All the guys stuffed their faces except for Blake. It was all too familiar. The taste of her cheese dip made him think of happier times, like her feeding it to him on a chip at one of their picnics or them serving it for their annual Fourth of July party. It was enough to make him lose his appetite.
After they finished eating, he ran them through his thoughts about the camp. “Okay, let’s put it out there,” he said, standing in front of everyone in his den. “Besides meeting my brother, who has interacted with people with intellectual disabilities?”
Only two people didn’t raise their hands: Brody and Logan. It was more than he’d thought. Good.
“Zack,” he said, “why don’t you tell us about your experience?”
His buddy sat up straighter on the couch. “The Make-A-Wish Foundation contacted me about Emily wanting to meet me. She was a huge New Orleans fan, and she’d just had a severe cardiac incident and wasn’t expected to make it. They asked if I could visit her at the hospital.” He looked down at the hands he’d joined prayer-like. “When I showed up, she looked so sick, but the smile she gave me…man, it chokes me up, thinking about it. She couldn’t talk a lot without tiring herself. Her breathing…”
Yeah, Blake remembered how laborious Adam’s breathing had become after his first cardiac incident over a year ago. He’d even struggled to smile, and Adam had always found a reason to smile.
“She complimented me on having a great arm and being a good team leader, and then she told me I was going to win a Super Bowl someday. She said she wished she could see it. I gave her one of my game balls and signed a few things. You know. Then I sat with her until she fell asleep. She died two days later.”
Some of the guys had to clear the emotion out of their throats. All of them believed in giving back to their communities, and most of them had visited sick kids in the hospital at some point. A few also played pick-up games at the local community centers with kids from rough neighborhoods. Once they’d all recovered a bit, a couple of the other guys shared their stories, and any final concerns Blake had about stealing his guys away from Coach for the summer faded. He needed them, and not only because they were great camp leaders. They had heart.
After everyone finished sharing, Blake ran them through the specifics of the arrangements for the camp. “We’ll be split up into different age groups. The first will be composed of kids ten to thirteen and the second fourteen to eighteen. You can sign up for whichever age group you’d rather coach. From there, we’ll slot the kids into various teams.”
“Jordan should sign up to work with the youngsters since he’ll fit right in,” Grant said, tugging on his replacement pair of pants.
Jordan still hadn’t coughed up the lineman’s shorts, and Blake suspected he would probably come across them in some wild location after all of them had left—like the freezer.
“Har-de-har-har,” Jordan said. “But yes, I’ll happily take the youngsters. I’m not super fond of high schoolers. Talk about attitude.”
“Then Brody should volunteer for that group,” Logan said. “He’s got plenty of attitude.”
Blake knew the bantering would continue if he didn’t put a stop to it. He simply gave them the look. They shut up.
“Breakfast will be served from seven fifteen until seven fifty-five. We’ll start warm-ups at eight and then go into drills a half hour later. I want to run drills for a few hours a day, before and after lunch. Then we’ll break into smaller groups. Defense and offense. Run some more drills, some specific plays. Then we’ll scrimmage until four when camp ends. After that, the kids will have some time to themselves before the evening activities start.”
“Man, I miss those days,” Logan said, kicking out his feet. “Jordan and I used to row out onto the lake after practice and see who could stand in the canoe the longest while the other one rocked the boat.”
“Of course I always won,” Jordan said, buffing his nails against his shirt like an idiot.
“As I was saying,” Blake interrupted. “I want everyone to have fun. We’ll have campfires, movie nights, and a dance party since some of you like to strut your stuff.”
Zack rose and gave them a preview of his moves, earning some obscene comments and the suggestion that he should join the Chippendales after retiring.
“Let’s talk about the sport specifically,” Blake said when they died down. “It’s going to be a bit strange for us, since it’s flag football, so I want everyone to practice pulling the flag. It’s harder than you might think.”