Nick
On Monday, excitement was in the air. Our first games were coming up soon, and I was ready to prove myself. A lot of the men felt that way, and maybe they had what it took. But I knew I had what it took.
Coach Daniel had picked us for his team, so we were backups for the first-stringers, and even though it was a huge privilege to be a backup, to be the guy they relied on when their first-stringer went down for some reason, I wanted to be the guy who had a backup.
“Right,” Coach Daniel said, clapping his hand together and summoning the team. We had been running to warm up, passing the ball casually between us. “Get all the wiggles out of your system.” The men laughed when he said that, talking to us like we were kids. “I don’t want fights on my field today. If I can’t rely on you du
