25.
Hungry with time to kill before leading his first practice as head coach, Jay navigated the Mini into downtown Gettysburg. The Pub, across from the Gettysburg Hotel, had a small crowd at the bar watching a replay of ESPN Sports Center. UConn’s men’s and women’s teams were looking really good on the screen.
As he grabbed a menu, Jay noticed one of the two men seated at the end of the bar. It was Barry Hughes, holding a full frosty beer mug at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, less than an hour before he would usually lead varsity practice. Jay ordered a Diet Coke and a burger—no time or hunger for fries—and watched the basketball action on TV. The bartender brought the Coke over quickly. “It’s on him,” he said, pointing to Coach Hughes. Jay got up from the bar stool, walked over expecting to thank him.
“Look at this guy, Bill,” Hughes said to the other man, after he put down his beer. “Comes from nowhere and grabs my whistle.” Hughes got up from his stool and stood toe-to-toe with Jay. “You know, I get an extra $7,000 for coaching that team?” he said, as he closed distance between their chests.
Jay smelled beer on Hughes’ breath and saw wet circles, a possible sign that the former coach finished more than one, on the bar. “I had no idea. I’m sorry. But you saw what happened last game.”
“Who are you to come and take my job?” Hughes looked down into Jay’s eyes and poked his stomach.
“Want this to go?” the bartender asked, as he brought Jay’s burger out on a plate.
“He does,” said Hughes. “He’s got a practice to run. You don’t want to be late, do you, ‘coach’?”
As Jay and Barry had their run-in, Emily Grossman opened the heavy glass entrance door. She took her cellphone out of her purse, just in time to record the most important part of the exchange when the suspended coach poked the new coach. Emily reached for Jay’s arm and led him away. “Put that in a bag. He’ll eat with me,” she said to the bartender. He quickly did as Emily asked. “C’mon Jay,” Emily said. “He’s right. You’ve got a team to coach.” She handed him his coat and held the door open.
After they left the pub, Jay and Emily sat in the front seats of the Mini. Jay quickly devoured his burger behind the steering wheel, napkin on his lap. “Thank you,” he said. “You stopped him, and maybe me, from doing something really stupid.”
“I was just coming to get something to eat. Wasn’t looking for you. Who is that guy?”
“The head girls’ basketball coach at the high school. I used to be his assistant. But since he’s dismissed, I’m filling in for the season,” Jay explained.
“How’d you end up with that job?”
Jay explained his chance encounters with Bonita, Stefan, Herman and Alben, who Emily knew and liked.
“Why was he fired?” Emily asked.
“Treated an injured player like crap. Poor girl gets bloodied in a game, and he gets on her play with degrading language. The injured player is Alben Baker’s daughter. I swore that I’d smelled beer on his breath during the game, but no one believes me.”
“Well, now you know. He’s just a stupid bully.” Emily e-mailed a copy of the clip, attached to an explanation, to Kayla Franz. Jay told her to send one to Stan Reynolds. Then he texted a message to Kayla: Don’t think you’ll need to worry about Stan. For now.
26.
With Emily reluctantly in tow, Jay arrived late for practice. Vic was already there for his first day as head coach, shivering by his truck when Jay arrived.
“Not a great way to start, isn’t it?” Vic asked.
“We had a little run-in with the former coach.” Jay quickly introduced Vic to Emily, and they shook hands. The trio entered the gym together just before the locker room opened. Emily stepped up the bleachers to watch. Twenty-two varsity and jayvee players scrambled into the gym. Bonita ordered them to form three lines. Without hesitation her teammates did precisely what they were told. Jay bit his lip, hoping that she’d heed his advice and tone down the boot camp act.
“First things first, let's hear a big, loud welcome for Stefani.” Jay clapped loudly to begin practice, so did Vic, Emily, Bonita and Amanda, the rest less so. Bonita was about to say something, but Jay shook his head no.
“I said let's give Stef a round of applause.” Jay raised his voice.
The players who clapped more softly picked up their pace and intensity. Stefani blushed, but there was no happy look on her face.
“Okay, let’s start with calisthenics” Jay said.
Bonita stepped to the front of the line, ready to turn and give orders
“No, Bonita, you’ve earned a day off.”
“But Coach…”
“You heard. Stef, come here and lead us.”
Stefani walked slowly to face her teammates. “Ok, jumping hacks, 20 repetitions.”
“Only 20?”
“Coach Hughes and Coach Foster made us do 20.” Stefani’s teammates, even Bonita, nodded in agreement.
“Well, I expect more. Fifty.”
Stefani got back into position. “Okay, jumping jacks, FIFTY repetitions, begin! Her cadence was lousy, and she could barely keep up with her teammates. After twenty-two jumps, Stefani stopped, covered her mouth, and ran for the nearest trash can. She bent over and vomited. In the meantime, the rest of the team stopped jumping.
What are you doing?” Jay shouted. “Finish up. Bonita takes over. Right now!”
Bonita gathered everyone back in line. “Right Coach! Ok, ladies, let’s go!”
Varsity and jayvee players resumed jumping while Jay came over to Stefani, her head still in the can, her fingers gripping the edge tightly, afraid she’d fall backwards or forwards.
“You okay?” Jay asked.
“I think so,” Stefani said, as she stood up still touching her stomach.
Thankfully, there was no blood, only remains of a beef burrito she’d eaten for lunch.
“I’m sorry, Stef. But why would you eat that junk before practice?”
“Never bothered me before, Coach.”
Jay noticed that Stefani’s body was soft in places, like her arms, legs and stomach. She needed more muscle if she expected to play a full game, especially against serious athletes like Kelsey Baumgarten.
“How many of those did you eat?”
“Uh, three.”
“Stef, if we’re going to do what I think we can do, you’ll need more strength and stamina to play more minutes. Those burritos weaken you, slow you down.”
“Yeah, whatever,” she mumbled, eyes facing the floor.
Jay leaned down to one knee then looked up to meet her eyes. “What did you say?”
“Nothing, Coach,” she answered, still looking down into her vomit.
“Stef, look, I know you love to shoot. I’ll give you plenty of chances. I’ll say nothing but nice things if a college asks about you—as long as you pick up your game. I’ll try to help you, but you have to try, too. Deal?” Jay offered a handshake. “And that goes for the rest of you.”
“Deal.” Stefani gripped his hand firm and businesslike. They returned to rejoin the rest of the team after they had finished calisthenics.
“Okay, now I have another announcement. As of today, I’m your head coach. Coach Alston will help us out and coach the jayvees. Anything he tells you to do, you do. Because he says so. But right now, Coach Alston and I have something special for you. I need two volunteers.”
Bonita and Amanda raised hands immediately. Vic ran down to the far basket.
“Bring up the ball and try to score on him,” Jay pointed to his new assistant. He tossed Bonita a ball and pointed to the opposite basket.
The girls gave Vic enough time to see how they passed and dribbled. As Amanda approached, Vic poked the ball, stole it, and dribbled it quickly between his hands, daring the girls to try to take it away. Vic’s crossover moves were fast, but Bonita managed to get the ball. She took a shot, but Vic, having recovered from Bonita’s steal, got a hand up to block. Amanda grabbed the ball, took the shot, and missed.
“Make three passes before taking a shot,” Jay said. “Run it again.” Jay blew the whistle. Play resumed.
Bonita lofted a two-handed overhead pass to Amanda, waiting behind the foul line. Vic boxed Bonita away from the basket, so she had to make a move to get open. The coach’s edict was three passes, but they had passed the ball only once. Bonita’s only move was to back away from Vic, receive the ball, and give Amanda time to get open. Amanda shifted to Bonita’s left, Vic’s blindside, to receive the next pass as Amanda got in place to shoot. She hit a 20-footer before Vic could come back on defense.
“See what you did?” Jay asked. “You worked to find the shot. Sometimes you’ll have something, sometimes you won’t.”
Jay told the two players to sit. The rest of the varsity and jayvee squads got a chance to go 2-on-1 with Vic, who appeared to be enjoying himself. They didn’t fare as well as Bonita and Amanda but played with more spirit than they had under Barry Hughes, even Stefani and Megan, who were paired together for the drill. Their efforts were often thwarted by Vic’s skills, but that didn’t prevent them from trying. They were laughing and having fun together at their expense.
As his players practiced with Vic, Jay walked into the boy’s locker room. He found two poster boards, a marker, and an aisle. His return and the whistle brought moans and groans. Jay set up the aisle and placed one poster board on top, a plain white surface to the audience. Then, he hastily drew a lame cartoon caricature of a horse’s ass.
“This is how you’ve been playing all season,” he said.
Jay replaced the horse picture with a plain white board. He took the marker and wrote the word HORSE vertically, with the H on top. Then he finished the sign, filling in the letters.
Honesty
Obedience
Respect
Sportsmanship
Excellence
Jay pointed to each letter. "Each time you push me, or break a school rule, you get a letter and you miss a game. Get to 'E' and you’re off this team. We’ve got to break bad habits if we hope to make states. You must come together as a team, even when you’re on the bench. Each game will be a new adventure. Some of you will have good days. Some will be bad. Some of you won’t appear in the stats some days. But we must lift and support each other."
Vic stood up straighter, folded his arms and grinned widely as he took in Jay’s clear, simple messages. Emily suppressed an urge to laugh. This was not a unique talk to anyone who’d ever played serious high school basketball, but it was probably a first for every General on varsity, except Bonita.
“Starters for next game—Stefani, Bonita, Amanda, Ronni and Megan," Jay announced. “Rest of you be ready. You’ll get your minutes.” He gathered the team, starters in the inner circle, the rest of the varsity and jayvee squads formed the outer ones. “C’mon Bonita, lead us home.”
“Tell me ladies, what isn’t on those walls?” Bonita shouted, clapping as everyone clapped back.
Nobody answered.
“What isn’t on those walls?” Bonita asked again, shouting louder.
Still lost, they turned to Jay and Vic for help while Emily watched and giggled.
“C’mon, ladies, what’s missing?” Bonita stamped her foot.
Amanda, the smallest starter, spoke up. “Our banner?”
“There you go frosh.” Bonita high-fived her tiny teammate. “We haven’t won a thing. Now who’s gonna hang the banner on the wall?”
“We are!” Amanda shouted.
“What? I can’t hear yoooou!” Bonita blasted.
“We are!!” the full team joined in.
“I can’t hear yoooou!”
“WE ARE!”
“Who are we?”
“GEN-RALS!”
“That’s what I’m talking about! What do we want?”
“Victory!”
“What do we want?”
“VICTORY!”
“The floor's yours, Coach.” Bonita said.
Nothing more to add.
Megan Reynolds bolted for the locker room door. Jay and Vic looked at each other with confused expressions. It was not like Megan had lost a starting job, but she would play a different role under their coaching.
“You’ve got the fixins’ of a good team,” Emily said, after the last player had gone into the locker room. “But what’s with that girl who ran away?”
“That’s another story,” Jay said, as they left the gym, then he held the door open to the parking lot. “Maybe we’re about to find out.” He was not surprised to see Stan Reynolds leaning against the fender of his shiny black Escalade. Jay hoped his conversation would be short and sweet, so father would not be embarrassed in front of daughter. So did Emily, who badly wanted to go home. Bundled up for the cold, Megan sat in the passenger seat of her father’s car, apparently wanting to go home, too.
“So, now Baker’s gonna start?” Trying to look the tough guy, Stan folded his arms behind his back and spread his feet apart in fighting stance. "I figured you'd bump her up, since you're the new coach. I don’t blame you, Jay, she responds well to you.”
“Megan is still starting and she will get her minutes,” Jay said. “I want everyone fresh for four quarters.”
“All well and good. But we know why Stefani’s starting now.”
“We do? Educate me.” Jay stood up straighter, ready to push back.
“She’s Bonita’s ‘pet’, I see how they always hang out together,” Stan grinned as if this was a surprise. “Who knows what else they’re doing?”
“They’re friends. They practice together after school.”
“And you, well you’re Alben Baker’s little pet.”
“Oh, and like your pal Barry wasn’t yours? Look, Megan is starting because she still deserves to start. But so does Stefani. Vic and I will make things work better with both of them in our line-up.”
“Megan isn’t as anti-social as that Baker girl. We never had these problems when Barry was coaching. He had everyone in line.”
Feeling embarrassed, Megan pulled up the hood of her coat then pushed it down as far as she could over her face.
Jay’s chest tightened as he got ready to raise his voice, “Really? Then why did he lose those games? And I smelled beer on his breath last game.”
“So? Don’t you ever go out for a beer?” he asked.
“C’mon, Stan, would you have one before basketball practice, with a guy who was coaching your daughter?”
“Where’s your evidence?” Stan replied. “This another trick to push ‘your girl’ over Megan?”
Jay seethed. “Push ‘my girl’? C’mon, you must have smelled it before! You hang out with the guy.”
“I don’t go around sniffing other guys.” Stan leaned into Jay’s face.
Vic had watched the confrontation from a short distance beside his Ford pick-up. He strode confidently to Jay’s aide. “Hey Coach, what’s going on?” he asked. He squeezed Jay’s shoulder affectionately with thumb and forefinger. “Something you can’t handle?”
“No, Vic, it’s okay.” Jay said, not brushing his friend’s hand away.
Vic cocked an eyebrow. “You cool?” he asked Stan.
Stan shook like a leaf as he grasped the handle of the driver’s side door, “Uh, yeah, it’s a school night. Gotta bring my daughter home. I’m sure she’ll be happy. Her car’s back from the shop.” He climbed into his SUV, slammed the door, and turned the ignition. The Cadillac V-8 roared to life while Stan lit a cigarette and glared down at Jay, Emily, and Vic from the driver’s seat. He opened a window and blew smoke rings, trying not to sprinkle ashes on the fine leather interior. “I’ll deal with you, later, ‘Coach’ and with you, too,” he said, glaring at Emily.
"What's his problem?" Vic asked.
“He’s got a disease—Sports Parentitus.” Jay took a handkerchief and dabbed sweat off his forehead. You know what my grandfather called a guy like that? A nudnik, an obnoxious bore, or he’d call him a pain in the tuchus.”
Vic grabbed the hanky and stuffed it into Jay’s jacket pocket. “Never let that chump see you sweat,” he said. “Bad for the image.” He got into his truck and headed home.
Emily was still shaking as Jay drove her back to fetch her car. “You sure know how to make enemies,” she said.
“I’m sorry you got dragged into this.” Jay parked the Mini next to Emily’s Mazda hatchback in the lot behind her Main Street office. “But Barry Hughes doesn’t belong in a classroom or around a girls’ basketball team.”
Emily opened the passenger door, facing him before she exited. “How did you get involved in all this? If you’re anything like Elana, you’ll be gone after the season’s over, snug in the busom of corporate headquarters.”
“I made a promise to Bonita’s father, and Stefani’s. Bonita’s dad introduced me to Vic. He can coach this team if I have something pressing at work.”
“Look, you seem like a nice guy. Are you sure that you want to keep working for a bank? You seem like you can be a good coach, if you give it a chance.”
“When it came to basketball I had two great teachers. My sister and my grandfather. They were really good ballplayers, better than me. My sister, Dana, was a serious prospect, better than you, I’m sure.” Jay took out his phone. He showed Emily a 90-second clip of Dana hitting a three pointer to tie the Pikesville-Catonsville game. “Her coach went out on a high note and retired. Dana was still on the radar of some really good schools. She was an A student, scored high on the SATs. A whole bunch of academic D-1 schools really liked her.”
Wanting to hear more, Emily closed the car door. “What happened?”
“Senior year Dana played for an abrasive coach. It wasn’t sexual. He just got in her head. Told her she was nothing, her backup was better, crap like that. He told her to stop being a know-it-all, though she and her friends almost won a title the year before. Dana really pushed back, gave him earfuls. My parents always told us to never take garbage like that from anyone. But things got worse when she ripped Coach McNally in front of the rest of the team. do, Vince McNally had no clue what he was doing. He’d never coached girls before. He couldn’t throw Dana off the team. But because they were losing, he cut her playing time down to nothing. Anytime a recruiter asked about her, he’d share all the bad stuff, blamed her for the losses they piled up.”
“And they listened to him?”
“Well, he spread doubts. No coach likes to have a player who will take over, push the coach to do things their way. I think Coach McNally would say that Dana was headstrong or selfish. The only way we would’ve found out is if we took him to court, had a lawyer question him on the stand.”
“Did she go to college?”
“Yep. Coach Dunphy, the head coach at Goucher, was the only one who would take a. She’d seen Dana play in high school, believed that she could do a lot for their team. Coach Dunphy adored my sister. But it was so tough to play on a losing D-3 team. She played well, but no D-1 school really looked at her.”
“She still got an education, maybe a better one. You played D-3. You know that they manage practice around the academics.”
“My parents, Coach Dunphy, hoped that she’d stay. But Dana couldn’t let the D-1 dream go. She gave her life to it, then she took her life after her first season at Goucher.”
“Oh my god, Jay, so young..” She touched his shoulder lightly out of sympathy.
“I made a promise to Dana at her grave. I’ve got to get the most out of Stefani Baker’s abilities. She’s the difference between this team winning and losing, if she gets her act together. Stefani has the D-1 dream, to play at Kentucky. I doubt that can happen, but she can play D-2, maybe hook up with a lower-profile D-1 program.”
“She’s Alben Baker’s daughter, right?”
“Yes. How’d you know?”
“I’ve met with him many times, seen her picture, and all those Kentucky pictures on his wall. Nice guy. We don’t agree on everything, but we find constructive solutions.”
“I want Stefani to become a better-rounded player, like Dana. But I don’t want her to keep feeling that it’s Kentucky or nothing, or sell herself short with another school, like Dana did. Thankfully, Stef’s had Bonita to push her. Bonita’s got a few offers. but they’re not the ones she really wants. Playing for Hughes hasn’t helped. Motivating Stefani can be real work, too, but she hasn’t given up on her.””
“Wow, you really do care. But this has to be about Stefani. It can’t be about you or Dana. You’ll drive yourself nuts pushing her, if Stefani doesn’t respond and Stan Reynolds and friends keep nipping at your heels.”
Jay sighed. “I know. I have some ideas. I just don’t know how Megan will respond to them. I must find different ways to fit her talents into our team, and I could really use more help. Vic played D-1, but you know the girls’ game better than we do.”
“I don’t know if I’ll have the time. Stan isn’t the brightest headlight on the highway, but he’s technically my boss. He can’t fire me for volunteer work after work, but he can make things difficult if I don’t stay focused on my job whenever he’s likely to see me.”
“Why? What’s his beef with you?”
“I was not his first choice. A daughter of one of his business associates was. But the board outvoted him. He’s never questioned my recommendations, and I’ve raised enough money to keep the board happy. I’m sure that I have enough support, but things can change.”
“Why would they?”
“Stan’s raised a lot of money for political candidates. They help get state and federal money for Gettysburg and help us deal with the Park Service. The rest of the board has to take him seriously; most don’t have Stan’s contacts, or spare time to make them.”
“I understand, but please, come around, help us whenever you can.”
Emily smiled. “We’ll see. Good luck with your next game.” She got out of the car and closed the passenger door behind her. Then she asked Jay to roll down his window.
“Oh, I forgot. I owe you a tour. You should get to know your neighbors better.”
“I’ll check my calendar.”
Jay waited for Emily to get seated in her Mazda, then headed home. He wished that he could have talked to her longer.