Double Reverse (4 page)

Ready … set … hut one!” Jesse faded back three steps, looked to his left, and fired a quick slant pass. Langston reached out and grabbed the ball in full stride.

“First down!” Langston spun the football in the playground grass. “Nice throw, Jess. Right on the money.”

“How come you’re always throwing to him?” Quinn complained as he jogged back to the line of scrimmage to get ready for another play.

Jesse held out his arms wide as if to take in the entire football field at Hobbs Park. “He’s always open,” he said.

“What? And I’m not?”

The three boys were practicing pass patterns and there were no defensive backs anywhere in sight.

“All right, all right,” Jesse said, laughing. “I’ll throw you one. Let’s run Play Action, Waggle Out.” He turned toward the backfield and explained the play. “Langston will line up at running back. I’ll fake it to him and roll out, then hit you on a down-and-out.”

“Do you want me to hold my block?” Quinn asked.

“Yeah, one count.”

Jesse held the ball in front of him just the way Jay always did. Langston and Quinn lined up in three-point stance: Langston at running back, Quinn at tight end.

“Ready … set … hut one!”

The boys sprang into action. Jesse tucked the ball close to his body and spun left. He slipped the ball in and out of Langston’s midsection and rolled out to the right.

Quinn pretended to block an imaginary defensive end, then took three quick, choppy steps downfield and broke to the right. While
still on the run, Jesse flicked him a perfect spiral.

“Touchdown!” the big guy shouted as he sprinted under the goalposts. He spiked the ball into the grass.

“We finally won one!” Jesse raised his arms in victory.

Langston did his own celebration dance around the empty football field. “We finally found a team we could beat,” he joked.

“Let’s take a break,” Quinn suggested. “I’m exhausted from playing against these nobodies.”

Jesse peered toward the soccer pitch in the far corner of the park. “Why don’t we check out the soccer game, see who’s playing?” He waved his hand in a circle. “Come on, let’s race.”

The three teammates sped toward the soccer pitch. They arrived huffing and puffing. Jesse was first, then Langston, then Quinn.

“It’s the freshman girls’ team,” Jesse said, surveying the field. “I think they’re playing Eastport.”

“Look,” Langston said. “Savannah’s in the goal.”

With the action at the other end of the field, Savannah stood in her Day-Glo yellow goalie jersey about fifteen yards in front of her goal.

Langston cupped his hands and shouted, “Hey, Savannah! Nice gloves!”

She recognized the boys and waved.

Eastport got the ball and went on the attack. Savannah turned her attention back to the field. She snagged a crossing pass out of the air and waved her players away from the goal. After two short steps, she boomed a punt high and far downfield.

“Whoa!” Jesse said. “Did you see that kick?”

“Yeah,” Quinn said. “It went past midfield.”

Her next three punts were just as spectacular as the first. Watching Savannah got Jesse thinking.

An Eastport shot sailed over the net. Savannah retrieved the ball and placed it near the corner of the penalty area. She took a few confident steps forward and …
boom!
The ball soared up the center of the field.

“Man, that girl can really kick!” Jesse exclaimed.

“A lot better than Denny,” Langston said, referring to the freshman team’s not-very-good kicker.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Jesse said softly to himself. He thought back to the season’s many short punts and kickoffs that had put the Panthers in poor field position. He stared at Langston for a moment, then looked over at Quinn.

“Why don’t we ask Savannah to be our kicker?” Jesse said, putting into words what he’d been thinking ever since he saw her blast that first kick.

“For starters, she’s a girl,” Quinn said.

“So what? Girls can play football.”

“I don’t know,” Langston said. “She doesn’t, you know, really look like a kicker.”

“Yeah, and I don’t look like a quarterback,” Jesse said. Another of Savannah’s punts sailed high into the air. “If you ask me, I’d say she looks a lot like a kicker.”

“She can’t play football,” Quinn said. “She’s already playing soccer.”

“Why don’t we ask her?” Jesse suggested. “Let her decide. She didn’t sound crazy about playing the goal when we saw her at the mall.”

“What about the other guys?” Quinn persisted. “Maybe they don’t want a girl on the team.”

“They want to win, don’t they?” Jesse said. “If we’re going to win, we need a kicker.” Another one of Savannah’s punts flew high in the air. “And she can really kick.”

The last kick seemed to silence Quinn.

“All right, so who’s gonna ask her?” Langston said.

“Mr. Quarterback,” Quinn said, pointing at Jesse. “It’s his big idea.”

After the game, the three boys rushed up to Savannah and congratulated her on her team’s win. After a minute, Jesse could feel Langston’s hand on his back. “Go ahead, ask her,” his friend whispered.

“Ask me what?” Savannah said.

“Well, you know, I was thinking … I mean, we were wondering,” Jesse said, searching
for the right words, “whether you would think about being the kicker—you know like the punter and stuff—for the freshman football team.”

“Me?” She looked surprised. “On the football team?”

Quinn grabbed Jesse by the arm. “Let’s go. I knew it was a stupid idea.”

Savannah held up her gloved hands. “Hold on,” she said. A small smile slid across her lips. “I think it could be kind of cool.”

“Wait,” Quinn said to the boys. “We don’t even know if she can kick a football.”

“Are you crazy?” Jesse shouted. “Were you watching that soccer game?”

“Quinn’s right,” Langston said. “Kicking a football is a lot different than kicking a soccer ball.”

Savannah looked at the football under Jesse’s arm. “There’s only one way to find out,” she declared. “I’ll meet you at the football field at”—she checked her phone—“four o’clock.”

When the three friends arrived at the football field, Savannah was waiting for them, still in her soccer uniform. “Hey,” she said. “How do you want to do this?”

“Let’s start with punting,” Jesse suggested.

Quinn hiked the ball to Savannah and the soccer goalie boomed punts downfield to Jesse and Langston. With every punt, the boys grew more excited.

“Dude, she is
way
better than Denny.”

“Whoa, fair catch, fair catch.”

“Look at that! The girl has got serious hang time on her kicks.”

After a while, Jesse pointed to the goalposts. “Do you think you can kick field goals?” he asked.

“No problem,” Savannah said.

They set up for a 25-yard field goal.

Langston ran behind the end zone. “I’ll stand back here so I can tell you whether the kick is good or not.”

Quinn crouched down and stared back through his legs, ready to hike the ball. Jesse knelt on his left knee and held out his
hands. Savannah stepped off the distance from the ball like an old pro. She looked at Jesse and nodded.

“Ready … set … hut one!”

Quinn hiked the ball.

Jesse spotted it.

Savannah stepped forward and …

Plunk!

The ball sailed end over end, arcing straight and true through the uprights. Langston threw his arms up to signal the kick was good.

Jesse looked at his teammates’ surprised faces and smiled. “I think we’ve found ourselves a kicker.”

So we thought Savannah could be our kicker,” Jesse said to Coach Butler and Coach Vittone.

Quinn and Langston stood in back of Jesse in full football gear. They had arrived early, a few minutes before their Monday practice. Savannah waited in gray sweats with her long brown hair pulled back.

“Are you serious?” Coach Butler sounded even less convinced than he had when Jesse asked to try out for quarterback.

“Yeah,” Jesse insisted. “I mean, she can really boom it.”

“She’s got serious hang time, Coach,” Langston added. “She’s got a real strong leg. And hey, she’s bigger than me.” He
looked around. “I know that’s not saying much, but she is.”

Coach Butler eyed Savannah. “What do
you
think?” he asked.

Savannah didn’t even blink. “I think I can do it,” she said.

“Have you ever played football?” Coach Vittone asked.

“Some. Touch football down at the park. And I did some punting and place kicking with these guys over the weekend.”

“Ever play tackle football?”

“Yeah, with my older brothers … sometimes.”

“Was one of your brothers named Julius?” Coach Vittone asked. “I remember him, good player.”

Savannah nodded, smiling. “Yeah, he could play.”

“I don’t know about this,” Coach Butler said.

“Lots of girls play football,” Jesse said. “I looked online last night and there are hundreds of them on high school teams. One girl even kicked the winning field goal for
her school on the same night she was the Homecoming Queen.”

“I don’t want to be the Homecoming Queen,” Savannah said. “I want to play football.”

“Listen, I’ve got no problem with girls playing football.” Coach Butler turned to Savannah. “But what about soccer? Aren’t you the goalkeeper for the freshman team? What’s Coach Oliver got to say about this?”

“I figured I’d try out before I talked to Coach Oliver.” Savannah didn’t sound quite so confident now. “Anyway, I thought it would be a lot more fun to score points instead of stopping goals.”

Coach Butler looked at Coach Vittone. “What do you think?”

“It’s worth a shot,” Coach Vittone said in a low voice. “We definitely need an upgrade in our kicking game. But we’d need to clear it with Coach Oliver.”

Coach Butler nodded toward the practice field where the rest of the team had begun to gather. “All right then. Guys, go get warmed up. And Savannah, can you stick
around a few minutes? While the team’s doing drills, Coach Vittone will see what you can do.”

Jesse, Quinn, and Langston trotted onto the field. Jesse looked back and gave Savannah a thumbs-up sign.

“We’ll need a couple of guys to set you up. How do you want to work this?” Coach Vittone asked Savannah.

“Well,” she said. “Quinn’s been my long snapper and Jesse’s been my holder. So I would kind of like to use them. At least for the first few kicks.”

Savannah began warming up by stretching along the sidelines. The team barely noticed her as they jogged with their heads down around the field. On the second lap, Griffin, the Panthers’ running back, yelled out, “Hey, Savannah! You lost or something? This isn’t the soccer pitch.”

“She’s not lost,” Jesse said without slowing his pace. “She might be our kicker.”

“No way. What are you talking about?” another Panther protested.

“Savannah. I think she’s gonna be our
kicker. She can really boot it.”

“A girl?”

“So what if she’s a girl,” Jesse said. “I’m telling you she’s a kicker.”

“Good,” Griffin muttered. “We could use one.”

During the warm-ups, Jesse saw that Coach Vittone had Savannah at the other end of the field, demonstrating the basics of punting a football.

Vittone waved from downfield. “Jesse? Quinn? Get over here!”

As they approached, Jesse heard the coach talking to Savannah. “Hold the laces away from your foot,” he said. “Take two steps. Power your way through the ball.”

Savannah went through the motions a couple of times.

“Okay then,” Vittone said. “You guys get into position and let’s give this a try.”

Quinn was hiking from the 10-yard line, so Jesse set himself up at the 40-yard line.
A 30-yard kick would be pretty good,
he thought.

“Ready, Jesse?” called the coach. “Tell me
what yard line you’re on when you catch the ball.”

The first punt sailed in a tight spiral high above Jesse’s head. He dashed back and caught the ball over his shoulder like a long pass. “The 47!” he yelled back. “That’s a 37-yard kick.”

Savannah’s kicks kept on coming and Jesse kept on shouting out the yardages: 35 yards … 39 yards … 28 yards … Only one of the kicks fell too short for him to catch it.

Coach Vittone waved Jesse in.

“I told you she could kick,” Jesse said breathlessly. He traded high fives with Savannah and Quinn.

“Let’s try some field goals,” Coach Vittone said. “We’ll start with a few extra points.”

Quinn hiked the ball from the three-yard line. Jesse spotted the ball at the ten-yard line. Savannah drove it through the uprights. No problem.

“It’s good!” Jesse shouted.

After a few more kicks, they moved back five yards. Then another five yards. Now and then a kick was off line, but Savannah
made enough of them to impress Coach Vittone. He smiled. He liked what he was seeing.

Coach Butler arrived just as a 35-yard field goal floated over the crossbar. “So what’s the verdict?” he asked.

“We’d better find this girl a football uniform,” Vittone said.

Jesse and Quinn let out a cheer. “All right! Way to go, Savannah! We’ve got ourselves a kicker.”

Savannah undid her ponytail and shook out her hair around her shoulders. “I wonder if I should cut my hair,” she said as if the thought had just occurred to her.

“Don’t worry about that,” Coach Butler assured her.

Jesse laughed. “Yeah. There are plenty of guys in the NFL with longer hair than you.”