Chapter 5

Max ran out of the changing room in his football kit, like the rest of the boys at the school he had one set of the schools prescribed kit but they all wore the replica shirts of their favourite teams, after all whenever they played in teams they had blue or red bibs that covered the shirts anyway. So Dark blue and Light blue quarters were the order of the day with Cousins 7 on the back. As he arrived at the pitch he could see a small group gathered round the imposing figure of Coach Carter and after a quick sprint to the center circle he joined the throng as Coach Carter began to talk.

“Ok this is going to be a standard set of tryouts for the reserves team. We will start off with a number of physical tests, those of you not making the level will be allowed to continue, however it will count against you and you will be expected to come up to the required levels to keep your place in the reserves. First we are going to start with a little run, 4 laps round the pitch, thats outside the goals and the corner flags, no cheating, for those of you who are interested that’s 1.5 km and you need to do it in 10 mins, then I want 100 star jumps and finally 20 push up and then we’ll see how good you are with a football. Any Questions??”

As Max looked round he could see that it was groans that were on everyones lips rather than questions, whilst this shouldn’t be too bad for him, having to prove his soccer skills after this run would be tough. The faces around him were mostly familiar, some boys from his year that he knew well and others that he at least new their names, a number from the year above that were obviously trying out again after failing at the initial test at the beginning of the year and a few faces he didn’t recognise at all. In total there were about 25 boys all vying for what Chris had told him were really 4 spots in the team.

“Ok lets get this started then” said the Coach “Edge of the pitch at the halfway line please.”

Everyone jogged over to the edge of the pitch and formed a small group, some at the front getting ready to start their watches so they could monitor their time, Max mentally slapped himself on the head, he had left his watch in his locker, too late to worry about it now.

“And go” said the Coach.

With that they were off, Max gave everyone a second to get a move on before he set off, he could already see ahead of him the pushing and shoving as people tried to manoever to get some free space, in fact as he watched there was a clash of ankles and suddenly one of the runners went down. Max didn’t even think about it but bent down and helped him up.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“Yes I think so”

“Can you go on?”

“Yes, lets go”

It was only a few seconds but when the two of them took off again the rest of the runners were spread out, some already running behind the goal. Max knew that the pace he would run would see him inside the 10 minute mark and also that many of the others were starting too fast, so he didn’t panic. He quickly realised that the runner who had fallen over was easily keeping up pace with him so thankfully there was no obvious injury, it would have been unfair to lose this oppotunity in the melee that had been the start. As Max rounded the second corner flag on the first lap he upped his pace slightly to push himself and see if he could make up the lost time at the start. Coming down the far side of the pitch he settled into his comfortable running style and slowly began to catch the main group of runners ahead of him.

He drew level with the main pack of runners half way round the second lap and slowly moved past them, he could see that many of them were already running along with their mouthes opening trying to get as much air into their lungs as possible. This gave Max a real confidence boost and he moved past the group and began to look to the people left ahead of him. There were now only 4 people ahead of him, 2 of whom had obviously gone out too fast too early and he could see them starting to struggle already, the other 2 were obviously good runners and Max didn’t expect to catch them.

By the time Max began the final lap he had only 2 runners ahead of him, in fact the two leaders and he had already lapped 5 runners who were obviously well off the pace. The gap between Max and the 2nd runner was only a few meters and Max knew he would catch him, although whether he could kick on and away from him was another question. The final runner was about 10 meters further down the run. Max pulled up on the should of the 2nd place runner and then past him he kept running for a few seconds more and when he looked back he could see that the runner was not keeping up with him, but falling behind him. Max could easily see the back of the runner ahead and he was determined to catch him, he picked up his pace again and slowly drew closer, however as they rounded the final corner and headed back towards the end of the run the leader glanced over his shoulder and saw Max coming and also increased his pace. Max pushed himself further and he was catching him, however in the end it wasn’t enough they both crossed the end of the run, Max only a couple of steps behind the other runner and they both dropped to the ground side by side.

“Well done lads” the Coach piped up “Rest for a few minutes whilst the rest finish the distance.”

Max looked up and saw some of the lapped runners only now beginning the final lap and could see the look of resignation on their faces as they realised that they probably would not make the required time set by the Coach. Max glanced over to his rival and extended a hand.

“Max” he said.

“David” David replied, “That was a tough run, I thought you were going to catch me there at the end”

“Me too, though exactly why we were racing like that, at the end of the day we just needed to beat 10 mins rather than each other”

“True True” David said, “although we do get a bit of a rest before we have to start again”.

As the two of the then sat there getting their breath back, more and more runners finished and slumped down on the grass next to them. As Max looked round he spotted the runner who had fallen at the start lying down, he was glad that he had finished and from the way Coach Carter suddenly clicked his stop watch and then started noting down the names of the next set of finishers, it was obvious that everyone up to that point had made the cutoff time the Coach had set.

“OK up you get time for some star jump” called the Coach, this time the groans were audible as everyone dragged themselves to their feet. “Now 100 star jumps as I call them out, if you can’t keep up sit down”.

The Coach gave them a couple of seconds to space and then began to call out.

“1″

“and 2″

“and 3″

The speed at which he called out made it easy for him to keep an eye on the boys, not too fast at the end of the day this was a game that demanded endurance more than short speed and with that in mind he kept the pace slower than the usual pace that a more aerobic workout would demand.

“98″

“99″

“100 and rest”

Max slumped to the ground tired but not overly so, he could see that most of the other candidates were struggling, at least 4 that he had seen hadn’t finished the star jumps. He was confident that he could finish the push-ups and then it was just a question of showing off his skills with a football.

5 minutes later with the push-ups behind them the boys were split into 3 groups, Max looked around him and could see the obvious groupings that the Coach had made, he was among the other boys who had finished first in the run, the second group contained the next set of runners and the final group contained all of those who had either failed to finish the run, the star jumps or the push ups.

“Ok we have you in three groups, Group 1″ as the Coach indicated the group containing Max ” will go over to that side of the pitch and will begin with dribbling and passing, Group 2″ the group who had Max though had all completed the required physical stuff as well, “far corner of the pitch, heading and volleying and Group 3 over by the goal for tackling and shooting. Off you go”. With that the boys all headed off in the required directions, Coach Carter seemed to following their Group, whilst 2 of his assistants followed the others.