“Wow this kid is really good,” said the head scout for the University of Notre Dame football, “we really need to talk to him after the game.”
“Yeah we do, I can see a lot of potential in this guy,” said the assistant scout.
“Alright, he just had a huge touchdown run, let’s see what he can do on the kickoff,” said the head scout.
“Ok yeah, here he goes,” said the assistant coach……….(POP!)
“OOOOOOOOH,” gasped the crowd.
“Hey coach, what time do we have to be on the field for practice?” asked Leo.
“3:30, and we will be out by 5:45 for team dinner at 6,” said coach.
“Ok see you out there coach,” said Leo.
He went back to the locker room and got ready for the Thursday pre-game practice. He loved these practices because they usually went short and then there was team dinner right after so the fact that there was team dinner made the practices go by really fast for him. He also had to practice hard to prepare for the big game on Friday night and he knows that the Notre Dame scouts are going to be watching him, so he needs to be prepared for the game.
“Watch this,” said Drew, the quarter back, to the coach and Leo was split out to run a route and Drew was going to throw a deep ball to him.
“Oh, that’s a good ball Drew,” said the coach, “Let’s see if he catches it.”
“C’mon Leo catch this ball,” Leo said to himself. He dove for it and caught it with one hand and he said “There we go,” “Nice ball Drew!” he said.
“Thanks dude, nice catch,” exclaimed Drew.
“Wow Leo nice catch I can see you are ready for the game tomorrow,” said his coach, “You are going to do good tomorrow.”
“Thanks coach and yes I hope I am going to good especially for the scouts from Notre Dame coming to see me,” said Leo.
“Yeah, I put in a good for you, so don’t worry and have fun with it tomorrow night,” the coach said.
“Thanks coach, I will,” replied Leo.
“Alright now get back to practice Leo, we only have about a half hour left,” said the coach.
Finally the practice was over and everybody on the team filled in the cafeteria to smell the scent of delicious fetteccini alfredo that all the moms who volunteer to cook for team made. The dinner was great as usual and people left and went home to rest for the next day.
The next day came real quick and before Leo new it, it was time for the last class of the day to start.
“Hey Leo, what’s up,” said Drew.
“Nothing, I’m just so ready for this game tonight,” said Leo.
“Me too, alright see you after school,” said Drew.
“Alright,” replied Leo.
The end of last hour came and the bell rang for the students to be released and everybody ran out and were getting hyped up for the football game later that night. Drew and Leo met up and walked down to the locker room and put their bags in their lockers and went outside for a while to relax and eat some subs and drink some Gatorade to be filled up for the game.
They usually have around one and a half to two hours of down time before they have to get ready to go over plays and go through the team’s pregame routine. In between that time Drew and Leo usually go somewhere to get something to eat. Leo drives one week and then Drew drives the other week and they always go to the same place because it is their pregame routine. Then they get back to the school where their locker room is with and hour to get ready for pregame plays and that gives them enough time to get focused.
“Man that was good, I love when we go there every Friday,” said Drew.

“Yeah that was great once again it never gets old,” replied Leo, “I will drive next week because you drove this week and I want to make it fair so that we both use the same amount of gas.”

“Alright, yeah now that we have our pregame ritual down, we just have to get focused and ready to go over our game plan,” said Drew going into the Locker room.

“You and I are going to have an amazing game,” said Leo before they went their separate ways to prepare.
Before they knew it, it was time to go out and do the pregame plays for 15 min and after that got done, they go in and put their jerseys on their shoulder pads and they already had their game pants and cleats on for pregame run through so all they had to do is get their shoulder pads on with their jersey then put their helmet on and they are ready to go.

The team lines up in rows with 4 people in each row and they walk out to the field with Leo and Drew leading the pack out and everyone is all hyped up.
“You ready Drew!” shouted Leo.
“Yeah, you ready Leo!” replied Drew.

“Yeah, let’s go get ‘em boys!” shouted Leo to the team and that was when they all ran out there and the crowd was so loud and right away Leo spotted the Scouts right out of the crowd so he could know where they were for when he makes a big play he can see how they reacted to it. The first kickoff was about to go underway and Leo was getting going and running to the line where the ball is on when he heard BOOT he ran as fast as he could down to the ball carrier and got a huge hit and tackled the guy.

“Great way to start the game Leo,” he said in his head.

The team was doing great on defense and hadn’t allowed the other team to score the whole game and Leo’s team hasn’t scored the whole game until one offensive drive Leo got a handoff on their own 20 yard line and he saw a hole and busted through it, and broke free for an 80 yard touchdown. Leo looked up and saw the scouts staring at him with huge smiles across their faces.

“Wow this kid is really good,” said the head scout for the University of Notre Dame football, “we really need to talk to him after the game.”

“Yeah we do, I can see a lot of potential in this guy,” said the assistant scout.

“Alright, he just had a huge touchdown run, let’s see what he can do on the kickoff,” said the head scout.
Leo was thinking in his head, “If I do really well on this kickoff I will have them hooked on me, so I am going to show them what I got.” Leo heard the BOOT and ran down the field and he saw the same thing he saw on the first kickoff, a huge gap for him and the returner to meet and Leo was going in for the hit and then all of a sudden there was a huge POP and the crowd went, “OOOOOH!” All Leo heard in his helmet was RING! RING! And he was knocked out.

Leo woke up and he didn’t know where he was at first but, then he figured out he was in his locker room and the trainer was sitting right above him with the two Notre Dame scouts standing right next to her, and she said, “Leo, you have some scouts here for you, they would like to talk to you.”

“Okay, talk to me,” said Leo regaining his conscience.
“Well, we would like you to know that we saw a lot of positive aspects to your game and that 80 yard run was amazing. The first kickoff when you went down and tackled that guy is what we are looking for from somebody like you, and we would like you to know that even though you couldn’t finish off the game, we still have a spot to offer you on our team in two years,” said the head scout.

“Thank you very much and I am sorry I couldn’t show you all my abilities because I didn’t finish off the game. I will accept that offer and we can talk about it more when you guys have finalized your guys’ choice and then we can talk for real because I think I still might be a little loopy and I will need some time to get back to normal,” replied Leo.

“Yeah, okay we will let you go, we get how you are feeling. We both hope you get better quick, we just thought we would come and tell you our news,” said the assistant scout shaking Leo’s hand and then the head scout shaking Leo’s hand and they started to head out of the door.

“Thank you guys very much, and I hope to talk to you guys soon,” restated Leo.

From then on out Leo talked to the Notre Dame Scouts and he followed through with what they promoted to him and signed to the University of Notre Dame Football team. Later on Drew started putting in his word to the Notre Dame scouts and they looked into him as a quarterback and he signed with the team too. This made both Leo’s and Drew’s day because they would be on the same team once again and they would get to go to college together in just one more year after they graduate from high school.