Pablo and Audrey were ecstatic to return home to Jennings after accomplishing what so many in town would only dream of. And so many quiz bowlers, too. They were treated to a public showing of their HSNCT accomplishments during the town's Memorial Day festivities.
But then Pablo receives, along with everyone on the football team, the training schedule for the summer. Morning practice at VA at 7am, starting after the ACT date. Until then, all we can do is do strength and conditioning, and maybe some player-led practices. No big deal, but this means that, if I want to study for quiz bowl, I should do so before the official football practices but after the ACT.
Upon returning home, after the Memorial Day festivities, however, he puts aside any notion of studying for quiz bowl, and instead focuses on studying for the July ACT, for which he booked at LSUE, as Audrey did, and is the closest available test center for that date. And he receives his first sets of questions by email, intended to mimic the blocks of questions on the real test. Which he promptly opens to start working on these questions.
And yet, even as he starts working on the questions, he feels like all he has on his mind is the rumors the townsfolk kept circulating about the A-team, such as both Lilina and Nadine moving up to the A-team next season. I don't want to take anything away from Nadine, but Scott is a good player, too. Yet, if Nadine plays on the A-team, I think it would be better that I play on the A-team, too, because I'm used to playing with Lilina and Nadine, and Audrey isn't.
Speaking of Nadine, he gives her the kit of practice questions, as well as where to subscribe to the service of daily ACT practice questions. And he also does the same with all rising juniors on the football team after finishing the first of the four blocks.
Some rising juniors ask him about when they can hold these unofficial, player-directed practices upon receipt of these practice ACT questions, under the form of a Doodle page. They plan to do so with perhaps an older sibling of a player acting as a facilitator, so long as that person isn't on the coaching staff. However, knowing what their opponents are doing, he knows that he can hardly afford to miss one such practice.
"Don't forget to take your diagnostic test on Sunday after mass!" Pablo's dad sermons him.
"No biggie, dad"
Speaking of diagnostic test, he texts Audrey asking for when she can take one. But of course! I can use this schedule to my advantage! I can then ask for the rising juniors on the football team to take a diagnosis test! And have basketball teams take the same test if necessary! And not the least since next season's starting free safety plays shooting guard.
He keeps practicing with a sample passage, complete with a set of ten questions, not responding to the request of his teammates for timeslot availability until the end. He finds himself reading about... cane toads?
Yet reading about cane toads makes him feel like he's reading a passage where detail questions are going to dominate, since often people give advice on what to expect on the ACT reading section based on the passage's topic.
Once he puts his availabilities on the Doodle page, at the end of the passage, Malcolm, the free safety, texts him: "I think I should ask Cora before taking a diagnostic test"
"What do you need to ask Cora for?" Pablo realizes that player-led practices is going to mean going to the football field mostly early in the morning.
I never was particularly close to Malcolm nor Cora, but one thing is for certain: if they ask for academic help, they don't ask it from me. Audrey might be the brainiac of the basketball teams, but I admit that I don't know the other basketball players that well off the court, Pablo muses while realizing that perhaps Malcolm is dating Cora. But he quickly returns to studying for the ACT, this time by doing a geometry problem right after finishing the questions on the cane toads passage.
At the same time, the other quiz bowlers know that they can't afford to rest on their laurels. They keep training for various things, each on their side.
The following morning, several football players arrive at VA's practice football field, which has clearly seen better days. Finn arrives with a box full of traffic cones that he doesn't waste time laying down as an obstacle course.
"It might be a bit early for contact drills, so for now, we're going to start with obstacle course drills" Finn lays down the rules for the first drill of the morning as the cones are placed on the field.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
This is a painful reminder of our football team being underfunded. From what I heard about our opponents, some of them use player-sized dummies rather than traffic cones, and the dummies are also used for tackling drills, Pablo gets flashbacks of the practice equipment used by Washington-Marion. Of which he caught a glimpse last season after the ninth game.
And yet, players at the practice, ranging from tight end to free safety, run through the makeshift obstacle course one by one. Which feels like a slalom course. They go through this course several times before moving to the next drill:
"For this drill, we will need to have the players in threes..." Malcolm then explains where each person should position himself, how many times they should pass the ball around, or attempt to intercept passes.
Speaking of Malcolm, he treats the drill as is he was playing in a game, and hence reaches for the ball in mid-air. Even so, he even collides into Pablo as they both attempt to catch the ball. In the end, both players end up slammed against the ground.
"Malcolm, you now have a better idea of how it would feel to tackle an opposing wide receiver in mid-air" Finn comments on this unintended tackle.
"Yeah, you always seemed... to shy away from... tackling when jumping to intercept a pass!" Pablo comments on this tackle while a little dizzy from it.
"It's dangerous, ok?" Malcolm retorts, before turning to Pablo. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, really" Pablo then gets up and drinks from the nearby fountain.
Notwithstanding that I am, what, 6'2, 200 lbs, give or take? Maybe a little heavier than 200 lbs, Pablo reflects on the hit he took in this drill. Now that's tackling like I never saw from a free safety! As good as it's going to get at his size. He would have been a good tackle player if he was bigger, though.
But then the two get some time passing the ball around, and making attempts at intercepting it, while remaining mindful of not hitting each other too hard, not even when fighting over opportunities to intercept the ball. After these drills end, the players then hit the weight room, engaging in weight training as they did before the finals.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the town, Bayou City Hoops trains after resting during Memorial Day. It becomes clear that everyone on the team is happy to see Audrey back with them, except for one. Non-VAs on the travel team, especially those from outside Jefferson Davis parish, ask her about the HSNCT. Even though they kept hearing about it just two days ago, while the LGR Takedown tournament was underway.
"Oh Audrey, how has it been at the HSNCT?" Bayou City's other power forward asks her.
"The questions are somewhat inconsistent, but that comes with the territory" Audrey answers her teammate. "What about you?"
"There was only one true power forward, so the coach made us play musical chairs in such a way that it wore me down since I had the most playtime. Sometimes Cora was made to play PF and then Carrie played PG, etc. In a sense you're lucky to be physically rested the way we aren't"
"Because we'll play the whole season together at school, we may as well drill together here today" Cora makes her wishes clear to Audrey before the drills start.
Of course, since Audrey seemed to have more pressing needs on defense as well as in passing, and she's newly back into play, the coach focuses on getting her back to speed. And making her mesh with the rest of the team, to the extent feasible with practices only.
And, as such, the coach has Audrey undergo passing drills with everyone else on the team, at the beginning of the practice. And in ways that might bear some resemblance to how she would need to pass the ball in games. Much like having to pass the ball to someone when someone else is getting double-teamed, or when they get double-teamed themselves.
"Here's the deal: you have to anticipate where players will be, as well as where the ball will be, too. Then you can improve both your passing game and your rim protection game. It's not like quiz bowl, where you must roll with the punches..." the coach tells Audrey.
And then she sees a little improvement in preventing players from getting to the paint, as much as it's possible with only one practice. Yes, positioning and blocking are the key skills she improves on, but she feels like team practices are for practicing skills that actually require multiple players to improve. I can always practice dribbling and shooting outside of team practices, as well as strength and conditioning, but I am at a stage where practicing smarter might give me an edge over practicing harder.
At the end of the practice...
"I might have sacrificed half of the traveling team season, but I have gotten back into the groove of playing hoops. That being said, for rising juniors, don't forget about the ACT; please tell me immediately if you need help!" Audrey warns her teammates.
"You're right, Audrey, doing poorly on it might put a straitjacket on our basketball dreams, or even our future off the court!" Cora adds. "I will study for it with you"
"Me too!" Susan adds.
Audrey then gives the two, by email, both access to the daily practice questions service she uses and additional resources to get help for the ACT online. Cora might not be as strong as I am academically, but she feels smart enough to make good use of the materials I gave her. I mean, she never really asked for help in coursework. Susan? I know only that she plays shooting guard for Lacassine and she's Lacassine's star player. I have no idea of how strong she is academically, Audrey muses as she goes home, and Heather has a few remarks for Audrey before moving towards Susan.
"Audrey, stop! You should spend the summer working on basketball, not studying! You already have a top-ten at the HSNCT for a safety net!" Heather yells at Audrey.
"I still have the ACT to take! Cora and Susan, too!" Audrey retorts.
"Not sure I'm going to stay at VA for much longer!" Heather's face turns red.