Signing Day Page 4

  When we get out on the field, I’m given a white practice jersey, and Calvin is given a yellow one. Our last names and a number are written across tape on the back. Calvin and I are directed to different stations set up on the field.

  “Good luck,” I say.

  “You too,” Calvin says, and we turn and walk in different directions.

  My first station is the forty-yard dash. We don’t race alone. I’m paired with a tall guy, and we stand at the end of the line.

  When it’s my turn, I get into position. The player I’m about to race against says something to me, but I don’t hear his words. I’m in the zone. Focused on what I need to do.

  The whistle blows. I take off, chin down, running as fast as I can. I don’t even feel my feet hit the ground. I cross the finish line first. It’s my fastest time yet.

  I’m paired with a new partner, and I get a chance to run again. I’m feeling good, getting into the groove, and gaining confidence.

  We head to the next station. It’s the three-cone drill. When it’s my turn, I stumble as I round the second cone. I look down and see that my cleat came untied.

  “I’d like to run it again,” I say, pointing to my shoe.

  The guy with the stopwatch just sends me to the back of the line. I get a second chance, but I’m not very smooth the second time around either. I know I can do better, but I don’t get a third chance to prove it.

  When I head to the next station, I see Calvin showing off his Velcro hands, catching pass after pass. Coach Washington is watching him too, but I can’t tell what he’s thinking. He’s got a great poker face.

  Coach Washington glances over and sees me looking at him. He tells me to go to a station where I see a lot of hopeful quarterbacks lining up and throwing balls at different targets. I’m not prepared for this, not at all, but I can’t say no. I go over and shuffle my feet nervously on the ground.

  I watch the guys in front of me throw short and then incredibly long passes. When I line up I throw a couple of nice short passes, but my long pass is too long. It hits a guy at another station in the back of the helmet.

  On the next rotation I meet back up with my first group, but I’m nervous about who may have seen me overthrow the pass.

  After four hours, it’s finally over.

  “How did you do?” I ask Calvin after we each chug a bottle of water.

  “I have no idea,” Calvin says. “The whole thing felt weird.”

  As we head back to the locker room, someone touches my arm and says, “Excuse me, young man, do you have a minute?” I find myself face to face with an assistant coach from Branford University.

  “I’ll catch up to you,” I tell Calvin.

  “Ignatius Jones, is it?”

  I stare at his Branford University polo. I can’t seem to say anything, so I just nod.

  The guy asks me my stats and then says, “You were impressive out there. Are you interested in Branford?”

  Wait, is this really happening?

  “Uh—yeah,” I stammer. “I’ve already applied—I sent you guys my game tape . . .”

  “Fantastic,” he says, before I have a chance to mention my dad. He hands me his card and tells me he’s going to look me up as soon as he gets back to campus, then heads off to talk to another player. For a minute, I’m frozen in place, not sure what this means or how I’m supposed to feel about it. I’d thought UCC was my last chance at a spot on a college football team. But what if I was wrong?

  Chapter 16

  Mr. Henry meets us at the bus stop when we get back to campus. He drops us off at the dining hall to get some lunch.

  “Meet me back at my office in an hour,” he says.

  Calvin and I gather some food on our trays, but neither of us eat much. We’re both nervous about what will happen next. I’m also nervous about what happened at the end of the camp—what the coach from Branford said.

  I haven’t told Calvin about it, and I’m guessing Calvin is too worried about what UCC thought of us to even consider the Branford coach. Besides, I’m not even sure if anyone there will actually contact me.

  We throw away our half-eaten food and slowly walk across the campus. We’re still fifteen minutes early when we get back to the athletic building, so we walk down to the football field and look at it through a closed metal gate.

  “Do you picture yourself down there?” I ask Calvin.

  He’s quiet a moment and stares down at the green field.

  “Yeah,” he says. “I really do.”

  I’m not sure what I picture for next year, but for now it’s out of my hands, so I try not to think about it.

  I look at my phone again. I realize it’s time to meet Mr. Henry, and I don’t want us to be late.

  We head up to the third floor. Kasey meets us there, takes us to a conference room, and tells us Mr. Henry is still in a meeting. I can’t tell if she knows anything. Maybe we won’t get offers, or maybe she’s just already really good at this part of working with prospective athletes. She leaves Calvin and me in the room and closes the door.

  “I feel like I can’t breathe,” Calvin says, nervously tapping his toes. “What if I don’t get an offer and you do?” he asks.

  I shake my head. “That’s not going to happen,” I say. “I messed up the three-cone drill and my throwing. They seemed more interested in you than me anyway.”

  For what feels like an hour, we wait in that room. Calvin starts pacing, and I can’t help but stare at him as he walks around the room. I can’t tell if it’s his pacing or my own anxiety, but something is sitting in the pit of my stomach, making me feel sick.

  Finally, Mr. Henry comes in. Coach Washington isn’t with him, and I take that as a bad sign.

  “Calvin,” he says. “Please follow me.”

  I don’t know what this means, but after sitting in that room for nearly another thirty minutes, I’m convinced they’ve decided to take Calvin and not me.

  Kasey finally appears.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” I ask.

  “Follow me,” she says.

  When I get to Coach Washington’s office he’s sitting behind a desk, and Mr. Henry is sitting in one of the chairs in front of it, but Calvin is gone.

  “Sit down,” Coach Washington says.

  I sit next to Mr. Henry and do my best to look Coach Washington in the eye.

  “We’re willing to take a big risk on you,” he says. “I want you to work with a couple of our coaches and train to be a backup quarterback for the Titans.”

  I’m stunned. “I haven’t played quarterback before, sir,” I manage to get out.

  “You’re fast, and you have good instincts and a strong arm,” he says. “I think you have what it takes. We can’t give you a full ride, but we can offer you a partial scholarship that often offsets what financial aid doesn’t cover.”

  “Umm, thank you.” The words stumble out of my mouth. They don’t sound sure or strong. I stand up, extend my hand, and correct myself: “Thank you, this is a great offer.”

  “A verbal offer,” Mr. Henry says. “We’ll get the paperwork in order and you’ll be able to review it before signing day.”

  I can’t help it—I have to ask. I need to know. “What about Calvin?”

  He nods and smiles. “You two push each other. We’d like to pair you out there. Now keep up with your school work, get your application and financial aid paperwork in to us as soon as you can, and we look forward to hearing from you on signing day!”

  Chapter 17

  As I gather up my things from Shawntrell’s room, I get a phone call from the head coach at Branford University. Bob Lewis is his name. He was an assistant coach when my dad played at Branford. He asks me if I’d be willing to meet with him the next day.

  “I’m flying back to Oahu tonight,” I tell him, and I’m honest with him. “UCC paid for me to come here. They gave me a verbal offer today.”

  “What if we got you a new ticket home on Monday?” Coach Lewis asks. “We
could show you around campus, give you a chance to meet the team, show you pictures of your dad from his time here. Your father was a good guy. We called him Leo the Lion. I’m sorry he’s gone.”

  “Me too,” I tell him.

  I’m quiet for a moment and then I remember Calvin.

  “I’m traveling with a friend,” I say. “We came here together. His name is Calvin Gibson. He’s an awesome wide receiver. He was at the camp with me. I know he’d love to see Branford too.”

  There is a long pause.

  “We only have one position open on the team,” Coach says. “We’re looking for a running back. The kid we had our eye on has really disappointed us. He hasn’t gotten his grades up. And my assistant coach saw you today and was impressed. I can send a driver to pick you up and bring you over to our school tonight. We’re just two hours up the coast.”

  I take a deep breath. “I really can’t just abandon my friend. He’s kind of like my brother. I live with his family right now.”

  “Then we want him to come too,” Coach Lewis says, surprising me. “Send me your information, and we’ll arrange for you both to get home in time for school on Tuesday.”

  ***

  I finish packing and head across the hall. When I knock, Legs answers the door. He scowls and tells me Calvin is taking a shower.

  “You don’t have to worry about me,” I say. “Coach Washington doesn’t want me as a running back. He wants me as a backup quarterback.”

  Legs seems to relax. “He’s a smart guy,” he says.

  Calvin comes down the hall.

  “Are you ready?” I ask.

  “I still have to pack a couple of things,” he says. “But we still have a few hours before Kasey takes us to the airport.”

  “Go ahead and finish packing and then let’s get something to eat,” I tell him. “I still have twenty bucks on my card.”

  In the cafeteria, I tell him about the phone call from Coach Lewis.

  “But you’ve already got an offer here,” he says.

  “I know,” I say. “I just want to go visit the school. Coach Lewis coached my dad.”

  “Then let’s go.” Calvin nods. “We’ll see the campus, and talk to Coach Lewis. I’m sure he’ll have some great stories for you about your dad. But,” Calvin gives me a serious look, “I don’t want to walk away from UCC. They made us a good offer here. I told them it would be an honor to play for the Titans. I meant that. You and me. Together. Here. This is everything we hoped for.”

  “Yeah,” I say as my phone buzzes with an incoming text. I glance down to read the message.

  The driver who will take us to Branford is on his way.

  Chapter 18

  I lie. I call Kasey from our car and tell her that we have a ride to the airport.

  Calvin takes the phone from me and speaks to her. “Thank you for everything. I mean it. It was a great visit, and I can’t wait to come back next year.”

  He’s beaming when he hangs up the phone.

  “Laying it on kind of thick, aren’t you?” I say, smiling at Calvin. “They’ve already made you an offer. You don’t need to keep impressing them.”

  “Just trying to get on their good side now,” Calvin says. “Don’t want to start off the season next year on the wrong foot.”

  We drive along the coast. The sun sets over the ocean.

  “Oahu is out there somewhere,” I say.

  “I’m going to miss it,” Calvin says. “My mom thinks next summer she’ll get transferred to San Diego, which means they’d move back to the mainland and it would be easier for my parents to come to our games.”

  I realize that if that happens, I’d no longer have a home in Oahu. I’ve lived there longer than any other place. It’s been my only real home. My dad’s ashes were spread there in the bay. Regent High is there. Coach Kainoa is there.

  I watch the sun sink into the sea.

  We drive up the rest of the coast in the dark and arrive at Branford a little after ten. Even at night, the campus looks amazing—just like I remember it. The buildings are all lit up—glowing against the foothills that rise up behind the campus. A couple of students are walking out of the library as we pass, talking and laughing. I can’t help but smile to myself.

  Our driver takes us to the athletic office where the assistant coach I talked to at the last-chance camp meets us and takes us to a hotel he booked for us.

  “Wait until to you see the place in the morning,” I tell Calvin as we open the door to our room. “It’s a huge campus. And the stadium . . .”

  “I’m so tired,” Calvin says, flopping down on one of the beds and turning on the TV.

  I don’t feel tired, not at all. I’m excited, but Calvin falls asleep.

  Chapter 19

  The next day, we walk around campus. I point to the foothills and tell Calvin how my dad and his teammates used to run them to get in shape. I tell him a story my dad told me about how one time, while they were running, one of the guys got bitten by a rattlesnake, and they had to carry him all the way down to the nearest road and wave down help.

  “Was the guy okay?” Calvin asks.

  “My dad said he played the next Saturday and swore the venom gave him a boost.”

  Calvin seems to be only half-listening to me. He keeps checking his phone and sending texts. “Coach Kainoa is freaking out that we both got a verbal offer at UCC. He wants to take us out to celebrate. A nice dinner at that restaurant right on the beach, he said. I told him we could go next Saturday.”

  “Yeah,” I say. “That would be fun.”

  We make our way to the football stadium. Coach Lewis meets us outside the gate and takes us inside.

  We head down to the locker rooms and he shows us some pictures of my dad. They even mounted one on the wall. Beneath his picture, in bronze are the words: “It isn’t over until the clock says zero.”

  “He always said that,” I tell Coach Lewis. “All the time.”

  “He never gave up,” Coach Lewis said.

  “No, he didn’t,” I agree.

  The team is already out on the field to practice, and Coach brings us down there to watch. I’m impressed with the drills he has them run and with how focused each player seems to be.

  Unlike at UCC, we don’t get called out on the field to do anything. We’re just spectators. It feels good to watch the team work without the added pressure of having to play alongside them.

  “Can you imagine being out there?” I ask.

  “You will be when we play Branford the next four years,” Calvin says. He’s looking down at his phone again. It makes me angry. He isn’t watching the team, and I know he isn’t making a good impression.

  “You don’t have to be here,” I snap.

  He looks up at me. “No, we don’t. We accepted verbal offers at UCC. I don’t even know what we’re doing here.”

  I falter. I don’t know why, but I can’t bring myself to tell Calvin the full truth. So I settle with most of the truth. “I just wanted to see the campus again,” I say. “I wanted a chance to talk to Coach Lewis. I wanted to pay some respect to my dad.”

  “I’m sorry,” Calvin sighs, sliding his phone into his back pocket. “You’re right.” He looks down at the field, and I can tell he really means it.

  After a short pause Calvin asks me, “Did you ever get to see any footage of your dad’s games?”

  “A little,” I say.

  “You should ask someone if they have more tapes.”

  I nod at this.

  “I want to see him play,” Calvin says. “I want to see if you play like him.”

  Chapter 20

  After practice, Coach Lewis sends Calvin on a tour with an assistant coach and takes me into his office.

  I ask him if they have any game tapes from when my dad played, and he tells me he’ll have some copies made and sent to me.

  “Thank you,” I say. “I can’t wait to watch them. I haven’t seen much from when my dad was playing here.”

&nb
sp; Coach Lewis nods at this and smiles.

  “Now let’s talk about you,” he says.

  And we talk. Not only about my season with the Warriors, but also about what I want to study, what I want to do after college. I tell him I’d like to have a career in medicine.

  We talk for almost an hour. I feel comfortable sitting in that office. I feel like I’m home.

  ***

  We have lunch with some of the team. When they find out who my dad is, one of the guys tells me that Coach Lewis has talked about him before.

  “He’s told us we should all play tough. ‘Play like Leo Jones,’ he tells us. ‘Play with the Lion’s heart.’ ‘It isn’t over until the clock says zero.’ ”

  I nod at this. I feel like a part of my dad lives on in this place. It’s not just his picture on the wall, but his spirit. These guys all seem like hard workers who put their whole hearts into what they’re doing. I can tell they respect each other as teammates and have each other’s backs. And the vibe I get from them is friendly, like I’m already one of them.

  After lunch, Calvin and I head to the airport. It was a short trip, but we’ve toured the campus, saw my dad’s pictures, and I got to talk with Coach Lewis. It was an incredible twenty-four hours. I’m glad we came.

  As we walk to our departure gate at the airport, Calvin is quiet.

  “What did you think?” I ask.

  “It was a nice school,” he says. “But they’re not interested in me.”

  “They didn’t give me an offer either,” I say.

  “What would you do if they did?” he asks.

  “I don’t know,” I say, but I do know. I’d go to Branford. I’d play on the same field and sit in some of the same classrooms as my dad did. In a way, it would give me some time with my dad, but I don’t know how to explain this to Calvin.

  “I’d choose being on the same team with you over being rivals,” Calvin says.