As much as Brian wanted to take the jacket home to his son, Seth, he just couldn’t bring himself to steal from his players. And he wasn’t about to put it back on. Brian had no wish to look like he was back in his twenties; he had a son, and looking like he was only ten years his son’s senior was not ideal. Placing the jacket back in Kyle’s locker, Brian quickly collected the water cooler and headed out to the field.
Setting the cooler on a table on the sidelines of the field, the players quickly assembled and had their fill of water and Gatorade before being ordered back to go through different drills. After a few more hours, as the players headed for the locker room to clean up and gather their things, Brian called out to Kyle and Eric.
“I was really impressed with you two today.” The coach said, walking toward his office. “I could tell you have not played much before this, but I think you two might be up to starting in a month or two. How does that sound?”
Kyle and Eric were ecstatic. Both boys had had a blast at practice, and the prospect of actually starting a game seemed like a dream come true.
“Now you still need to get better before then. That means you two are going to have to work twice as hard as the rest of the team though.” Opening the door to his office, the coach added, “Oh, and if you know any other guys who might be interested in joining one of the schools teams, send them my way and I’ll see how I can help. Now go clean up, you smell worse then a city dump.”
Watching as the two boys headed to their lockers, Brian could only shake his head and hope that Kyle would end up sharing his jacket with more people around the school, including his son Seth.