Undercover Tailback Read Free Page A

Isaac. “Tell me another. I suppose he was the one who took the master playbook off the shelf and
     left it opened up on my desk. Of course, you wouldn’t do that, would you?”
    “ ’Course not,” said Parker. “Why should I?”
    “Maybe you wrote your moves down wrong in your own playbook,” the coach suggested, “and decided to take a peek at mine to
     double-check them. Or maybe you’re going to tell me your book was stolen?”
    “Mine’s in my locker, right now,” insisted Parker. “I could go and get it for you. …”
    “Never mind.” Coach Isaac sighed. “Parker, what are you doing with my paperweight?”
    “I … I found it on top of the playbook,” said Parker. It didn’t seem like the right time to mention his interest in the Gators.
    “Well, that’s not where it was when I left this office, I can tell you that,” stormed the coach. “Now, just put it down and
     get going. I don’t want to see you in this office again unless I tell you to cross that threshold. Get that?”
    “Yes, Coach,” said Parker. He placed the green gator down on the desk with care.
    “And what about those laps?” the coach asked. “Think I forgot?”
    Parker wasn’t sure, but he thought he caught a small smile at the edges of the coach’s mouth.
    “No, siree!” said Parker. “I’m on my way.”
    He finished his laps just in time to join that afternoon’s practice.
    It didn’t go well for the offense. The defense was too familiar with their plays.
    When the runners started fumbling and passes were getting intercepted regularly, Coach Isaac blew the whistle.
    He gathered the offense over to one side of the field while the defense took a break.
    “I don’t know what’s the matter,” grumbled Spike. “What are we doing wrong?”
    “Not a whole lot,” said Coach Isaac. “You’re running the plays the way I drew them up. But you have to remember, these guys
     are used to the way we operate.”
    “What do you mean?” asked Fabian.
    “There’s a routine,” said the coach. “They’ve come to expect that you’re going to do certain things the same way every time.”
    “You mean we have to mix it up more?” asked Parker.
    “That’s it,” said the coach.
    “But we only have so many plays,” said Fabian. “We can’t just make up new ones on the spot.”
    “Yeah, we have to stick to our plays,” insisted Cris. “I mean, that’s all we know.”
    “I’m not telling you to abandon the plays I’ve taught you,” explained the coach. “You just haveto learn to surprise the opposition. For instance, when was the last time you ran the same play twice in a row?”
    His question was answered by shrugs and vacant stares.
    “Okay, here’s a little trick you ought to learn right now,” he went on. “When you want to repeat a play right away, all you
     do is call the signal backwards.”
    “Hey, that’s neat!” said Moose. “That’ll confuse ’em.”
    “You can use that when you’re running out of time,” said the coach. “Or you can linger as long as possible in the huddle so
     that they’ll be watching for some complicated new play.”
    “And then, barn, you hit them with the one you just ran,” said Huey. “Not bad!”
    They lined up for some more practice. The defense was still hitting hard. Spike called a draw play that produced a ten-yard
     loss with Parker at the bottom of a big pileup.
    “That’s a good play,” Spike announced in thehuddle. “We should have picked up some yardage. Let’s go with it again.”
    At the line, he barked out the signals — backward, the way the coach had said.
    As soon as the play began, Parker could tell the defense was unprepared for what was happening.
    This time, as soon as the ball hit his hands, he broke away and carried it into the clear beyond any defenseman’s reach.
    It was his happiest moment of the day.
    That evening, the scene in the coach’s office kept coming back to Parker. He was sure the stranger in the gray