Page 3 of Ready to Score

Jerry Smith, a defensive coach and tenth-grade chemistry teacher, cleared his throat. “What, uhh… what are the criteria?”

Coach Landry screwed his face up a little bit the way he always did when he was thinking hard. “It ain’t as simple as that,” he answered. “I’ll spend preseason watching y’all, seeing how you coach, how you lead, how you are with the kids. I’m not carrying around a score sheet here, people—no grades, no extra credit. I’ll know when I know. And I should know by the time the regular season starts.”

Jade clenched her jaw, her shoulders rolling like her body was preparing for a fight. All this would almost be easier if there were some kind of grading scale. She was good at tests, always had been, especially when the answers were straightforward. If the criteria were based on which coach won the most scrimmages or even which coach helped send the most kids off to college, she had a clear vision of how to meet both those goals. But when the criteria was just in Landry’s head, all based on feelings and hunches… well, it was the nebulous things that Jade had a harder time with.

For a moment, she floundered. Her mind raced, trying to connect the dots, fighting to create a plan out of next to nothing.

Coach’s next words never settled between her ears, but she dug her toes harder into the turf of the field, chin stubborn even amid all her anxiety. She only noticed that they’d been dismissed when Landry called out for her to stay behind as the other guys walked off.

He waited until they were completely alone to talk. “Dunn… you know you’ve got some stiff competition here.”

Her eyes widened before she could steel her face. “Coach, I have every intention of showing you how right I am for this job. You know me; you know how hard I’m willing to fight for it.”

Landry nodded. Jade maintained eye contact with him, despite how much more excruciating it got as the seconds ticked by.

“Of course I know. You hit that field running and haven’t stopped since, but I’ve got guys out there who have a decade on you in terms of experience, and I can’t lie and say that doesn’t take precedence in times like these.”

Suddenly, her heart was in her stomach. “I get that, I do. But sometimes it’s better to bring something new to the table.”

“This is South Carolina football, Dunn. Trying something new isn’t exactly what we’re known for around these parts.”

“Right.”

The word hung in the air between them for a few long, torturous moments before Landry sighed again.

“You know what we’re up against here,” he said. “I know I have the final decision, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a hard sell. A woman… a Black woman… a gay Black woman…”

“I’m bisexual, sir,” she corrected on instinct.

Landry rolled his eyes. “This is just as much about politics as it is about making the right choice for the team. The new head coach is going to have eyes all over them, all the time. The principal, the parents, hell, the damn mayor is in my office more often than I’d like to admit. I can’t put anybody in this position who can’t handle that.”

Honestly, Jade thought she’d already been handling that. She was always strategic about the way she carried herself in both her jobs for that very reason. Hers was more of a show-no-weakness approach.

“I can handle anything, Coach. I’m not afraid of any of it. All I need is the chance to show you that I’m ready for this. I’ve got no problem showing anybody else who needs to see it too.”

“Aw, hell…” He pinched his nose between two fingers. “You know how to play poker?”

“Um… a bit. Why?”

“You better get a little refresher, then. Thursday night, 8:00P.M., you come to my house, all right? Bring fifty dollars and get ready to show that you know how to play the game.”

The way he said “play the game” told her everything she needed to know.

“I’ll be there,” she said.

Landry nodded, his arm extended as if he wanted to reach out to her, but instead he tucked them both behind his back.

“This is about more than football, Dunn,” he said. “And it’s about more than poker too.”

He was so serious, it almost sounded like she was about to sell her soul to gain entry to some secret assassins’ guild. To be fair, though, South Carolina high school football might have been the more cutthroat of the two.

Her mind reeled again, thinking about how she was going to brush up on her poker skills. And bybrush up, she meant learn completely. The only real experience she had with the game was the months she’d spent watching high-stakes poker games on ESPN afterSportsCenterreruns went off during her all-nighters in grad school.

Jade nodded, trying to convey some type of surety. That seemed to be enough for Landry, who turned to make his way off the field.

“Oh, bring some tortilla chips too, would you?” he called out over his shoulder. “I’m making my famous Rotel dip.”

She walked away from the conversation with heavy feet and squared shoulders. Jade had always been very aware of the tenuous position she held. She was a Black woman who had somehow finagled her way into a serious football coaching spot in the South. The first woman in Greenbelt Senior High’s long, storied history to everdo so. Both she and her assistant coaching title were always on display in some way.

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