Memory II

The moment I have in my head right now is the 2^nd day I came to West Allegheny football teams practice in late August of 2009.  My first day was kind of awkward.  I met a big black male named Tim Johnson. Tim was wearing a cut off blue tee and WA shorts.Other than him every one else was to busy working out.  I think only about five out of the hundred kids talked to me. In the gym it smelt like sweat and all I heard was alot of grunts, yelling, and surprisingly laughter. The second day was also awkward. See the first day the head coach, coach Palko, was not there. I guess that was the reason why everyone acted a little different.  But the second day the work outs were more brutal.  At first we were sent to the bottom of the white line of the endzone. The endzone was red and had black writing that spelled out West Allegheny. Everyone got in to warm up lines and this was the first time I met coach Palko.  He was wearing a red visor with black nike shorts and a white tee shirt. He was shorter than me and it kinda felt awkward looking down to him. He came up to me and shook my hand and told me that he was the coach. His had was fat, squishy, and warm, also kind of moist. He had a smile that told me something was going to happen. Then he told me to get in front of the team and stand there.  I was on the 10 yard line and looking at the players as they stared back at me.  It felt awkward. There were one hundred kids staring and me and at coach Palko, who was standing next to me.  He looked at the team and said, “Do any of you guys know this kid? Or where he lives? Or what his name is?” Then there was silence and some of them were swaying  back and forth, looking up and around.  Then coach Palko started to talk again.  “So you guys didn’t even welcome Demetrius. You all just let him be an outsider and only care for your team and not your teammates.” I was looking down and sometimes I’ll take a peek up. I'll here little whispers here and there but I didnt really let that bother me.  Coach was still talking and then he talked to the 4 captains, Nate Bell, Tim Johnson, Jared Buck, and Ben Simmen. Ben was the tallest out of them, at least 6 foot 5 inches, he was also the skinnest besides Buck the second tallest and skinniest. He was asking them if they had talked to me or even welcomed me. While coach was talking to them I saw brownish yellow spit come out of his mouth every time he opened it. It was an awful sight. After that incident was over, almost every kid on the team came up to talk to me and became my friend. I was kind of glad that happened. If this didn’t happen I would have probably quit because I had no one to talk to.