Love For A Game

Chapter 6

Practice is one of the most important things about a sport. It gives the players a chance to hone their skills, come up with innovative new ways to defeat an opponent, and to work out any struggles. Practice is a player's bread and butter, used for many reasons, those reasons only known to that particular player.

For us Raiders, practice is a huge deal. At least, it is for Coach Bennington. He works us pretty hard, making us do things such as sprints, suicides, and scrimmages. Although, I will say, we are playing like champions, so who am I to complain?

When we step onto the ice on Friday for that day's practice, we see that Coach Bennington has pylons scattered in a pattern across the ice. We all sigh in disgust.

"Not the goddamn pylons again!" Connor shouts.

"What're you tryin' to do, Coach? Kill us?" Nathan says.

Coach Bennington just smiles. "Let's get started, boys," he says.

We start by skating around the ice in circles. We do about five laps of the ice. I try to be the fastest one every time, but I never am. That goes to Luke every time. He is the smallest player, and therefore our fastest skater.

Once we are done our laps, Bennington has us using the pylons. We are forced to skate around them, in between them, and through them. We do it to master our skating abilities. It has taken most of the flaws out of our skating, but not all.

Luckily, Coach Bennington only has us using pylons for about fifteen minutes. He then has us doing power play drills, which involves having me play at the left defence position. The play-if it works- is supposed to result in a one-timer from me. I'm a right-handed stick (although I am actually ambidextrous), so I can one-time easily.

The play works pretty well. We score plenty of goals against our penalty killers. That's saying something, since our penalty kill is tops in the league.

We then go into a twenty-minute scrimmage. Our assistant coach, Sam Osborne, stands in as our second goaltender. Coach Bennington acts as a referee.

The scrimmages go well. I am out there with Luke and Connor, with Josh and Adam Fletcher on defence. Noel is our goalie.

Noel makes some good saves. I receive a few hits from Charlie (who is now completely healthy). The final score is 3-2 for my side.

We end our practice by taking shots on Noel. Once we are done, we each head back to the dressing room to get out of our equipment.

I would say that it was a successful practice. We played well, and tried out some new things. All in all, it was a good day for the Ryerson Raiders.

One I am finished changing back into street clothing, I knock on Coach Bennington's office door. He says to come in, and I enter.

"Hi, Coach," I say tentatively.

"Ah, Jordan," he says. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something."

He raises his eyebrows, and leans rests his chin in his palms. "Okay, shoot."

"Sir, there's this girl that I met at school-"

Bennington raises his hand, silencing me. He smiles at me. "I know what this is. Jordan, if you ever need advice on how to deal with girls-"

"Sir, that's not what it is."

He frowns. "Then what is it?"

"She came to see me play on Wednesday against Aliston. After the game, she told me that she played defence when she lived in Montreal. I suggested that she play for a team here, but she said that there aren't any girls teams around here."

"What are you trying to say, Jordan?"

"I want her to try out for the Raiders, sir."

Bennington sighs. "I don't know, Jordan. There's too many unknowns here. I don't even know whether or not she's even good."

"We played one on one against each other. First to five. She beat me 5-3, sir. Does that explain anything to you?"

"I don't know if the league will allow it. A girl has never played for this league before. Not ever."

"There's a first for everything, Coach," I say.

"I don't know whether or not allowing a girl would be the best thing to do, Jordan. It might damage the chemistry of the team."

"C'mon, Coach. We need a defenceman. She's a defenceman. A pretty damn good one too, by the looks of it. This could be what we need to finally push past Colbert, sir. We both know we want that."

"I get that you want to beat Colbert. I want to beat Colbert too. However, other teams are going to take advantage of her, and we can't have that."

"I understand that, sir," I say. "I've played against her, though. She plays harder than most of the boys in the league. Does that tell you anything?"

"Jordan, how do you think the rest of the team is going to take this? You know they won't take it well."

"I have Noel's support," I reply. "He was there too. He saw Nicole play."

"There are fourteen others who might not see it the same way. Ever think of that?"

"I have, Coach. And I've decided that I will take all the heat from this, ok? If anything goes wrong, I will deal with it. Don't you worry, Coach. Everything will go smoothly."

"You're sure of that, are you?"

"Yes," I reply sternly. "I wholeheartedly am."

He thinks for a long moment. For a moment I think that he'll say no. Finally, he sighs and leans back. "Fine, I'll do it. Monday, four o'clock. Don't be late. I want you there, and you might as well bring Noel with you too."

"Thank you so much, Coach," I say, shaking his hand.

As I turn to leave, Bennington says my name. "Jordan."

"Yes, sir?"

"Don't make me regret this. Or else I'll make you regret it."

"You won't regret it, I promise." With that, I walk out of his office, proud of myself.

_____

The song on the side is "Sundown", by Gordon Lightfoot.