The practice wasn't too bad, and Nate quickly found that with the decision to switch to flag football, the real work in the practice related to retaining the coordination and the methods behind using them. While both teams had offensive and defensive line positions and the plan was to play the game as though it were a typical 11 on 11 football game, there were some methods that related to how things like blocking would work in flag football. The theory that worked out was actually rather ingenious. Since full on blocks weren't possible in flag football, both offense and defensive sides had to coordinate in order to pull the other side's flag, even with linemen and linebacker positions. If a defensive player had his flag pulled, he was ruled "blocked" and couldn't participate in the play further. If an offensive lineman had his flag pulled, he was ruled "beaten" and the defender would be able to move on to rush the passer or try to make a play in the backfield.
It was something that made for a lot of running and even potentially made for a lot of big plays. Particularly when for some of the werehorses and werecattle that were on the "prey" team, their increased size made some of that more difficult. Even in human form, they were bigger and bulkier than just about anyone on the field. The werehorses were near perfect athletes and if given an open route into space were quite capable of outrunning anyone on the predator side, but since they had to defend against losing a flag when blocking, some of the natural quickness and dexterity that the predator side had evened out. The werecattle seemed to struggle with even more, as while they were easily stronger than even many of the werehorses on the prey side, they weren't quite as graceful as the werehorses were. If the game were still tackle, even as a Junior, Nate got the sense that he probably wouldn't last very long at trying to push them out of position.
The ones that seemed to do extremely well for the prey side were the wererabbits and wererats that had come out to play. They were smaller and were able to maneuver through the "dodge" drills with regard to keeping their flag than the werecattle or werehorses did. And in some drills with regard to agility, they also proved to be very good at that. And that was easily seen as the coaches ran everyone through position specific drills. All of it kept Nate fairly busy as this was the first time he'd actually participated in any sporting event and was working his way through what he was to do on the various plays, though he was getting better, as soon came in the latter half of practice where they ran mixed drills to run plays.
"You're getting better..." the coach commented to Nate as he came off the field and the next group went in to practice some of the same sequence of plays, "but on that pass play... you want to make the cut sharp and go directly to the sideline, not a shallow curve... That way you're either wide open in the flat or have drawn attention down to you while the receiver is open further downfield."
"I thought that was the 7-4 straight play," Nate said weakly, referring to one of the plays that was in the playbook that he'd been given to study. He'd done a fairly good job of memorizing plays, but there were a lot of them and some were fairly similar. It was entirely possible that he'd gotten a bit confused on some of the plays.
"No... there you'd run straight out from your position on the end of the line and catch the ball," the coach spoke, "that play depends on speed. You get out their quick, catch the ball, and then run upfield before they can catch you. The 7-4 flat play is slightly different."
"My bad..." Nate said weakly again before looking down.
"No problem... just keep studying the playbook when you can," the coach answered, "and as I said, you're getting better."
Nate nodded and moved over to the sideline where some of the others were watching as practice continued. Alex wasn't there for the moment, as he was presently taking his turn with group running plays on the offensive side of the ball against those that were on the defensive side of the ball. He did find Ben, though, who was presently drinking from a water bottle that he'd brought out to the field from the locker room. The air was cooling at present, but it wasn't too bad at the moment, or at least it didn't seem to bother Nate as much as he thought it might. He wondered if that was something that was a carry over from becoming a werewolf, but he didn't say anything on that, particularly as Ben still looked a bit nervous.
"Still frustrated with whether or not you'll get permission?" Nate asked to him as he approached.
"Worried might be the better word," Ben answered as he fastened the cap and then tossed over to the side.
"I think things will be fine... I mean... what we brainstormed at lunch might work," Nate said to his friend as they watched the next play go, with Alex taking the handoff and diving up the middle, gaining about four yards before an "unblocked" defender managed to grab his flag.
"Key word in that is might," Ben sighed, "mom... Frances... could stand firm on her decision, even if it makes little sense."
"I don't suppose urging you to stay positive will help?" Nate asked.
"It'd be a comfort to know that friends are there... but I'll probably still worry," Ben answered, "Though... I suppose even if Frances still says no... I'll still be able to watch you and Alex play. Since everyone will get at least some time in the game... And the coach is right, you are getting better."
"And pretty good given that you've said you've never even played football before," another student spoke up and patted Nate's shoulder.
"There are still lots of plays to memorize..." Nate admitted, "and on that last one, I'll admit I got a bit confused on the specific route to run."
"Yeah... but then many of us have been in this game for at least one year prior to this year and thus have some experience with the plays," the other student answered, "In this... you're on par with many of the Freshmen and you are catching on rather quickly."
"And shoot, even I've gotten confused on some plays from time to time," Ben added, "don't let Alex's talk of me being a superstar athlete fool you. Even I've made mistakes."
A series of shrill whistles then paused the conversation drawing full attention to the coach as he pointed down toward the goal line. He gave one call for "conditioning" and everyone soon jogged down toward the goal line. This gave some indication that they were reaching the end of practice. The last thing before they'd finish and could hit the showers would be to run various conditioning drills, which often varied at running a set distance several times, running an ever increasing distance until the ended with a one hundred sprint, or some times running from sideline to sideline and back. A lot of that was left up to the coaches and what they felt like running. Nate jogged along with some confidence, as this was something that becoming a werewolf did help him with. As before, while he'd got along fairly well with people, he wasn't exactly the most active at these sorts of things. He'd already found that becoming a werewolf had increased his stamina, and strangely a part of him actually liked the exercise.