Football Practice

"Dude that pass was so sick, he was literally horizontal in the air, his hands were out and everything, but you somehow got the ball right out of his reach" Austin was talking excitedly to Marvin about the play he had made at the mall a week ago. Marvin focused on the breakfast in front of him, ignoring the excited Austin, his mind was focused on the day he had ahead of him.

Joel had made him sign up for football, well it was more that Austin continually begged for Marvin to join the team and Marvin was tired of it. Today was the day that Marvin would be attending his first practice, it was late toward the end of the football summer conditioning camp the school held every year.

'It's already so late, school starts literally next week' Marvin thought, he believed that joining the team right now would be too late, but Joel had assured him that he hadn't missed much. "Alright, you got your stuff?" Joel came downstairs, he was checking to see if Austin and Marvin had grabbed what they needed before they headed to the school.

Marvin nodded yes as Austin ran off to get his football cleats, Joel just shook his head as he saw his son run off. "Here, you should start looking at this" Joel handed Marvin a thick book, it was the offensive playbook that the football team ran. 

Marvin flipped through the pages as Joel went to eat his breakfast, 'There's gotta be a hundred plays in here' Marvin thought as he flipped through the plays, he took a mental sigh as he began realizing just what he had gotten himself into. 'Goddamn kid' Marvin cussed in his head.

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The drive to the school was not a long one, taking only twenty minutes. As they pulled into the school parking lot Marvin saw two fields, the one he noticed in front of him was a bright green, and the white hash marks and yard lines and numbers popped out. The stands that surrounded the field looked pristine, the seats in the stands shined brightly under the Texas sun.

"That's where we'll be practicing, it's also the JV and Freshman game stadium," Joel said as he saw Marvin's eyes on the field. They got out of the car, the heat was already causing sweat beads to form on their heads, they made their way into a building, the cool air was a relief to them.

"You guys wait, I gotta get some stuff and then we'll go set up for practice," Joel said as he made his way further into the building. It was just Marvin and Austin alone, Marvin took his time to look at the things inside the building, there were plenty of awards. Coach awards, district, awards, and trophies for state championships.

They were enclosed behind a glass case, preventing anyone from touching them. "Okay, help me get these out, everyone's gonna be here in about thirty" Joel came back from inside, handing Austin and Marvin some cones.

The guys made their way outside again, the sun was still as hot as earlier, 'So hot' Marvin complained in his head, the heat was starting to get to him. but he wasn't gonna voice his complaints.

"Alright, play a cone every ten yards, until the forty-yard line. Then do the same on the other side of the field from the forty to the endzone" Joel directed Austin and Marvin's placement of the cones.

It didn't take too long for the cones to get set up, they placed six cones alongside one another every ten yards, making sure there was space between each cone. Once finished Joel had them go into the shade to shield themselves from the sun.

Austin began putting his cleats on, and Marvin took the free time to begin reading the playbook. 'Each play has at least two variations, I can't memorize all of this so quickly' Marvin thought as he focused on each play. He chose to look at just what the quarterback's roles was and look back at how the rest of the offense functioned later.

Very quickly time passed by, and people began showing up, first the coaches who gathered around Joel, planning today's practice session. Then the players began showing up, they were very large, most of them standing at six feet. "Those are the varsity guys" Austin pointed out to Marvin, his eyes were focused as he saw the receivers get to the field and begin stretching.

A couple of minutes later, more people showed up, these guys were not as big as the Varsity members, but their muscles were still very well-defined. "Alright, You guys have done this before, skills stay here, Bigs run down to the other side" A bald black man yelled as he got to the group of players. 

"Come on, we gotta start getting warmed up" Austin grabbed Marvin's arm pulling him to the rest of the players, each player stared at Marvin as he made his way towards them with Austin. They had met Austin plenty of times through the summer, he was their coach's son and was training to play here when he came to high school.

The other guy next to him, they had never seen, he was skinny but didn't have any significant muscle definition, and his eyes freaked them out. It was like they pierced right through them, completely seeing everything about them.

 "Austin, welcome back man," The bald black man said as he saw Austin making his way to him, he was about to say something but then he noticed Marvin walking with Austin. He had never seen Marvin before but since he was coming with Austin the man wasn't worried much.

"Yo Coach Samson, how you been, this is Marvin" Austin introduced himself and Marvin. 

"It's been good, you ready to work today," Coach Samson said with a chuckle, he had seen Austin come in almost every day for practice, ways more than some of the players here. He had also seen how much of a hard worker he was for someone of his young age.

"Coach get excited, 'cause you're about to meet the best quarterback in the city" Austin began hyping up Marvin's football talent. Samson wasn't convinced by Austin's words, he had seen several quarterbacks come through the football program in his years here.

He was especially not convinced because of the current quarterback for varsity, a four-star senior standing at six feet, three inches. The kid was able to quickly scramble for yards and move the ball down the field, he was also able to throw the ball like the typical quarterback but his speed was his main weapon. 

"The best in the city, I don't know Travis's pretty good" Samson said, Austin shook his head at his words, "Marvin's able to place the ball in the perfect spot, he's deadly accurate," Austin said refuting Samson's claim of Travis being better than Marvin.

Throughout this entire discussion, Marvin remained silent simply taking in his surroundings. He could see how everyone was huddled in their individual groups, talking to one another, 'They're close' Marvin thought as he saw the team. He wasn't wrong with his thought, the team had been together from their Freshman year and each player had spent at least one summer with everyone allowing them to bond with one another.

"Alright then, we'll see" Samson said as he backed away from Austin, everyone got quiet as they saw Samson backing away, the air seemed to become still until a loud *BLEET* broke the silence. "You know the drill, line up for stretches, Lunges" Samson said after blowing his whistle.

Players quickly lined up between a cone, Austin was the first in front of a cone with Marvin right behind. *BLEET* Samson blew his whistle, Austin clapped his hand along with everyone in that same row as him, he then took a step and began his lunges, when he got to the five-yard line, Austin jogged to the ten-yard line.

*BLEET* Samson blew his whistle again, Marvin followed the steps Austin had taken. He clapped his hand and then began performing his lunges. "Get your leg lower to the ground," Samson told him as he pushed Marvin's leg down. Marvin did so, feeling the effect of the stretch, getting to the five-yard line he began jogging towards Austin.

Several whistles later, everyone had made their way to where Marvin and Austin were, "Going Back" Smason said before blowing his whistle, Austin began his stretch once again, jogging after he had gotten to the five-yard line.

Marvin did the same as Austin heading back, so far things were going well, apart from the heat Marvin didn't have much of a complaint. "Butt Kicks," Samson said before blowing his whistle. Austin took off kicking his feet up behind, his heel touching his butt, at the five-yard line, he stopped and began jogging to the ten-yard line.

*BLEET* Samson blew his whistle and Marving took off, he found it a bit difficult kicking his feet that high up, 'I'm too stiff' Marvin thought as he looked at the other guys who had no difficulty with the stretch. Marvin didn't show any complaint on his face though, he just continued on with the stretch.

After everyone completed their first go, Samsosn had everyone go back once again, then they began a new stretch, they did this for two other stretches until Samson said "Sprints" before blowing his whistle.

Austin took off, moving as fast as he could, the other guys in his group had longer strides than him but he was still able to keep a respectable distance from them. *BLEET* Samson's whistle sounded, sending Marvin's group on their sprint.

Marvin took off, moving as fast as he could, due to the distance, he didn't look to be much slower than the other guys. Everyone after Marvin's group sprinted their way to him, it seemed that the distance had no impact on them as they were all chatting with one another.

*BLEET* Smason blew his whistle sending Austin's group on their sprint, a few seconds later he blew his whistle against sending Marvin's group on their sprint. They did this three more times, totaling five reps of ten-yard sprints, at this point, Marvin began to feel his heart in his chest, it wasn't pounding but it was beating hard to be of significant notice.

Samson looked at the group of players in front of him, everyone didn't look out of breath just like he expected, he made his way down to the twenty-yard line, "Sprint through the line" he said before blowing his whistle.

At the whistle Austin and his group took off, sprinting as hard as they could making sure to finish through the line. *BLEET* Samson blew his whistle once again, and Marvin took off running, keeping pace with the people in his group. He knew that he wasn't fast enough to full sprint twenty yards five times, but he also did not want to be left behind in the dust by them.

Samson blew his whistle again and like earlier, the players sprinted back, this happened a total of three more times. Marvin could now feel his heart beating, he wasn't used to running this much.

Samson looked at the players as he walked to the forty-yard line, he could see their faces scrunching as they thought about how much distance they had to cover, and they had to make sure they finished through the line or face Samson's wrath. Smason chuckled as he thought of the punishments he had given players who failed to finish properly, *BLEET*, he blew the whistle still chuckling.

'Fucking hell' Marvin thought in his head as he completed his second rep of forty-yard sprints, he was completely out of breath at this point, sweat dripping all over his face, even getting into his eyes. 'Monsters' Marvin thought as he saw the players who didn't look affected by the sprints.

It was players like Austin, who looked unaffected, they didn't place their hands on their waist, or place them on their heads, they either remained still or walked around. Marvin tried to follow their example but he found out very quickly that he was not in the same athletic shape as these kids.