Free The Walk On by John Feinstein Page B

Might not be against the rules necessarily. My dad calls it coloring outside the lines a little bit.”
    “So these guys don’t recruit.”
    “Nope. Maybe for basketball. Not for football. Trust me, if we aren’t up 35–0 at halftime, my dad’s going to be pissed. Heck, we’ll win so easily,
you
might get in the game, Goldie.”
    “Get me in by halftime,” Jake said, “and Goldie will get in the game.”
    “It’s a plan,” Matt said.

    Even though he knew he wasn’t likely to play much—if at all—Alex was excited by Friday afternoon. They’d all worn their jerseys to school and for the first time Alex felt a bit less invisible.
    Last period was canceled for a pep rally in the auditorium. The players lined up outside the auditorium doors: freshmen first, then sophomores, and on up the line, except for junior Matt Gordon, who would go last as the offensive captain—and the star of the team.
    “When you hear Coach Gordon call your name, remember, you jog out, you shake hands with him at the podium, then you jog up one aisle and circle back down the other, go up the steps on the other side of the stage,” Coach Dixon said, “then go to the back of the stage and line up there until everyone’s been introduced.”
    They had been prepped on this after practice twice already. They could hear the buzz inside the auditorium. Apparently, Mr. White was warming up the crowd for Coach Gordon.
    Coach Dixon looked at Matt Gordon and Gerry Detwiler, the captains. “You two ready?” he asked. “You know what you’re going to say?”
    “Yeah,” Gordon answered. “We’re going to tell all the girls to come tonight and tell all the guys to stay home.”
    That got a laugh from the players.
    Alex had wondered that first day of practice how Gordon and Detwiler were already the captains. Some coaches let the players vote. According to Bilney, Matt had asked his dad why he didn’t and Coach Gordon had said, “Football teams aren’t democracies. They’re dictatorships.”
    The funny thing was that if Coach Gordon had allowed the players to vote, Alex was sure the results would have been the same: Detwiler was clearly the leader of the defense and everyone on the team looked up to Matt Gordon, even though he was a junior.
    Alex heard wild cheering coming from inside, which meant Coach Gordon had been introduced. Coach Dixon opened the door so they could hear their names as they were called. Alex was right behind Jonas—third in line.
    “We need you all out there tonight,” he could hear Coach Gordon saying. “We have an outstanding football team, one that’s going to make you proud. But there are
no
easy games. We need your spirit and your growls and your roars.
    “Now, without further delay, let me introduce the 2014 Lions!”
    Everyone in the room—or so it seemed to Alex—roared wildly. Alex could see that Coach Gordon had a stack of three-by-five cards—one, he assumed, for each player. He nudged Jonas.
    “See the cards he’s got?” he said.
    Jonas nodded.
    “I’ll bet mine says, ‘Will play over my dead body.’ ”
    “Nah,” Jonas said. “If Matt runs away from home and Bilney is crippled for life, he’ll put you in.”
    When Coach Gordon got to Jonas he said, “Maybe the fastest player I’ve ever coached. You are all going to love him. He’s a six two, 155-pound freshman, when he’s soaking wet—let’s welcome to Chester Heights number eighty-three, Jonas Ellington!”
    Jonas jogged out to the stage as instructed and shook hands with his coach, who clapped him on the back, and then headed down the steps to the middle aisle, where kids were practically climbing over one another to high-five him or slap him on the back as he made his way toward the back of the auditorium.
    Alex was next.
    “A six one freshman quarterback, Alex Myers.”
    That didn’t take long, Alex thought as he headed into the auditorium to near silence. He stopped at the podium toshake hands with Coach Gordon, who