Football Practice II

"We're gonna do shuttles, I'll call out the distances and you will sprint there, make sure you are sprinting through the line. Losers do five pushups" Coach Samson explained the next drill the players would be doing, was the shuttle run, which worked on a player's agility, emphasizing quick changes in direction.

Marvin was thankful that he was second in line, he still hadn't recovered his breath from the sprints that the players had just done, and he didn't fully understand the drill that Samson wanted him to complete., so he wanted to see how it was completed.

"Set" Samson called out, Austin's group turned to face the sideline, the left part of their body facing the endzone, the right part facing the rest of the field. "FIVE, TEN, FIVE" Samson yelled out and blew his whistle.

Instantly Austin's group took off, they moved sideways to the five-yard line, bending their hips and knees to touch the line with their right hand. They then took off as fast as they could, some stumbled trying to sprint back to the endzone, at the endzone they replicated the same move that they did at the five-yard line, then again sprinted to the ten-yard line and sprinted back to the endzone.

Marvin watched as the players sprinted, he saw how the players stumbled when trying to get from their bent positions, and how fast they slowed their feet to get into a better position and touch the line. Austin group finished their run, they weren't out of breath but their leg muscles were starting to strain from the speed changes.

"Keppler, and Palmer, you owe me five" Samson said causing a fit black player with dreads to groan and begin doing pushups, Austin also began doing his set of pushups. Samson ignored Palmer's groans and called up Marvin's group to get set.

"Ten, five, Ten," Samson told Marvin's group the distance they would be running. *BLEET* the whistle went off and Marvin took off as fast as he could, he raced to the ten-yard line slowing down just before getting into a dipped stance and touching the line.

Getting up and racing down to the endzone, Marvin could see several guys already in front of him, he was the last person to reach the endzone, but he didn't focus on that, he continued with his run, touching the line of the endzone and racing to the five-yard line.

"New guy, five" Samson called out as Marvin finished his first rep, he was the last guy in his group. Marvin didn't complain with doing pushups, he simply got on the ground and began, 'Fuck, this shit sucks' Marvin thought in his head as he finished his pushups.

If he knew just how much running he would be doing, Marvin was sure he would have adamantly refused Austin's persuasion. Marvin was surprised by the amount of movement he was doing, all the football action he had was him just standing still and throwing a football, this was a whole new world.

Things only got worse as Marvin continued his reps, he was unable to catch his breath once as he would be forced to do pushups due to being last during each rep. "Hey, you gotta get up faster," A guy similar height to Marvin off his hand to Marvin as he saw Marvin struggling to get up fast enough.

"Don't bend over either, you're not gonna get any air there, plus Coach Samson's gonna get on your ass for it" The kid said to Marvin before going to go join his group, 'So they just expect me to die huh' Marvin thought as he heard the kids words on not bending over. 

"Alright go get some water," Samson said as the last group crossed the endzone. Immediately every boy jogged over to the water station over at the right sideline, Marvin followed suit, his mouth had been dry since sprints began and with the heat, he felt that he would be fall over any second now.

"Dude you look like shit," Austin said to Marvin as they both jogged over to the water station. From Austin's perspective Marvin was sweating extremely and looked like he would drop soon, it was far from the image of coolness that he had been associated Marvin with.

"You never done conditioning before?" Austin questioned, he couldn't understand why Marvin was already tired. Marvin nodded yes at Austin's question causing a look of realization to appear on Austin's face, it now made sense to him why Marvin looked horrible.

"Damn dude, so this is like your first time doing all of this?" A kid who had been next to Marvin and Austin asked, but he was ignored by Marvin who began drinking his water. The kid waited patiently for Marvin to answer his question after he was done drinking but Marvin swiftly left with the group of boys who were heading back to Coach Samson.

"Sorry Travis he's not much of a talker" Austin apologized on Marvin's behalf, before getting his sip of water and heading back to Coach Samson.

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"You guys are lucky today, since it's the last day, and the season's so close, we're gonna start working on positioning drills. So receivers head down to the fifty, Coach Granger working with y'all. DBs stay here with me, and Quarterbacks head over there" Samson directed each skilled position to their locations.

Marvin headed in the direction Samson had pointed in along with five other guys, looking around the people that were going with him Marvin was quick to notice a significant difference between him and them. 'Tall' Marvin thought.

Every player around him was a good two inches taller than him, the tallest being a light-skinned black kid with a huge set of curly hair on his head, it was the same kid from the water station.

Marvin took this time to think of what drills he would go through while everyone around him seemed to know everyone there as they quickly began conversing with one another, they mainly talked about the upcoming season and how many offers Travis now had.

"Yo new kid, you never answered my question" Marvin saw Travis make his way over to him, 'I kept distance for a reason' Marvin thought as the distance between him and Travis drew shorter.

"You not gone answer?" one of the quarterbacks asked Marvin as he remained silent, Marvin still didn't give a response simply staring at the receivers running through their drills. "Chill Darren, Austin said he a shy boy" Travis placed his hand in front of Darren preventing him from moving closer to Marvin.

'Is he trying to mock me' Marvin thought as he heard Travis's words, but he didn't have time to give it much thought as an old white man came over to them. 

"Alright let's, get started three of you step up," The old man said, dropping three footballs onto the ground, putting space between each one of them. "We're gonna do a three-step drop. Make sure that you keep your knees bent while going back, the other three guys stand in front, you'll be the receivers" The old man said in a grumpy voice.

The quarterbacks quickly lined up, Marvin was lined up in front of Darren, the kid had a scowl on his face as he looked at Marvin causing Marvin to think, 'The fuck's wrong with him?'

"Make sure your eyes remain on your receiver as you do this. On the whistle" The old man said. The three boys in front of Marvin picked up the ball in front of them, set their feet, and waited for the old man to blow his whistle.

*BLEET* The old man blew his whistle and like a machine, the three boys dropped back in almost perfect synchronization, then threw the ball to the boys in front of them.

"Wilson, don't jump, keep your strides small" The old man pointed at a quarterback, the quarterback nodded at his coach's word, planning on fixing his mistake at his next rep.

"Okay, receivers, you're now the quarterback, on the whistle," The old man said, *BLEET* At the whistle the former receivers dripped back and passed the ball.

Marvin dropped back, he made sure his legs were bent and that his strides weren't too long, and then he passed the ball. The old man nodded as he saw the throws, he blew his whistle to have the quarterbacks do another rep.

This happened for six more reps, the old man made sure each rep was perfect, drilling instructions into those that made a mistake which was every quarterback except for Marvin and Travis. 'Guess Joel wasn't lying about the kid' The old man thought as he saw Marvin's footwork.

"Alright, now five-step drop, On the whistle," The old man said, at the whistle the quarterbacks dropped back two steps farther than before. Eyes were pointed at the receivers in front of them, "Mason, if you throw another shitty pass, you'll be running laps" The old coach pointed at Darren causing him to look downward.

The quarterbacks worked through their reps, finishing the five-step drill and the other quarterback drills that the old coach had for them, through it all Marvin had no problem completing them, his footwork was already at a great level and his passes never seemed to get off target, things that impressed the old man.

"You guys get some water, then we'll run teams at the fifty" The old man released the quarterbacks to go get some water, they jogged over to the water station, the sun made their earlier water break seem like ages ago.

"So you got talent at throwing," Travis said to Marvin as they arrived at the water station, he had also been keeping watch on Marvin throughout the drills and he was also impressed.

Marvin didn't say anything back to Travis, he simply drank his water and began heading to the middle of the field where the coaches were. "Who does he think he is?" Wilson said as Marvin ran off, he thought of Marvin's actions as rude, a thought that the other quarterbacks shared.

Marvin on the other hand didn't think of his actions as rude, he was simply not interested in interacting with the other quarterbacks, he wasn't here to be their friends, 'I'm just here to play football' Marvin thought as he arrived to the middle of the field.

At the middle field were five men talking with Joel, Marvin recognized Coach Samson and the old man but he hadn't with the other three men yet. "Oh, Hey Marvin, Me, Samson, and Hartman were just talking about you," Joel noticed Marvin's presence and brought the other coaches' presence to him.

"You need to get your body into shape, you looked gassed after the sprints" Samson spoke up after Joel was done. 

"He's just started playing organized football" Joel defended Marvin's lack of fitness, the old man Coach Hartman was shocked at Joel's word.

"He's never played before?, he looked quite comfortable moving and throwing the ball," Hartman said. Joel nodded at Coach Hartman'swords, he expected Marvin to excel at the quarterback drills.

"Yeah he's got talent for it, when we start you'll truly see it in action" Joel said, shutting down the conversation about Marvin down. 

The rest of the team made their way over to where Marvin and the coaches stood at, the excitement could be seen on their face. They hadn't gotten to play actual football the whole summer so they were itching to begin.

"Alright settle down, I know you guys are excited" Joel addressed the team. "We decided since the season is approaching we can begin working on getting you guys used to the plays" Joel continued on.

"Linemen, Coach Callahan and Coach Alvarez have been teaching you guys how to get into your splits, so we'll see that in action" Joel addressed the bigger guys on the team, the look in their eyes showed that they were ready to put their training in practice.

"Alright then defense head behind me, your coaches are gonna talk to you" Coach Samson, and Callahan headed away from Joel with the defense.

"Oline head towards Coach Alvarez, the rest of you get behind the forty-five, I'll call up the players I want," Joel said his voice stern as he commanded the players.

The players did as they were told, quickly moving to their respective spots. "Okay, Let me have Travis, Marcus, Ryan, Ethan, and Max" Joel called up a group of players, they surrounded him before they broke and went into their respective positions.

"Okay, just run to where your spots are, nothing physical since we don't have helmets and pads on," Joel said as the defense began lining up. "Alright, on my whistle"

(A/N: It's Marvin's first try at practice, how do you guys think he's gonna do, is he still gonna perform as well as he has been or will he crumble, let me know what you think. Please do leave a comment about what you think of the story and if you enjoyed it, if you would like you can also leave a review or a power stone, whatever you decide. As usual, I hope you have a nice day or night"