Author's note: the following story is purely a work of fiction and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. The author wishes to express his gratitude to Signore Calcio for his story suggestion and editing to make this a better story.
John Kettering was disappointed and puzzled. Maybe most of all, he was frustrated. Being the head football coach at a small high school in football crazy Texas was at best not an easy job. It didn't matter how many kids the school had enrolled – or not – the locals expected the football team to be a winner. This, in spite of the fact that the school's team had not finished better than 5-5 in the last dozen years.
John had been the head coach at Graham High School for the last four years. Every year so far their record had improved but they had always missed out on the playoffs. Someone in their district had always been just a little bit better. Even so the school's stadium, which seated 7,437, was sold out for every game; if the opposition didn't sell their allotment of tickets, Graham HS always had a waiting list. They even sold standing room only tickets for places against the chain link fence that circled the track around the field. That meant that more than three-quarters of the town's population was in the stadium for home games. High school football fans in Texas really were fanatics.
This year John had been planning, scheming, studying ways to make sure that this was their year. He had a group of seven boys returning for their senior year, every one of them an 18 year old by the time practice started in August. For a school the size of Graham, that was a pot of gold, a passel of talent to call upon.
John just had to make sure that he used that talent well. The squad would have a final number somewhere around 35 to 40 boys, although at least 12 to 18 of them would have no hope at all of getting into any games this year. They were freshman and sophomores who needed lots of development before they were game-ready. He would depend on the core of seniors to lead a promising group of juniors and a few excellent sophomores who were ready to contribute.
Now with August winding down and school having started just three days ago, he was worried. For some reason he couldn't fathom, his seniors seemed to be sleep-walking through the plays during practice. They were doing an adequate job – just adequate, not outstanding as they should be at this point in the season. John and his assistants had talked about the situation and discussed every possible solution they could think of but nothing worked. The guys just seemed to want to get it over, not put out the effort to win. Now John was about to the point of pulling out his hair.
John had even talked about the situation with his wife, Mary Beth. He respected her opinion especially when it came to sporting activities because she had been a Physical Education teacher at Graham for nine of her 31 years, ever since she had graduated from the University of Texas as an All-America in basketball and a four year starter on the women's nationally ranked softball team.
While Mary Beth didn't have any panacea for the situation, she suspected that it was all a matter of motivation for the boys. After all, they were all from the farming communities of the surrounding area and she had guessed that the reality of their situation had begun to settle in.
The average boy who graduated from Graham High School went no further with his education. Instead he joined the family farming business and worked from "can" to "can't" as the farmers said, usually from sunup to sundown almost every day. For those who would be working on a dairy farm, there were no days off – ever.
The Ketterings had been discussing the boys' lack of interest for the last couple of weeks every chance they got. Mary Beth had a fleeting thought about something that might motivate the boys but then pushed it to the back of her mind as she headed to work that Wednesday. She always drove her car rather than riding with John because, during the football season, he always stayed late to view films and scouting reports. She had a full slate of five girls' PE classes to handle every day, but then liked to get home in time to have dinner ready for John when he came in.
When she arrived at school, she went to the office first to check her mail slot for any notes. There was one saying the Jolene Watkins would miss the fourth period PE class for illness. There were two catalogs from sports equipment suppliers who wanted to get her to purchase their products. There was a copied flyer from the girls' basketball coach at Brownwood inquiring about interest in a tournament in their facility in January. Then there was a "while you were out" note from the secretary telling Mary Beth that Mr. Kennedy, the principal, wanted to see her during her third period break; the note didn't say what it was about.
The first two classes were routine and since she had another class fourth period, Mary Beth didn't bother to change out of her gym uniform when she went to the principal's office. She had worn a white knit shirt with a deep V-shaped opening in the front. She knew it showed a lot of her 36D cup breasts, and she insured that she bought bras that would only cover the necessities. She was proud of the deep valley between them and didn't see a need to cover it up. She also wore a pair of white denim shorts that were tight enough to require a few minutes work pulling them on or getting them off. Her muscular legs filled the leg openings on the shorts. She wore white tennis shoes that she kept sparkling clean and white bobby socks. She finished her ensemble by tying her long dish-water blonde hair in the back with a blue and white ribbon, the school colors.
As Mary Beth walked the halls between classes dodging the crowds of students, she was aware that she drew the stares of the young men all along the hall. Occasionally there would even be a wolf whistle but she never turned to acknowledge those. Secretly she was thrilled that she could elicit such responses from the young men. She even "saw" some of them as her lover by closing her eyes when she and John were in the throes of passion, pondering what it would be like to sample the throbbing probes of the younger men. She sighed as she opened the outer door to the office.
Mr. Kennedy spotted her in the hubbub of the office and signaled her into his private sanctuary. After he closed the door, the noise lessened noteably.
"Uh ... thank you for coming down, Mrs. Kettering. We have a little problem with scheduling and I've taken the liberty of implementing a solution. I don't know if you've heard by the grapevine yet but Mr. Sanders was diagnosed with congenital heart failure yesterday. He's going to be out for at least six to eight weeks, maybe more. Right now the only substitutes on our availability list are already working. I checked around the nearby schools but no one has anyone so we're going to have to make do with what we have. That means I have five boys' PE classes to cover. Mr. Pennington will give me most of his assistant principal's duties for now and he will cover the first, second and third period boys' PE. Mr. Abbott and Mr. Dent will split fourth period. That leaves us only with fifth period, which as you know is the senior boys football players' class. It is a small class – only seven boys in it. If I could impose on you to take that class, I can get Miss Jenkins to handle your girls' class."
"I know it can be a pain for a woman to handle a boys' class but I thought you might be up to it, since you're also the coach's wife. Can you help us out?"
"Well ... that sounds like a challenge, Mr. Kennedy. Yes, I'm willing to do that. Do we start today?"
"Yes, please. I'll take care of having Miss Jenkins there for the girls if you'll meet the boys. They always meet their teacher in the locker room for assignments before the class so you can start there. Okay?"
"Yes, sir."
"Thank you, Mrs. Kettering. I know you'll do a good job."
Mary Beth went to the teachers' lounge for the remainder of her off period. She had just 24 minutes left to put her thoughts together and come up with a lesson plan. Since school was just getting started, she figured she had a free hand in scheduling activities for the boys. She
decided that it was time for her to take a hand at motivating these seven seniors and helping John out with his problem.
Fourth period she divided the girls into teams and set up a round robin volleyball tournament which would last into the following week. After the first round, she sent them to the showers in time to get ready for their next class.
John Kettering finished his fourth period American History class by giving out the next assignment just as the bell rang. He gathered everything he would need at home that evening to prepare for the next day and headed to the school's gymnasium. Normally he would go to the football coaches' offices, located off the training room at the far end of the
gym, and do any last minute preparation, like play diagramming, and be ready for the start of football practice as soon as sixth period began. It always took the players several minutes into the period to get dressed and out onto the practice field but the head coach had the advantage of an extra 55 minutes prep time.
Today, however, John decided on a little detour. He would drop by the PE teachers' offices and tell Mary Beth that he was going to take her to dinner that evening after practice. She had been working hard, both at school and at home, and deserved a little break. John dropped his book bag at the entrance to the boys' dressing room and decided to go into the restroom area and take a leak before he looked up his wife.