Benchwarmers by John Feinstein

Author:John Feinstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

21

Jeff wondered what practice would be like the next day. He knew that—Arlow and his closest chums aside—everyone on the team now understood that they needed Andi playing to have a chance to be any good.

He also thought he had proven that he should be getting more playing time. At the very least it was encouraging that with the game on the line in the final few minutes Coach J had left both him and Andi on the field.

Andi called on Tuesday night. Apparently Danny Diskin had texted her to let her know what had happened in the locker room.

“Arlow just won’t let it go, will he?” she said.

“He’ll have to, sooner or later,” Jeff said. “He’s lost Craig and Roth. Even Coach J is giving in a little.”

“Yeah, my mom is saying the same thing,” she said. “But I’ll bet I don’t start on Friday. I’ll bet you don’t start, either—and you should.”

“I’ll bet you start,” Jeff said. “When you’ve gotten the chance, you’ve been our best player.”

“Arlow’s still our best player,” she said. “He might be our worst guy, but he’s our best player.”

“You create chances for other people,” Jeff said. “Arlow only creates chances for Arlow.”

She didn’t answer that one. Jeff hadn’t even thought about it until it came out of his mouth. She was better than Arlow because she made the others better. Arlow didn’t do that.

Sadly, though, Andi was right about the lineup.

When they got to practice on Wednesday, Coach J’s only message was that he was proud of them for not giving up when they were down 2–0, but they were going to have to play a lot better, “for the entire game, not just a few minutes,” if they expected to have a chance to win any of their remaining seven games.

“We still haven’t won a game,” he reminded them. “If we’re going to change that beginning Friday, we have to play better from the first whistle.”

When the coaches split them up for scrimmaging after ball-handling drills, the only lineup change was that Danny Diskin had again been moved from the first team to the second and that Reed Whitlow—who was a starter but played with the second team in practice—was at midfield with the starting unit.

“What do you think you did wrong?” Jeff murmured to Diskin as they lined up to begin play.

“I think I took Arlow on,” Diskin murmured back. “Clearly a no-no.”

Jeff certainly thought that was possible. But Coach J hadn’t been in the locker room when the fight broke out, and Coach C hadn’t been there when the fight started. Maybe Arlow had just reported back who the combatants were, not how it started.

They were all tired after playing in the rain the day before, so the coaches cut the practice a little bit short. It was a beautiful afternoon; the rain had cooled the temperatures and the sun was shining. Rather than have them all stand or kneel at midfield, Coach J asked everyone to take a seat on the bleachers.

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