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Once they’re all outside, I let out a slow breath. That was terrifying, but exhilarating.
After a quick talk from Coach M, stretching, and warm-ups, we split off to work on position-specific things. While the pitching coach works with Tanner, our top starter, I finally get to have some one-on-one with Andy. I mentioned some of the issues I saw to the pitching coach, but he’s needed to focus on Tanner and one of their closers. Other than some extra stretches and encouragement to clear his head, Andy hasn’t gotten much other direction. This is where I can do some damn good.
“All right, Cooper, what are you gonna teach me?”
“Add a ‘Coach’ to the front of that or I’m gonna teach you how to sit on the bench.”
He grimaces at me and I smile.
I was made for this.
He shuts the hell up and throws a few pitches, then I walk over and take in his stance. “Have you been injured recently?”
He looks at me like I’m dumb. “No.”
I roll my eyes. “Doesn’t have to be a pitching injury. Did you land weird stepping on base? Did you trip and catch yourself wrong? Anything like that. Your footing is slightly off and you tense up every few throws.”
His shoulders slump. “There’s a muscle that’s tight in my low back. I slipped clearing my mom’s driveway over break.”
I nod. “Good. That’s something we can fix. Your footing being off is affecting your release. It’s why your velocity is down and your pitches aren’t landing like they need to. It also puts you at risk for a more serious injury which would be difficult to recover from. Once we get this taken care of, you should be back to normal. It might take a little bit of extra mental work to get out of the bad form you’ve adjusted to, but we’ll get there.”
He gapes at me for a minute. Then he grumbles out the word, “Fuck.”
I call the trainer over and he takes Andy back inside. After some heat, massage, and a few stretches, Andy comes back out to the field. He throws a few pitches to test my theory. On the third pitch, he catches his bad form and self-corrects.
“How do you feel?” I call.
“Better.”
He throws a few more, some he catches himself and corrects, some he throws naturally. His improvement is significant. Pitches are landing like he wants, and he isn’t tensing up. One more pitch, and I tell him to take a break. I don’t want him to overdo it. The trainer set him up with a routine of heat, massage, and stretching to help keep the issue from flaring up. I’ll keep working with him to make sure his form stays solid. Hopefully, that will solve the problem for good.
As everyone gets changed after practice, Andy walks up to me, and loud enough for everyone to hear, says, “I’ll give it to you, you know your shit. No one else caught that I was tensing up. I didn’t even realize it. I never would’ve thought that slipping on ice would’ve created the problem. So, thanks.Coach.”
He gives me a nod and heads back to his locker. A few of the upperclassmen look at me approvingly.
That’s something.
As we walk back toward the dorm, Joel says, “You’re awfully quiet.”
I shrug one shoulder. “Nothing to talk about.”
“Besides the fact that younailedyour first day as a coach? Seriously, A, I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks.” My voice comes out more prickly than I intend. It’s great that he’s proud of me, but I feel like a kid who only gets praise from his parents when he does everything right.
He grabs my shoulder and looks at me. “Hey, you okay? You did awesome today. You were meant to do this.”
I push out a quiet exhale. “I can’t deny I loved it. I loved giving them shit. I loved earning their respect. And Ilovedthat I was doing something I’m great at.”
“Good.” He slugs my shoulder as we head inside.
Even though I’m still a little pissed and a little surly, I am proud of myself. And I’m proud that I’m making a difference.
“Hey!”
Joel and I turn at the sound of Rae’s voice behind us. She skips over—yeah, actually skips—and joins us.
Joel smiles widely. “You’re in a good mood.”
