Touchdown Tony Crowne and the Mystery of the Missing Cheerleader (8 page)

Before the Coach Tiny era, the Bobcats would play their home games on one of the Bethel Community Park’s utility fields which were not mowed regularly, there were no yardage stripes and a couple of orange traffic cones would substitute for the goal line. The Bobcats’ uniforms and equipment were often a mishmash of hand-me-downs and were woefully outdated. After Coach Tiny took over the reins, he used his influence with the school board and, with the blessing of the Dersee High School football coach Wayne Hayes, received permission to play on their newly renovated field. He also held several fund-raising events at his restaurant to raise money to buy new red and gray uniforms as well as state-of-the-art equipment for the Bobcats’ players.

Maria, Anthony Jr. and the Judge always came early to Tony’s football games mainly to stake out their seats in the bleachers, but also to meet with the other parents on the team and catch up on the local news. While his son and daughter-in-law were off talking with their friends, Judge Crowne would sit in the bleachers and receive a steady stream of visitors, such as the Mayor, the police chief and other leading citizens of Dersee all of whom had sons or grandsons playing for the Bobcats. Since retiring from the bench, this was one of the few opportunities for him to see his old cronies and do a little socializing.

In the Bobcats locker room, the players were dressed and ready to go onto the field for their pregame warm-ups and were waiting for Coach Tiny’s pep talk. They could see Tony through the coach’s office window gesturing excitedly while speaking to Coach Tiny and Coach Buck.

“And you’re saying that Judd caught every pass you threw to him last night?” Coach Tiny asked with a serious look on his face.

“You wouldn’t believe it, Coach. I threw the ball high, low, hard, soft, in front of him, in back of him, over his shoulder and he caught all of them, some he even caught one-handed just to show off! I think he could be a real secret weapon in the right situation.”

Coach Buck whistled in amazement and eyeballed Coach Tiny to see what his reaction would be.

“Yeah, I can see your point. But, it has to be the right situation. Judd is just too valuable at left tackle guarding Nick’s blind spot to run a lot of receiver plays. Here’s what we will do for today’s game: get with Nick and Judd about the tackle eligible play and make sure they both know what to do.” Coach Tiny thought for a moment and added, “Also, do not, under any circumstances, let Nick practice passing to Judd during warm-ups. I want this to come as a complete surprise to the Lions if we have to use it. Got it?”

“Got it, Coach!” Tony grinned and trotted out of the office. He went to Nick and Judd and filled them in on the new play.

“You know we’re supposed to get beat today,” Coach Tiny somberly said as he stared at the floor and began his pregame speech. He exhaled sharply, looked up at the ceiling and continued in an almost mournful voice, “Yes, today we are supposed to get killed by a score of 35 to 7.” He repeated the score for effect, “Yes sir, 35 to 7.” He raises his voice louder and points to a news article that’s pinned on the locker bulletin board, “That so-called sports writer for the Herald thinks we’re nothin’ but dead meat for those Lions to pick over.” Now his voice is booming, “He even said we were ‘LUCKY’ to beat such a great team last year! Well, I’ve got NEWS for him!” Coach Tiny is on a roll now, pacing back and forth in front of his players, sweat cascading down his face, his neck veins pulsating, “I’ve got FRONT PAGE NEWS for him! The past is the past! What matters now is today!” Coach Tiny paused, stared at each and every player as he let the last sentence sink in and bellowed, “And today we are a much better team than last year!”

By this time, all the players were hopping up and down, holding their helmets high and chanting, “Coach! Coach! Coach!”

“WHO ARE WE?” Coach Tiny roared.

“The Bobcats!”

“WHO!”

“The Bobcats!”

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

“THE BOBCATS!”

“WHAT ARE WE?”

“Winners!”

“WHAT ARE WE?”

“Winners!”

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

“WINNERS! WINNERS! WINNERS!”

“ARE WE GOING TO BEAT THE LIONS?”

“Yes, sir!”

“ARE WE GOING TO BEAT THE LIONS?”

“Yes, sir!”

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

“YES, SIR! YES, SIR! YES, SIR!”

Chapter 12- The Felicity Factor

Smilin’ Bob Taggart, who is an on-air personality from the local radio station WDER and is also the public address announcer for the Bobcat’s games, stood at the fifty-yard line with his wireless microphone, flashed his toothy Hollywood smile and signaled Coach Tiny to send his team crashing through the “Go ‘Cats!” banner held by two cheerleaders. When he gave the signal to Coach Tiny, the pep band broke into their spirited rendition of the Bobcat fight song which brought the Dersee fans to their feet, clapping, stomping the bleachers and chanting loudly for their team.

“And now, he-e-e-e-re’s YOUR defending champion, the Dersee Bobca-a-a-a-ts!!!” Smilin’ Bob announced in his best announcer voice.

Nick Miller and Tony are this year’s Bobcat captains and the captains always have the honor of leading the team through the banner and out onto the field. When Nick and Tony ripped through the banner, Tony glimpsed a familiar face holding her pom-poms in the air, grinning broadly and shouting “Go ‘Cats!” and he couldn’t believe it. As he ran by her she leaned toward him, thrust a pom-pom in his face mask and shouted, “I told you so! Woo! Go ‘Cats!”

It’s been a tradition at Bobcat games for Coach Tiny to give a short speech on good sportsmanship for the benefit of the fans, the opposing fans and the two teams who are playing that day. Jogging onto the field and up to Smilin’ Bob, Coach Tiny took the microphone, re-arranged his ball cap and launched into his speech.

Coach Tiny’s speech gave Tony a short period of time to make sense of what just occurred. The cheerleaders had now taken their positions in front of the hometown bleachers, so Tony turned around to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating and his eyes once again fell on that familiar face:
Felicity Whittaker
! Cheerleading? What gives? He scanned the other five cheerleader’s faces and was shocked that Ash wasn’t among them. Stunned for a second, he recovered and gazed into the stands hoping to see Ash with her parents who normally sit next to his mother and father during the game. She’s not there either. Wait a minute, her parents aren’t there! What is going on?

“—and so I end with a favorite quote of mine from the great Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne, ‘Win or lose, do it fairly.’” Coach Tiny raised his fist into the air, smiled and thundered into the microphone, “LET’S PLAY!” As soon as Coach Tiny uttered the word “play,” the pep band erupted back into the Bobcats’ fight song and all the Dersee fans stood, pumped their fists and chanted:

“You don’t wanna fight with the ‘Cats! Hey! You don’t wanna fight with the ‘Cats! Hey!”

“The ‘Cats will take you down! Hey! The ‘Cats will take you down! Hey!”

“You don’t wanna fight with the ‘Cats! Hey! You don’t wanna fight with the ‘Cats! Hey!”

When Coach Tiny handed the microphone back to Smilin’ Bob he asked, “Is your buddy up in the press box with you?”

“Yeah, he’s up there.” Smilin’ Bob replied, smiling.

“Good, deliver this message to him.” Coach Tiny spoke a few words into his ear, pivoted and strode toward his sideline, his big jaw jutting out as if he was going to play in the game.

Smilin’ Bob returned to the press box, sat down, swallowed a gulp of cold coffee and said, “I got a message for you from your old pal Tiny.”

“Really? What did my old pal Tiny have to say?” Hunter Dunwoody asked as he peered down at the football field.

Smilin’ Bob turned to Dunwoody, chuckled and said, “You ain’t gonna believe this one, but he said, ‘I guarantee we’ll win this game.’”

Dunwoody put his binoculars up to his eyes, studied the sidelines and remarked crustily, “We’ll see, we’ll see. The Lions are tougher than he thinks.” Dunwoody put his binoculars down, looked at the roster sheet and asked, “Where did this number 75 come from? Judd Judson? Is he new? Whaddya know about him?”

Smilin’ Bob arched his eyebrows, shrugged and said, “Nah, I don’t know a thing about him.”

Chapter 13- The Kick Off

The Lions won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff. Coach Tiny assembled the kickoff team around him and proceeded to go over their lane assignments. Tony only half-listened to him, he was more concerned with finding out what happened to Ash. As he stood in the huddle surrounding Coach Tiny, he peered up into the stands, locked eyes with his mother and mouthed the words, “Where-is-Ash?” His mother with a worried look, shook her head and mouthed back, “We-don’t-know!” Tony closed his eyes in frustration and tried to think of what he could do to help.

“—and Tony, make sure you keep containment on your side. Everybody got it?” Coach Tiny’s gaze darted around to each player. “Good. Get out there and have a good game!”

Tony ran to his spot next to the Lions’ sideline still thinking about Ash’s disappearance. His mind was churning through all the possible reasons for Ash not coming to the game and how Felicity could be involved, when he realized the “THUD” he heard was Tim Crossman’s opening kickoff. Tim’s kickoff, probably due to the butterfly’s in his stomach, was hooked to the far left-hand side of the field away from Tony and bounced twice before being cleanly fielded just inches from the thirty-yard line out-of-bounds marker by the Lions speedy returner, Matt Bishop.

Matt thought about running up the sidelines until he saw a big number 75 bulldogging his way through two blockers and bearing down on him. Without thinking, Matt feigned the first Bobcat tackler to the right and then scooted on a parallel path along the thirty-yard line to the opposite side of the field.

Using his own feint to get past the first blocker without any contact, Tony ran down the sideline until he saw how far the ball sailed to the left and he, as well as the other Bobcat players on his side began to naturally drift to the center of the field instead of staying in their lane.

As soon as Coach Tiny saw Matt Bishop fake the first tackler and head toward the other sideline, he knew what was about to happen and he didn’t like it. Waving his arms frantically to get Tony’s attention, he yelled, “Get back in your lane, Tony! Get back in your lane!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Tony saw Coach Tiny waving at him, saw Matt Bishop emerge from the stack of players near the sideline and knew his angle of pursuit was way off. He dug is feet into the ground to stop his momentum, swung his right arm around to help him pivot and spun the other direction. He had Matt in his sights for a sure open-field tackle when—

THWACK!

The initial blocker Tony had dodged on the kickoff followed him down the field and laid his shoulder pads directly into Tony’s chest, knocking him sideways into the air and landing on his back with a thud. A collective groan from the Bobcats’ fans issued from the bleachers after they witnessed the block on Tony. Gasping for his breath, Tony moved his head slightly to see if anyone else had tackled Matt Bishop. He could hear the Lakeside Lions fans cheering loudly because he was on that side of the field and he knew that was a bad omen. But then he heard the Bobcat fans faintly yelling, “Get’em Judd, get’em Judd!” and saw Judd diving toward Matt Bishop, grasp his lead foot and trip him up. Unfortunately, the next sound he heard was the ref’s voice yelling “Touchdown!” and the Lions’ fans going nuts.

“I can’t believe what I just saw,” said a slack-jawed Hunter Dunwoody. He put his binoculars down and stared at Smilin’ Bob in disbelief.

Smilin’ Bob announced over the p.a. that number 25, Matt Bishop, had scored on a seventy-yard kickoff return, muted the microphone, turned to Dunwoody and said, “Yeah, that was a nifty run and a slobber-knocker of a block on Tony Crowne.”

Dunwoody barked, “Are you kidding me? I’m talking about number 75—what’s his name—oh, yeah, Judson. That kid ran down the field, bulldozed at least three or four blockers on his way, turned up field, ran another seventy yards and almost caught Bishop at the five-yard line. Meh, Bishop was lucky to stumble into the end zone. Wow! And he’s a lineman!”

Chapter 14- The Lion Roars

The referee, standing over a still gasping-for-breath Tony, blew two quick whistles and waved his arm to Coach Tiny and shouted, “Injured man! Injured man!”

“Official’s timeout for an injured player,” Smilin’ Bob intoned over the p.a. system, “Number 24, Tony Crowne.”

Doc Claiborne, the Bobcat’s team doctor and the local general practitioner, ran out to attend to Tony followed closely by Coach Tiny. Doc reached him, knelt beside him and eyeballed him for apparent injuries. Realizing Tony’s main problem was his difficulty in breathing; Doc grabbed his waistband, lifted it up and instructed Tony in a calm voice, “Try to take some deep breaths, Tony, not little ones, deep breaths. That’s it. Here, let’s sit you up, that will relax your muscles.”

Tony’s breathing slowed down and he was able to speak a little, “Sorry Coach, that was my fault. I shoulda had him.”

“Don’t you worry about that now, Tony. How are you feeling?” Coach Tiny’s bright blue eyes stared at Tony with compassion.