Joining The Team

It's my second to last Monday.
Which means, it only has to suck one more time.

I woke up at 9:35 and panicked.
Crap, I needed to get going.
I showered, shaved, changed into some nice clothes, remembered my freakin' badge, and drove to work.
I got into the office, miraculously, at around 10:10am, and there was nothing to worry about.
In fact, overall, things were pretty good. My cover story was done, and I already knew what I wanted to do for next week's cover story, so I could get a jump on that today.
I said hi to Damon, Gaby, Bobbi, David, Todd, Randy, Keith, Jason (aka Jay-Z), Matt, Carl, Cameron, Sylvia, Wendy and Kevin. You know, I don't say it enough, but I really do work with some cool people. They've all treated me very well since I've been here, and I've grown to care about all of them.
Well, basically, Damon and I started getting into mischief like we usually do. We started talking about a certain school (which I will not name, as it is a little embarrassing for them). You see, this school, while I am sure the people are very nice, stinks at football. And by "stinks at football", I mean that, as sad as it is, it might be the worst team in the history of football.
Let's put it this way: so far, through eight games, this school is 0-8. It has been outscored 436-0. It hasn't scored a point, but has given up 54.5 points per game.
And in its latest game, an 83-0 drubbing, its opponents didn't even score in the fourth quarter. The opponents called off the dogs after three quarters and cruised to an 83-point win.
So, Damon and I started talking about this school. One of us mentioned that we could assemble a team to defeat this team.
And that just opened up a whole new can of worms.
So, Damon and I started building our starting lineup. Damon would play safety and wide receiver. I'd play tight end and defensive end.
Then, we started asking everyone around us. We got everyone on board: video and web guru Carl Ellis would return kicks and punts, columnist Matt Wixon would play quarterback and linebacker, stat guy/show runner Jason Zimmerman would play on the line, and so on.
Eventually, we had a whole team.
So watch your back, team that shall remain nameless. You're next.
Anyways, about 11am rolled around, and Keith Whitmire and I filmed our video. I think it turned out great, and I look pretty relaxed and pretty darn good. But you can judge by yourself by clicking here to watch it.
So, I went back to my desk, and Greg Riddle, one of the commanding officers, came over to assign me to a game. Or two.
Turns out he needs me to cover Thursday's Southlake Carroll vs. Grapevine game, and Friday's Naaman Forest vs. Rockwall game.
Now, the Friday game, I have no beef with. That's the game I was gunning for, as it is the biggest game in the East Zone.
But Thursday? Well, crap. There goes my day off.
But the good news is that right after Greg left, I got my game capsule assignments for the week. I immediately started working on them; it was the biggest thing standing between me and being ahead of the game this week.
Unfortunately, I was only about halfway done with the capsules when noon rolled around. Meetin' time.
We had hamburgers for lunch, which is always nice. John was out of town, so Cameron ran the show.
No real big news from the meeting. It was just, you know, a meeting. But the cool thing was that Todd Wills pointed out that next week will be my last week, and thus, I should pick lunch for that meeting. That was pretty cool of him.
I chose barbecue, for the record.
The meeting kind of stretched on and on, and I didn't get back to my desk until 1:45pm. I finished my game capsules by 2:30pm (score!) and planned my next attack.
Step one: make contact with Mesquite.
I called over to Mesquite High and got a hold of coach Steve Halpin after a couple tries. I told him that I was interested in writing a story about his defense, and he told me that I was more than welcome to come to practice, which would be ending at 6pm.
Step two: call North Mesquite.
I called over to North Mesquite and got a hold of coach Mike Robinson. Remember Blair Johnson, the quarterback I wrote a story about a couple weeks back? Well, he got injured in the last game. Robinson was very vague about it, and listed him as questionable. Still, it's a note.
Step three: call Mesquite Horn.
I called over to Horn and got no answer. By now, it was 3:30, and the team was probably practicing. I pulled up my handy-dandy Mesquite Horn profile sheet that I had made for each team at the beginning of the internship and discovered that the team would be practicing until "5:30ish". Sounds good to me.
I printed off directions, grabbed my paycheck and a couple copies of last week's edition of HS Gametime, and drove off to Mesquite at around 4:30pm.
I arrived at Horn's practice at around 5pm, and watched. At around 5:15pm, coach Don Payne came over to me. Coach Payne's a real nice guy who has always appreciated what I do, and is very cordial and obliging with me. We talked about his team's playoff chances (it might make it!) and I could tell he was kind of giddy with the idea.
Mesquite Horn has never been to the playoffs. Granted, the school opened in 2000, but that's a heck of a story, isn't it?
I needed to talk to one of his receivers, but Payne told me that he could only get me in touch with him after practice.
So I waited.
And waited.
Did I ever mention that 75% of sports journalism is waiting? Because it is.
Finally, at 5:45pm, I got a hold of the receiver. I shook his hand, and his hand engulfed mine.
This kid, Kelan Cheadle, officially has the biggest hands I've ever seen, and I've shaken hands with Dirk Nowitzki.
I got out of there at 5:50pm. I needed to hustle.
I hopped in the Baron and flew to Mesquite High, arriving at 5:57pm.
But practice was already over.
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
I found an assistant coach.
"Hey, I'm looking for coach Halpin?"
"Uh, he's gone."
Uh oh.
"Well, I'm interested in talking to these two players. Coach knows I was coming."
"Oh, ok."
Sweet.
So, two Mesquite players and I sat down in coach Halpin's office and chatted for a little while. It went well, and I was very happy with what I accomplished.
I drove home, ate jambalaya for dinner, talked to my beautiful girlfriend on the phone, surfed the Web, watched a little bit of Monday Night Football, and now I'm writing this blog.

Only one more awful Monday to go.
But I've made my Tuesday manageable.