12 THE TRAINING GROUNDS

"For someone that has never played football, I take it that you don't have a suitable kit." Coach Wilbur stated. He didn't want to ask because he was quite sure.

"What I'm wearing should suffice, shouldn't it?" Noah frowned as he looked at his clothes. He didn't see anything wrong with what he was wearing.

"Typical of someone that knows nothing about soccer. I'm just telling you this because I don't want you to have any type of excuse when you fail woefully. You need to put on shoes with cleats, football boots. That way, you will have better control of your balance on the pitch." Coach Wilbur explained.

"Cleats, I don't have any shoe like that."

"Then what size do you wear?" Anisa pitched into their conversation while standing not far from Noah.

Without even waiting for him to reply, Anisa guessed his shoe size after taking a look at the shoe that he was wearing at the moment. "You look like you are a size 43 – 44. Am I right?" She questioned.

"How did you-"

"My parents own a shoemaking company. I've been around many shoes and picked one or two things from observing." Anisa answered with a proud smile on her face. "And also, my parent's company sponsors the school's sports teams with equipment so your size should be available."

"If I happen to damage the shoe, I don't have any money to pay for the shoe," Noah said without any shame.

'Quite greedy.' Anisa thought. "You don't need to pay for it because I will take care of the bills."

"I don't know you, and you don't know me. Why are you doing this?"

"Let's just say that I am a sports enthusiast and you, Noah, are an S-grade track runner. Just think of it as me trying to get on to your good books."

"I don't like you." Noah frowned as he uttered.

"That's a bit rude but honest."

"Brutally honest if I might say. But that should be expected of an arrogant person." Coach Wilbur said with a smirk on his. "Take the shoe from her arrogant boy, I don't want you to make any excuses." He added.

"And I don't like you too," Noah said to Coach Wilbur.

"Likewise, kid. Follow me to the pitch." Coach Wilbur began making his way to the football pitch that they were going to use.

"You guys go ahead, I'll go get the boots for Noah and I'll meet you in the pitch," Anisa mentioned.

"You know where the training grounds are, right?" Coach Wilbur asked Anisa.

"Of course I do. I go there a lot to watch your players train. It is one of the places on the school's ground that I visit frequently."

"Good, we'll meet you there." Coach Wilbur said and left for their destination. Noah followed behind without saying anything. However, his mind wasn't at ease. 'Why am I feeling like this? This feeling of Déjà vu?' He wondered.

'The last time something like this happened was when I got into the pit for my first match there. I do admit that I was arrogant then, but I've learned my lesson. This is football, it shouldn't be as difficult and hard as fighting.

What matters is my control over the ball, right? It shouldn't be difficult, I mean, it's not like I haven't kicked cans around before. And I am familiar with some of the rules of the game.' Noah thought.

He started feeling like he made a mistake taking this bet, and he should back out. However, his pride wasn't going to let him do that.

'What's the worst that could happen? Don't let this old man's words get to your head. Since when have I ever downplayed myself? If it looks like it's going to be hard for me to do, all I just need to do is to learn how to play while I'm playing.' Noah quickly comforted himself.

Shaking all the self-doubt off his mind.

If Coach Wilbur could hear what was going through Noah's mind, he might have fainted, on the spot. Noah's thought about learning football while playing is not an impossible feat, but the possibility of that happening is close to incredible.

It didn't take long for Coach Wilbur and Noah to reach the football training grounds. As soon as they arrived, Noah resisted the urge to exclaim at the sight of what he was seeing.

There were 2 big fields in front of him, both the same size. One of the fields was made up of muddy sand, with white marks drawn on their supposed and attributed positions. The other field was the same as the field that was next to the race tracks. The only difference was that there was a tall iron net fence at extreme corners of the fields, instead of bleachers. Behind the fence was a forest.

'Probably there to prevent losing balls.' Noah thought while looking at net fences. 'Not a good spot to sell drugs.'

There were already several people running drills on the field, some of them were shirtless, and some of them had bibs on. Numerous balls littered the field as they were being kicked around by the people that were running drills on the field.

If a normal person was watching these people go through their drills, knowing that their competition was from amongst them, then that person would have been intimated by now. But to Noah, there wasn't much difference between the people here and the ones that he had faced in the pit.

As they approached the field, Coach Wilbur began talking. "You see this, few of the people here are my players. Most of the few are from the second and third soccer teams that I formed, meaning that they are not the best. However, it doesn't mean that they don't have what it takes to be the best, they just haven't made it there yet."

Normally, Noah would have ignored whatever Coach Wilbur was saying, but for reasons unknown to him, he felt like he needed to listen.

"These guys here are more than enough to deal with you, in fact, I feel like this is an overkill."

"You said that few of them here are your players, what about the rest?" Noah questioned out of curiosity.

"The rest… they are just players that think they can play and want to join my team." Coach Wilbur smirked as he explained.

"Unfortunately for them," Noah whispered.

"What was that?" Coach Wilbur felt the urge to punch Noah, however, he knew the consequences of that action. 'With how much the university has been on my neck for a championship cup, if I slip up, the board members wouldn't hesitate to throw me out of the school. Oh, I can't wait to see this kid embarrass himself.' Coach Wilbur thought as he held his impulse back and took in deep breaths.

While the coach was trying to get himself, his players noticed his presence.

-Pheeeeww!!

The sharp sound of a whistle being blown reached everyone's ears and made them put whatever they were doing to a stop.

"Coach Wilbur is here!!! Line up!!!" The person that blew the whistle announced.

Hurriedly, every single player on the field ran, split up, and lined up in 4 rows. They all stood at attention like soldiers. Few of them were relaxed though.

This was a sight that wouldn't be seen unless one was in the army or going through similar training of the sort.

Wilbur, as the coach, made sure that his players knew that they were like soldiers to him. They were all part of his army, and if they didn't like the way that he coached and trained them, they were free to leave.

He believed that making his players think like soldiers would help strengthen their bond and teamwork. The mindset and discipline of a true soldier appeased him and he wanted to impact a bit of that on his players.

Coach Wilbur took a quick look at Noah, wanting to see if he had been stunned or surprised by such uniformity amongst his players, and even the ones that weren't part of his team yet.

Contrary to his expectations, Noah still had that indifferent expression on his face. This made Coach Wilbur suck his teeth and scowl.

In truth, Noah was a bit surprised, but not enough to show on his face.

"Boys, I have an unusual task for you today. Now normally, I wouldn't do this, but I couldn't stand by and let this greenhorn insult what some of us here, consider sacred. So I made a bet with him." Coach Wilbur smiled and pointed at Noah.

"Now don't get me wrong, this kid should be around 18 or 19 years, and not too long ago, he raced an A-grade track athlete and bested him, completing the race within 12.33 seconds."

"Woahh!!" Some of the players lined up exclaimed in awe of Noah's accomplishment.

Some of them started to size Noah up, they were the ones that knew that their coach wouldn't concern himself with someone like this unless it involved football.

Coach Wilbur's smile widened. "Yes, just as most of you have guessed, he is an S-grade track athlete. Amazing isn't it? But this talented runner said not long ago, that football wasn't much, that it was just a game of kicking a ball.

Technically he isn't wrong, but to us, is that any different from an insult!?" Coach Wilbur raised his voice at the end.

"Noo!!" Many of the players here shouted in anger.

"Are we going to let this nobody say that and get away with it!?"

"No Coach Wilbur!!"

"I can't hear you!! Are you going to let him get away with it?!!"

"No Coach Wilbur!!!" The players' voices echoed as they answered in unison.

"Good!! The bet I made with him is simple, all he has to do is to play a 7 on 7 match with a team I assign. If he performs well, then he wins, and I will accept that football is just a game where a ball is being kicked. On top of that, I will give him a prize gift.

But if he performs woefully, he would have to admit his mistake and also become a ball boy for our team." He paused and looked at his players.

They were already riled up and ready to teach Noah a lesson.

"The first thirteen players to run to the end of the pitch and back here at full speed will be the players that I will pick to do this. Doesn't matter if you are part of my team or not." Coach Wilbur announced and like a tsunami, the players bolted into the distance…