~~Marvin POV~~
'Life is cruel' I thought I had already understood this lesson living with my dad and all, but Coach Hartman was showing me that there are so many ways to truly make someone's life cruel. I don't even think what the man is having us do is legal.
"You guys are a team, if one of you falters, you all falter. If one of you is weak, the whole team is weak" Coach Hartman was still talking about how we are all a team and how we needed to keep one another strong. I couldn't even pay attention if I wanted to, my heart was pounding so hard, that it felt like it was gonna fall out.
"Look at them Coach, they're falling on the ground like they've done a hundred. YOU GUYS HAVE TO LEARN TO DEAL THROUGH PAIN, THAT'S ALL YOUR GONNA FEEL HERE, AND YOU NEED TO DEAL WITH IT. STAND UP NOW" Coach Samson began yelling at us, he kept getting on us about standing straight and not placing any parts of our body on the ground.
I don't know how they expected us to still be able to move after doing twenty-seven forty-yard sprints, I'm sure if the best Olympic sprinters had to do this, they would collapse. We had run eight-hundred and sixty yards, it had to be child abuse to do something this gruesome
"We're gonna run one more back to the endzone. If everyone runs through that endzone, this will be the last. If one of you walks, or jogs through that line, we will start everything all over again" I didn't trust Coach Hartman's words, he had said the same thing after the tenth sprint, and after the twentieth sprint.
Still, though I wasn't going to walk or jog no matter how much my legs wished for it. The team already had a negative opinion of me due to me being one of the reasons they were doing sprints, and I wasn't gonna give them more of a reason to hate me by not finishing my sprint.
*BLEET* Coach Hartman blew his whistle, and we all took off sprinting, by the twenty-yard line I was already slowing down, I was breathing through my mouth. 'Ten more' I just needed to get to the next ten-yard lines, but the distance felt unreachable.
"DON'T WALK" Samson was yelling at the players who were getting through the endzone. Finally, I was through, I fell immediately, I needed to rest, my whole body was aching, and I couldn't catch my breath, it was torture.
"Come on big boys, finish, make sure you finish" Hartman was talking to the other guys who were coming sill behind. they didn't take much longer to finish as I could hear everyone grunting and groaning as they collapsed down onto the ground as well.
"You guys get up and go get water, we'll be starting practice soon" Coach Hartman instructed and some guys were able to stand up and begin heading over to the water station. I had to remain on the ground for a while longer, I couldn't find the strength to get up, my legs were basically jello right now.
"You gotta get up man, practice's gonna be shit if you don't have any water in you" Caleb came over to me, his sweat dripping from his head and onto my face. It was very disgusting, he could have just moved a bit backward and I wouldn't have his facial fluids all over my eyes, and mouth.
I would've told him to back up, but that would waste the little energy that I had. I got up and made my way to the water station, moving past the guys who were coming back onto the field. Getting to the water station there was one person in front of me 'fuck I can't deal with this right now'
Desmond had just finished gulping down water, turning around he locked eyes with me. The air was getting tense as we just stared at one another, I didn't want a repeat of what happened earlier but he was blocking my path to getting water.
Thankfully he just brushed past me and headed back to the field, I got my drink of water, it was a sweet relief. I even doused my face in the water to help ward off the sun's rays and wipe off my sweat and Caleb's sweat.
"ONE MINUTE" Coach Samson gave a warning to get everyone back on the field. I quickly gulped some more water and then rushed back onto the field. On the field, it seemed that the players had split themselves into groups based on positions.
"Receiving core stay here and quarterbacks remain here, Defense backs and linemen head down to the other side. Running backs and Linebackers, Coach Delontae will meet you at the fifty " Coach Hartman directed the players on where to go.
I'm guessing the receivers would be running routes and the quarterbacks would be throwing to them, seemed simple enough. The other quarterbacks alongside me were two guys with significant lean muscle mass on their bodies. From what I remember during the last practice, they were decent passers, their arm strength was their main feature and their accuracy was okay.
"Alright, I'll call out the route, and the depth to which you run the route. Make sure you run full speed, if any of you jog a single route, you will give me ten, understood" The receivers said yes as they all got into a single file line. Coach Hartman then turned to us the quarterbacks.
"You guy will rotate every player, understand" We nodded yes, and we also got into a single file line. Wilson was the first quarterback, with Danny being second in line and I was last. The order arrangement was perfectly fine with me, this gave me time to see how the other quarterbacks played and how the receivers ran their routes.
"Five yard In" Coach Hartman blew his whistle after calling out the route, the first receiver got off the line quickly, he cut in as quickly before holding his hands out to get the ball. Wilson threw the ball, a good spiral, but he had thrown it a bit late forcing the receiver to try and catch it behind his head.
"Pick up the ball and get in line. Next" Coach Hartman wasted no time, in getting the next person set, he blew his whistle after they had gotten into their release stance. *BLEET* Coach Hartman blew his whistle and the receiver stumbled as he got off the line.
Danny must have taken note of the receiver's stumbles cause he slowed down in his throwing motion, or maybe he was just slow when releasing the ball. The receiver cut in and Danny threw the ball, it was slightly high but it didn't take the receiver much to stretch his hands up and catch it.
"Next" It was now my turn to pass, not much to be worried about though.
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~~Caleb POV~~
Running is so stupid, whoever invented this torture method should be brought back to life and killed again. Coach Hartman as well, the guy was doing child abuse having us run so much all because of a fight that we stopped. I don't even think they understood what happened with the fight, we don't even know what happened, I should ask Marvin later when we finish practice.
Finally, Coach Hartman released from our torture and us to go get some water. As I was going I saw Adam, he didn't look as horrible as I felt, his face showed no signs of discomfort, the only way you would even know he had done anything would be the sweat that ran down his face. 'I don't know what secret sauce he had before the summer but that stuff has turned him into a conditioning master'
I stopped looking at Adam and got my sip of water, heading back onto the field. I saw Marvin and the dude looked miserable, way more than I looked after we were done sprinting. He needed to get up and go get some water, or he wouldn't be able to last the rest of practice.
After getting him to get up, I went to the rest of the players, we were splitting off into positional groups so I was able to talk with Justin and Adam. "So what do you think caused the fight?" I had to ask, from what I had seen Marvin wasn't a guy that would get into a fight, he was so quiet.
"I got a look at things before Coach Alvarez took them away, Marvin had his stuff in Desmond's locker and you know how Desmond gets" Adam explained what he had seen, it made sense, Desmond was a crazy dude and Marvin was new to the team so he wouldn't know how the locker room was.
"Wow, poor guy. Got his head rocked just cause he placed his pads in a locker" Justin got into the conversation, the fight is probably why Marvin looked so horrible, it's not easy to get into a fight, especially with a massive guy like Desmond and then run twenty-eight forty yard sprints.
: Before we could talk more, Coach Hartman started directing players to where they needed to go for practice. Then he had us get started to start running routes, we were going to be running an In at five yards.
The first person to run a route was Justin, he ran it well but Wilson threw the ball late and Justin had to try and catch it behind him, he bobbled the ball, not getting a good grip on it and eventually just letting it drop. Coach Hartman had him get the ball and then quickly return back into the line.
Next up was Chris, he also ran the route well but Danny threw the ball high, luckily it wasn't too high for Chris to catch it. Finally, it was my turn to run, the person who would be throwing at me was Marvin, this was a good time to actually see how well he throws.
*BLEET* I got off the line at Coach Hartman's whistle, getting to the five-yard line I cut in as hard as I could, and as soon as I turned around I put my hands up to get the ball. Marvin threw the ball hitting me right in the middle of my chest where my hands were at the ready.
I was able to get the ball nicely tucked before slowing down and returning back to the line, 'Wow that was nice'. The ball came to me as I was running, I didn't have to break my stride or anything, and it went right into the middle of my hands, that was a good pass.
Next up was Jake, Wilson threw the ball right after Jake had cut in, the ball came in hot at Jake's face, he was barely able to secure the ball properly. Since we hadn't taken our gloves when we left the locker room, it was going to be hard to maintain a good grip on the ball as we continued.
The next throws by Danny and Marvin were good, Kevin and Luke were able to catch the ball perfectly and in stride. The last one up was Adam, Wilson would be throwing to him, and while I wasn't exactly confident in Wilson being able to throw a great ball, I was sure Adam would be able to catch it well.
*BLEET* Adam took off at the whistle, he got to the five-yard line, way faster than any of us had been able to. Adam made his cut in and threw his hands up, Wilson passed the ball but it was way in front of Adam, he would have had to dive to even make that catch. Adam didn't waste any time though and picked up the ball, returning back to the line.
"Quarterbacks, this is to teach you your receivers run their routes when you're playing in a game, they're not gonna yell I'm open, YOU have to see that and get the ball to them immediately" Coach Hartman was lecturing the quarterbacks on what to do, it was pretty basic stuff though so I don't think any of them were paying attention to Coach Hartman.
"We're gonna be going down to the ten-yard line, you're gonna do a move at the five, you're running an out. The ball is going to be coming to you as soon as you cut out at the ten-yard line, YOU are to catch the ball, I don't care if it's overthrown, under thrown, MAKE AN ATTEMPT." Coach Hartman started his lecture on us, we wanted to see us attempt to catch all passes, hopefully, the quarterbacks would be able to pass well and we wouldn't have to be diving or jumping for anything.
Justin was back up, he ran hard up to the five-yard line before faking a comeback and then running up to the ten and making his cut out. Danny threw the ball as Justin made his cut out but it didn't get there quick enough so Justin had to wait and then catch the ball.
Marvin was next up to throw, he hadn't made a bad pass yet and I wonder if he'll be able to keep his streak going, Chris took off at the whistle, he was slower than Justin off the line, he also made the same fake comeback move as Justin. Marvin threw the ball as soon as Chris made his cut out, the ball flew over to Chris as he began running to the edge of the sideline.
The pass was smooth, a bit far out for my taste but Chris didn't seem to mind as he jogged back to the field. "How was the pass?" I asked Chris as he passed me, I wanted to confirm if the pass was good for him, and he held up an okay as he went to the back. I guess Marvin still had his good pass streak going on.
(A late chapter, sorry but I've been busy getting ready for the academic year. Let me know what you think and please have a good day or night.)