SMALL TOWN FOOTBALL PART 6
LEARNING THE GAME OF FOOTBALL – OUR FRESHMAN TEAM
So, now we had a group of 16 freshmen. We had uniforms, such as they were. We had two coaches with the unenvious task of making us into a real football team. We also had a place to practice far away from the varsity, thank God!
The coaches already had a good idea of who was going to play what position, but they went about the motions of allowing everyone to show what they could do in regards to running with, throwing and catching the football. Then they put kids into the positions that had been pre determined for them.
They had a couple of weeks to show us how to get down in stances and then fire out of them into a blocking dummy or into each other. We were taught how to tackle properly so as not to break our necks. That is a good thing to know when you have a neck that can barely hold up the helmet. We were given whirlwind lessons in all the rudimentary aspects of football.
What seems like an easy part of the game was having a group of eleven kids get off the line of scrimmage at the same time. Our cadence, which the quarterback would yell out, was “READY,” at which time we went into a semi squat and put our hands or elbows on our knees. The next signal was “RED 32, RED 32.” This was an audible to change the play, which we never used, but Jeff, our quarterback, was instructed to mix it up with different colors and numbers to throw off the other team. It never did. Then he would yell, “ SET.” We would then go into our three or four point stances or for running backs and receivers, into a ready to run position, while standing. Jeff would pause, for a second and then yell emphatically, “ONE.” We always went on ONE. The coaches knew from experience that trying to teach us to go on anything but, “ONE” would end in disaster, with at least two or three kids going off sides, including the center, who would hike it too soon. So, we got really good at going on “ONE”.
After three weeks of practice, we were ready to play a game. We had learned about ten plays, only one was a passing play and that one went to the right end. I played left end. This, I thought, was going to limit me from being Crazy Legs Hirch, my favorite player who played receiver for the Las Angeles Rams.
I remember putting on my first game uniform, which was basically my practice uniform with a better tape job to hold up my knee and thigh pads. I had worn one of my Dad’s old red hunting sweatshirts for practice, so my game jersey, a kind of off white with red # 39 on the front and back, was clean and ready to go. I had my shoes all shined with the new white shoe strings looped in and tight. My Dad made me wear my old heavy dark rimmed glasses for practice and games. They were held together with a glob of black electrical tape in the middle and larger balls of white athletic to hold the stems to the glasses. This was before the invention of the light plastic lenses, so, unfortunately, each lens was about as thick as the bottom of a coke bottle. With my skinny neck holding up the large red helmet, a person could peer inside and see my huge black rimmed glasses with the three balls of tape holding them together. It would not be hard to imagine that the father of ET had infiltrated the football team. I was not really intimidating.
Our first game was at home against Elma, a large A school. It was a late afternoon game, so there were no lights on, no cheerleaders, no band, no concession stand or no fans for that matter. We didn’t care. We were going to play football against another school! Awesome!
As we warmed up and tried to look like we knew what we were doing, the Elma team came off the bus, which had pulled up next to the field. There were about 25 of them and they all looked really big with their uniforms fitting like gloves with no tape holding them together. We immediately began watching them in their precision warm up routine. Elma had junior high tackle football, so these kids had been playing for two years, not three weeks.
Elma received the ball and brought it back to about mid field. I was playing right defensive end in a stand up position. As the Elma kids came to the line, their left end, who was at least four inches taller and twenty pounds heavier than me, looked over and said, “Hey nerd boy. Nice Glasses!” This, I thought, was not good sportsmanship, but it was very effective in intimidating me.
The next few minutes were a blur of confusion, getting knocked on my butt (several times), and somewhat humiliating.
On the first play, when the Elma quarterback went to the line of scrimmage, I noticed the Elma players were already in their set position. The quarterback started yelling, “TWO, TWO, TWO.” I know my teammates were thinking the same as me, “ What the Hell is two, two two? Where is ‘ready, set, one’?” As the quarterback was yelling the second two, the ball was hiked. We were still in our ready position waiting for “SET, ONE.” All of us were knocked on our butts, except for Bob Herren, one of our dam kids who had played Pop Warner for five years and was very good. Bob, told us, as nicely as he could while in the huddle, “Hey crap heads, they don’t go on one. I told the coaches to teach you that. Just go when the ball is hiked. Don’t listen to the count.”
As the rest of us were adjusting to, well, everything, Bob kept making tackles, but even he could not do it all and Elma kept scoring. Bob got off a couple of TD runs himself, due to a couple of good blocks by Rudy, but we took a good beating. Thank God their coach was nice and put in his subs in the second half.
I actually do not remember playing in any more freshmen games. I had to check the school yearbook and found out we had only lost to Elma by 25-13, not by 40+ as I had remembered. We also played five more games and won them all. It was no wonder the coaches thought we might have a pretty good team when we were seniors.
However, I do remember the Elma quarterback and his “TWO, TWO, TWO,” as well as the kid calling me nerd boy. He also called me “slide rule boy”, pencil neck” and “Beaver Cleaver.” The initial shock was over after nerd boy, so those names did not bother me. However, I do remember them 60 years later. Hmmm?
Our freshmen year was over. We averted having to play the seniors, won a few games and learned how to play football….sort of. Now it was time for the varsity!