Free Football Nightmare by Matt Christopher Page A

season.”
    He unfolded a big sheet of paper covered with diagrams.
    “Looks complicated,” Billy said, staring at the paper.
    “Not really,” the coach assured him. “There’s one basic formation and a few different variations where the receivers take different routes. For tomorrow, though, to make matters simpler, I think we’ll just concentrate on one version.”
    It
was
pretty simple, Keith decided. He lined up wide right, with Larry on the same side a few yards closer to the interior line. Heck was a flanker, also on the right but a few yards behind the line. The fullback stayed in the backfield to block. On the snap, Keith would run a fly pattern, streaking straight downfield. Larry would cut across the middle, fifteen yards deep. Heck would cut sharply for the sideline, only a few yards downfield. Interior linemen, including Cody, would screen block on the line and try to create a downfield convoy of blockers for Heck, so that he might pick up additional running yards if the ball were thrown to him.
    The coach had different combinations of receivers try it out without linemen at first, using both Billy and Jason at quarterback. Jason was a little confused in the beginning and had trouble picking out the various receivers, but soon adjusted. Billy had no difficulty at all, and threw to Keith, Larry, and Heck in turn. After twenty minutes, the coach was satisfied.
    “Now let’s run it with linemen,” he said. He signaled for Mack to bring the rest of the team over.
    Cody and the rest of the linemen seemed to grasp their assignments quickly, and the coach began to run plays from the spread formation. On the first one, Keith faked as if he were going to cut toward the sideline and then dashed downfield. Billy fired the ball deep and Keith looked back, saw it coming — and dropped the pass. Disgusted with himself, he kicked at the ball before picking it up and running it back to the line. He flipped it to Billy, turned to Coach Bodie, and said, “The pass was perfect and I blew it. Sorry.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” said the coach. “That’s what practice is for.”
    Larry, Keith noticed, said nothing to anyone. Heck patted Keith on the shoulder and said, “You’ll get it next time.”
    And that was that. Keith was mildly surprised that not only did nobody make anything of his drop, but that he himself felt only a slight irritation at his goof.
    The practice went on, with Billy throwing to Larry, Keith, and Heck, after which Coach Bodie brought Jason in. Jason threw a long pass to Keith, who caught it over his shoulder without breaking stride.
    “All
right!
” yelled Heck.
    “Way to go!” called Larry.
    The coach just smiled and said nothing, and Keith felt great.
    After running a few more plays from the formation, Coach Bodie looked at his watch and blew his whistle.
    “Good work today. Get your rest and go over your assignments, and let’s go out and play some tough football tomorrow.”
    Keith found himself exchanging a look with Larry. “That’s a killer play,” Larry said after a moment.
    Keith grinned. “The Mustangs are in trouble.”

15
    T he first game of the season was minutes away. The weather was perfect for football, cool and clear with almost no wind. Keith remembered the first game the previous year, and he had the same sensations now. There was a tingly feeling in his belly and he was nervous, but not frightened. He thought that the nervousness would disappear as soon as play began.
    The stands were fairly full, with rooters for both teams on hand. Keith’s family was sitting with Heck’s folks, and Mr. Szymanski had Heck’s baby brother in his lap. The Mustangs, in their sky-blue-and-gray uniforms, were warming up at one end of the field, while the starting Buck team, wearing black and silver, ran off some snaps at the other end. The opposing coaches and the two game officials were conferring at midfield.
    Heck said, “This is my brother’s first game. Let’s win it for