my turn. I didn’t recognize the player I was up against, but I pushed off, got my feet in the position Coach Jay had taught, had my hands ready, and…damn. He passed me before I could even get close. “Pick up your speed, Bailey. Start your tackle sooner before he gains ground,” Coach Jay instructed.

I nodded and went to the other line, so now, I was a runner. Once it was my turn, I took Coach’s advice and ran immediately and tried to gain ground before the tackle could come. Sam was fast, though. He wrapped his arms around me and…hugged me? I stood there, not sure what to do.

“Sam, what the hell kind of tackle is that?” Coach Jay didn’t have to yell; his voice was loud enough on its own. “Bailey, if anyone goes at you like that, you push through and keeprunning. You can easily get passed, jump over the tackle, push through, whatever you gotta do to get that ball past this guy. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.” I passed the ball back to the next person behind me and got in line on the other side.

This time, I was ready to take them down. Whatever it took, I wasn’t going to let the player through. As soon as the whistle blew and the runner took a step forward, I ran up, put my shoulder to his thigh, wrapped my arms around his legs and took him down.

Coach Jay whooped and clapped. “Nicely done, nicely done!” I stood up and held my hand out, helping the player to his feet before going to the other line. I was beaming, of course. Where was Nolan? I hoped he saw that.

Once it was my turn to run again, I prepared myself to push through the tackle, no matter what. The guy against me was nearly the size of Ethan, but I didn’t let that get to my head. The whistle blew and I ran. He stood in front of me, pushing me lightly at the shoulders but definitely not a full tackle. I dodged him easily and ran past.

“Liam!” Coach Jay boomed. “I know that is not the way we taught you to tackle. Run it again,” he demanded. As I went back to the same line I was in, standing in front to repeat my run, I saw Jay signal to Coach, who walked over to us. “Do it right this time.” Coach Jay blew his whistle, and I ran. This time, Liam acted like he was going to tackle me, but it looked like I outran him. I didn’t, though; he’d pulled his tackle.

I felt deflated. I’d been looking forward to this. All practice, I’d been excited that the guys were treating me like an equal…except, they weren’t. It wasn’t like they were going easy on me because I was new, either. I watched the other new players, and they made it like a game to tackle them as hard as they could.

Coach blew his whistle. “Panthers,” Coach called. Oh, he was mad. All the players on the team came running in. “Take a knee.” Everyone went down on one knee, so I followed and did the same. “She is not made of glass.” Coach pointed directly at me. Blood pumped to my cheeks as they colored with embarrassment. “You are doing her and this team a disservice when you pull back on your tackles.” He looked around at the team, and a few of the guys seemed to be avoiding his gaze. “Bailey, line up with Ethan.”

I bit my lip and stood up, dropping the ball on the ground where I stood.It’s just about the game, focus on the game, I chanted to myself, building courage. I had to show them. Had to show the team I could handle this. I got into position, only…Ethan didn’t move.

“Ethan, step up,” Coach demanded.

Ethan shook his head. “No.”

Coach displayed a moment of surprise before he recovered.

“I got it.” Chase jogged forward and lined up with me. Briefly, my eyes shifted to the bleachers. Hadley was standing, cupping her hand over her eyes as she watched us. I shook my head.It’s just a game, just practice. I’m just another player to him, and he’s just another player to me.

Even still, I felt the jitters in my stomach as his grey, stormy eyes met mine. I tried to give him a smile, almost like asking for a truce. Chase gave me a partial smile, and ever so slightly, I relaxed. It was just a game, and I was just another player. I pushed all the drama of today aside and focused on the exercise at hand.

Coach nodded. “Bailey is a member of this team. She signed up for football. Not treating her as an equal member of this team will get her hurt. Will hurt the whole team.”

Coach blew his whistle, and Chase and I surged forward. Of course, Chase knocked me flat on my back, and as the air left mylungs, a jolt vibrated through my body. I was grateful he’d done it. It had to happen; they had to see I could take it. I had to show myself I could take it. The wind was knocked out of me, as it felt like Chase had given it his all, but I was laughing, happy he did a full tackle. I took Chase’s outstretched hand as he helped me to my feet.

“The other team will not be pulling back. If anything, they will think she’s the weak link and push harder. Bailey needs to be prepared for this, and she can’t do that if you treat her differently than any other team member. Got it?” He looked around at the guys. Some were nodding, others just staring. “Again.” I lined up with Chase. This time, I winked at him, and his eyes went wide for a second just as Coach blew his whistle. I surged forward with everything I had in me, and it was Chase who ended up flat on his ass.

I held my hand out to Chase to help him up, and even with the mouth guard in, I could see his grin, the storms within his eyes calming. Chase took my hand as I pulled him up.

“Panthers, we need to focus on the practice. I want you to hit, catch, throw, as if this is the championship game, all right?” Coach yelled. “We have to work at every practice as if it is the most important game, so when we get on the field for our game, we already practiced to win, got it?”

“Yes, Coach,” everyone said in unison.

“Tackles, blocks, they are the core. We need to work on our plays, but if we don’t make good tackles, if we don’t make the blocks, guess what we can’t do, Nolan?”

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