Bounce Back

This story takes place at very big school in The Hood of a small town called CharlesBerg, CharlesBerg, California. There sports programs are just not quite there. There football team has to wear practice jerseys to games because they can’t afford real jerseys. The basketball jerseys have holes on them because they have been used for the past 15 years. The school has very good potential they just have yet to find it.

On the announcements the announcer, announces that the football sign up sheets are in the office as is the new coach.The coach watches every single boy sign up throughout the day, the boys not knowing that would be there new coach. Practice starts on Monday they read on the signup sheet. Be ready to work hard. Most of the boys that go to the school are African-American, and most of them have attitudes. Most of them are criminals and are into drugs. The coach's goal is to change that.

“Alright how’s everyone doing, I am your new coach, Coach Vandi”.

“I am your new athletic director”. “Now that you know my name why don’t I start by asking what your names are”.

The Coach learns all the names and they start practice, some not wanting to do things and some people are just being lazy while doing it. “Now listen kids, or I shouldn’t say kids let's say young adults”. “I am here to get you better and this program better”. “I don’t know about you but I want to win a game this year”. “I know this is only the first day of practice, but you have to want to get better”. “Now if you're not up for that than you can leave”. The thing coach see’s is half the team start to leave, as they are leaving the coach starts shouting,

“Everyone get back here”. He starts to give them a lecture and gets them all to stay. They keep on practicing for the next 2 weeks.

“Alright guys guess what time it is”, “It’s time to pick positions”. “I have thought very hard on this”. ‘These are sometimes hard decisions and it was this time”. “Devon you will be at quarterback, LaShawn you will be my running back, Raymond you will be my Halfback and others will fill in as needed”. “Is that clear”. “Now our first game is in 1 week”. “Who thinks we're ready”? No one raises their hand.

“Good answer”. says coach. They keep on practicing.

“Alright boys, you ready for tonight”. The boys scream in excitement and jumping and stretching and running getting themselves warmed up. They will receive the kick. The cheerleaders are chanting,

“Let's go Jaguars”. The coach is screaming “get your blocks, get your blocks”. They get pummeled at the 15 yard line. The quarterback Devon Jacobson walks out onto the field they get huddled up and call the play and get on the line. Next thing you know Yellow flags are coming up from everywhere. They didn’t have 11 guys on the field they only had 10.

“Come on guys we practiced this so much how do you get it wrong”. They get 11 guys out there and Devon says hut. They attempt a handoff and get caught with a 5 yard loss. They try a pass and its intercepted and taken to the in zone.

“I don’t know what to tell you guys”. “We practiced it so much how do you fail”. “These guys aren’t that much better than us”. “This second let’s go show them what Jaguars can do”. “Coach they're just better than us”. Says Devon.

“That’s what you think Devon”. “They are not better than you”. “Now go out there and win this football game”.

They get ready for kickoff. They have everyone on the field and they are ready to go. The crowd is screaming and cheerleaders are dancing. The kick is off and sadly it only goes 15 yards. “It’s okay guys we will work on it, now defense on the field and make a stop”. The first drive the Jaguars sack the titans 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. The next play sadly the Titans just run it down the Jaguars throats and score 75 yard touchdown run. That really brought their confidence down a notch. The final score ended up being 14 to 54.

“I thought you guys were ready”. “Tomorrow come to practice ready to go, because we're gonna get things done”. “Remember boys our goal is to always get better”. “Now go and get a good night’s sleep”.

“Alright how’s everyone doing today”. “Is anyone sore”. Almost everyone raises their hand that’s a good thing and a bad thing.

“Ok good”. “That means you played hard and worked your muscles”. The temperature is above a 100 degrees today. The coach insists that they still practice though. Everyone is sweating and looking like they're about to drop dead on the ground right in front of the coach.

“Alright boys you can go in the locker room and take off your shells and pants, but then i want you right back out here”. They go and get changed out. Next thing you know it’s been a half an hour. Coach starts to wonder.

“I’m going to go and check on them”. “Coach is real dummy if he’s gonna let us come change out”. says Devon. Devon says that not knowing coach was now in the room.

“Hey Devon maybe next time since you know I’m a dummy i won’t let you come and change out”. “I let you guys and change because you looked like you were about to drop dead”. “You reward me by doing this calling me names that isn’t a very good reward i will tell you that right now”. Coach starts to get frustrated and starts to scream at them. They just sit there with their eyeballs almost popping out of their heads.

“Now get out there right now and be ready to run gassers”!

“You know what coach this is stupid, why you havin us practice outside in this ridiculous weather”. Says Rashawn.

“You know why Rashawn, because of your ridiculous actions”. “Now everyone on the line”. Coach blows the whistle, they run until almost every single one of them pukes.

“How are you liking this”. “You wouldn’t have to be doing this if you would have just got changed out and came right back out here”. “No that was to hard for you all obviously”. “Changing out doesn’t mean go take cold showers then come back out here, it means take off you pads and get out here”! “I will see you all tomorrow and you better hope I’m in a better mood”. “Get a breakout”. They get a breakout from Devon and they all start to walk inside in breathing so hard they can barely talk to each other.

On the announcements they hear that practice will be taking place inside the library. They all scream with joy and happiness, until they find out what it’s about. “What are these”. He hand them their grade printouts.

“I’ve never seen such bad grades in my life”. “We're gonna fix these today”. They continue throughout their season starting progress. They won their 5th game finally. They were so excited.

“That boys is what it feels like to win”. Next thing you know they start to work hard in practice and start to win more games. Then they get to districts.

“Alrighty guys this is when it starts to get hard”. “We are 8-4, that's not too bad for us just getting our first season started”. They go into districts they win their first 2 games.

“Ok boys this is the game that counts”. “If we win this we're going to state”. They are playing a team that 12-0. They go out the first quarter and just get smashed at the end of the 1st quarter it is already 35-0. At halftime it is 49-28. They made a somewhat of a come back.

“Guys we can comeback from this, it won’t be easy but we can”. They go out and score their first drive. It's the start of the 4th quarter and it is 49-41. They have made a comeback. The first play the jaguars pick the ball off and score. It is a tied ball game. There is 23 seconds left in the 4th quarter and the jaguars are at the 10 yard line. They go for a pass. It is sadly picked off and they break through all the tackles and score. That will be the end of the season for the Jaguars.

“It was an honor coaching for you guys i will tell you that right now”. “Don’t worry I will be back 

next year and we will go for the title again”. “It just didn’t work out that way today”. “I want to wish the 

seniors good luck as they move on in life”. “You will be missed”. “Let’s get one last breakdown”. 1 2 3 

Jaguars. The team packs up their stuff in frustration and sadness. It was a good season once they put their mind 

to. You can do anything once you put your mind to it.