Dumb Jock: The Musical by Jeff Erno

Author:Jeff Erno [Erno, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2013-09-16T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

THE team had already taken to the court and started their conditioning drills when I got to the gym. I headed straight to the locker room. Thankfully, it was empty. I knew I’d be running laps or possibly some speed ladders or lane slide drills—the punishment for being tardy—or if Coach was in a real good mood, he’d just yell at me.

Geared up, I hustled back out to the gym. Coach was at center court, barking orders as my teammates paired up to do closeout drills. They formed two lines formed at each end of the court, one for ball handlers and one for defenders. I ran out to where Coach was standing and waited for him to give me his attention. He stopped yelling long enough to make eye contact. “So glad you could join us today, Mr. Drake.”

“Sorry I’m late, sir.” I looked down at my shoes.

“Gimme ten laps, then pick a line.”

I nodded and headed quickly to the outskirts of the court, where I began running my laps. It wasn’t unusual during practice for players to be lapping the perimeter of the court. Running laps or drills were the prescribed punishment for most infractions. Tardiness, poor performance, or even something as minor as looking at the coach the wrong way could result in this sort of discipline.

Normally I’d have been embarrassed, but today I barely felt the humiliation. It gave me a reprieve for a few more minutes. I knew I couldn’t dawdle, though. I had to complete my laps and assume my position in line as quickly as possible. I was barely winded after my last lap, but my heart rate quickened as I wiped the sweat from my brow. I glanced up at the lines to see where Bryan was, and I deliberately chose the ball-handler line on the opposite end of the court. I knew it wouldn’t matter for long, though. After making it through one line, you moved on to the next. By the end of the drill, each player would have been matched up against most of the other teammates. Hopefully I’d luck out and avoid him due to missing the first ten minutes of practice.

I only had enough time to make it through the first two lines before Coach blew the whistle. He then had us run lane slides and defensive touches. We had to crouch low to the ground and shuffle back and forth across the court, reaching down to touch the lane marker as we changed direction. The drills were exhausting, my least favorite, and I couldn’t believe Coach was pushing us this hard so late in the season. Did we really need this much conditioning? What we needed was game play, scrimmage, shooting hoops.

Well, I got my wish, because when we finished the lane slides, we moved right on to layup drills. Practice ended with speed ladders, then Coach finally dismissed us to the locker room. By this time, every player was a ball of sweat. When I stepped into the locker room and peeled off my jersey, nobody said a word to me.

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