Spiral

Spiral

“Here we go guys,.Thirty-four zebra strike on two on two” says Drew as the team breaks the huddle, Drew scans the field looking for a crease in the defense. Just as Drew gets under center he spots a gap between the safeties. They don’t adjust by the time he had said hike once come on stay there prays Drew in his head then it went black.

48 hours earlier- “Drew Callahan is a top contender for being the number one prospect in NCAA top 100 college recruits coming out of high school” proclaims ESPN analyst Jay Gruden. “As we view his top 10 schools we see that he has Michigan, Oregon, Stanford, Clemson, Alabama, West Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, UCLA, and Ohio State” stats Jay. As Drew was watching this he realized that he could actually be the best in high school football. He immediately shut off the T.V and charged down to the school to practice. When he got to the school, Sacramento High School, he saw 10 marked vehicles from the NCAA. As he approached the door he encountered a man in a business suit talking to the head coach.

He couldn’t tell who it was but heard him say this. “ If he wants to get a scholarship to any of these schools he must get his grades up and he has to do so before the NCAA national signing day exactly three weeks from today. As Drew backed away from the door the NCAA associate spotted him and asked if he could have a talk. “ Listen kid you need to get your grades up big time if you want to have a shot at any of these schools, we know you have improved a lot but maybe you should consider some other lower quality colleges like Iowa, or Nebraska”.

“What are you saying, there isn’t enough time for me to get my grades up”. complains Drew “ No no no no no thats not what we are saying at all but you need to get started immediately maybe its worth it to take a few weeks off from football you might fall to number 50 though but you would have more time” counters the NCAA official. “ but that would mean no full ride” “my family can’t afford to supply that kind of money” says Drew.  “ Well I don’t know what to tell you talk it over with your family and decide and you only have two week so you should probably go home and study” says the NCAA official. Before he could finish Drew stormed off the local college, California Berkeley. There he met with the dean and was able to get a part time tutor. By then it was 11:00 pm on Thursday night and was less than 24 hours away from his last game of his high school career he would play in the state championship game in the Rose Bowl.

Home of one of Drew’s interested schools UCLA. With less than 5 mins to go before the game Andre Bell “one of the best receivers and corners in high school football and Drew’s best friend.” Bell started off by saying good luck and he had something to say after that Drew didn’t have time to respond because the Announcer had said his name on the loudspeaker queuing Drew to charge out of the tunnel. The opposing team Stanford Highs’ offense would march down the field in 20 plays and took the whole first quarter. It was clear that there plan was to keep the ball out of Drews hands. Then it was Drew’s turn, he did as he predicted having a perfect drive going 7/7 67 yards and one TD.

Only one minute remained in the second quarter. Stanford high once again drove down again to make the score 13-7 after the failed 2pt conversion. Drew’s offense halted after a solid adjustment made by stanford high to double cover Andre Bell for the remainder of the game. No one scored for the rest of the half and third quarter. with only three minutes left in the game Stanford high had the ball and Sacramento high was out of timeouts. They needed a miracle Stanford high broke the huddle and knew one more first down would end the game.

They gave the ball to All American running back Geno Garfield. He was just three yards away from the first down when. SMACK he lost the ball as he was blindsided by Andre Bell jarring the ball out and recovering on the fifty-yard line. The crowd went ballistic sending the entire state of California into an unnatural earthquake. There is only one minute left after Stanford ran out the clock and Sacramento doesn’t have any timeouts left. “Here we go ladies and gentlemen we couldn’t have asked for a better game” says the announcer over the loudspeaker.

Drew runs into the huddle and says “45 razor HB swing on two” they break the huddle and Drew scans the defense for a hole he spots one between the linebackers. The double snap count doesn’t work finally Drew says hut for the second time. Then it turns into chaos as Drew fires a crossing route into the RB hands then he pitches it back to Andre Bell, who ran a crossing route to but from the other direction. The announcer belt over the loudspeaker “He could go all the way to 40 to the 30 to the 20, 15, 10 , 5 and finally stops at the two yard line.” Drew races back to the line waiting for his offense to get set, he looks at the clock and sees only 15 seconds left tick tick tick only 10 seconds, his O-line finally gets there tick tick tick 5 seconds and out of the blue Stanford calls a timeout. With two seconds left.

Drew jogged over to the coach for the play, and he explains that they wanted to shift their defense that’s why they called the timeout. Drew charges to the huddle and says “Here we go guys 34 zebra strike on two on two” as the team breaks the huddle Drew scans the field looking for a crease in the defense. Just as Drew gets under center he spots a gap between the safeties. They don’t adjust by the time he had said hike once “come on stay there” prays Drew in his head then it went black.

Drew is immediately stormed by a flood of defenders Drew sprinted to the left and got a block from the left tackle Drew snapped his head up to look for a receiver they were all on a jam.

Drew did the only thing he could do sprint backwards 10 yards to evade the rush now he had sometime to throw with all the comeback blocks from the line he scrambled up to the original line of scrimmage scanned the field and saw only one receiver Andre. Without a second thought, he hurled it into the defender infested endzone it was a five vs one contest. Andre jumped at the sametime as the rest of the defense no one saw who came down with it. It turned into a massive pile.

It took the refs only about 30 seconds to get the loose players of but, it took 3 minutes to get Andre and the rest off. The main Referee charged to center field and said “the ruling on the field is a interception by the defense the previous play is under further review.

Everyone waited on the edge of their seat then the official finally came out.

“The ruling on the field is reversed the WR had complete control of the ball going to the ground and two feet inbounds the result of the play is a touchdown” says the ref. The stadium had gone beyond defining. The extra point was good which made the final score 14-13 Sacramento High

a few years later- Drew would then commit to the University of California Berkeley along with Andre Bell. Drew would then go on to win four national championship. he would be picked number one overall in the 2017 NFL draft and win 6 super bowls with the Arizona Cardinals and be named into the Hall of Fame and could one day be name the best of all time along with his best friend Andre Bell who claimed records for most rec yards, most REC TDs, most all purpose yards, most REC TDs and yards in a game and career.