The Diary of Michael Coleman

[G-Men72]

nice game for him. i feel bad for mr. jackson though.

[buckeyeryan]

Saturday

I talked to Coach Robertson on the phone Saturday afternoon. He said that the game against Lakewood was big for my college options. “That game was huge. Lakewood is a tough defense, and you really took it to them. You might just garner some attention from the big boys after all.”

I spent the rest of the Saturday just chilling on the couch, watching some college football and dreaming of where I might be playing next fall.

Monday

I walked into school on top of the world. The school was rallying around the football team in a way I couldn’t believe. Just sitting in first period before the bell rang, a bunch of my classmates were giving me high fives and telling me that they were going to make the trip for this week’s game against Colonial. Everyone was confident that we could win again this week, and make a push towards being State Champions!

Suddenly, the teacher said, “Michael, the principal would like to see you in his office.” I got up out of my chair, and slowly walked out of the classroom. I thought, maybe, this would be some sort of congratulations for the job well done last Friday night. The school had never won a playoff game, so maybe he had some kind of pep rally planned for later on in the week. I opened the door to the principal’s office, and all of my daydreams were brought back to reality as I saw Coach Robertson, Mr. Jackson, and our school’s on-campus police officer all in the office as well.

This wasn’t a meeting about a pep rally. It was much, much worse.

[buckeyeryan]

The meeting didn’t go well.

I could go into all of the details, but the gist of the whole thing was that they knew that I had stolen the money, that it was a “Misdemeanor A” offense, and that I was in some serious trouble. If I plead guilty, I might be able to get off of the hook with just a whole lot of community service. There was a whole lot of other legal talk that I couldn’t really follow, but I remember Coach Robertson just shaking his head back and forth a whole lot. Mr. Jackson looked like he was going to cry at any moment.

After all of the legal stuff, Coach spoke up. “You’re done with football, Michael,” Coach Robertson said, plainly. “You have been permanently removed from the team. You can not dress for the game or travel with the team on Friday to Colonial, or any other games. I am extremely disappointed in you. And I’m sure once the college programs here about this as well, there will be a change in their interest in you.”

I didn’t know if it would be better to fess up about why I neede the money, and to drag Lee into this or not, so I kept my mouth shut. Paying a teammate to fake an injury probably wouldn’t help my case.

When it seemed they were all done, I apologized to everyone, especially to Mr. Jackson. I knew I had let my family down, my teammates down, and destroyed all of the faith Mr. Jackson had in me. I walked back to class, dejected, wondering what would happen next….

[slimbrady12]

this reminds me of the show Lost in that every week when the episode is over i find myself obsessing over what will happen next...great stuff

[YoungWonda]

Nice twist. I like where this is going.

[G-Men72]

this should turn into a tv show. i would watch it.

[buckeyeryan]

Originally Posted by slimbrady12

this reminds me of the show Lost in that every week when the episode is over i find myself obsessing over what will happen next...great stuff

Thanks to all for the props. i'm really enjoying putting this together and trying to feel out the story, so I'm hoping this can continue for a good while and I won't lose interest (nor will anyone else, hopefully!)

I've got most of the story hashed out in my head, it's just finding some more time to post it all up here. I should have another few posts to the storyline by tomorrow afternoon.

[Saints101]

This is awesome nice writing buckeyeryan. You've got me hooked onto this thread.

[buckeyeryan]

Friday Night –

2nd Round Playoffs versus Colonial

This past week has been terrible. The news of me being kicked off the team got around pretty quick, and the rest of the team didn’t seem very thrilled with the idea of going into a playoff game without me OR Lee in the backfield. I told Lee that he needed to tell the training staff that he was feeling fine, but they wouldn’t let him back near the field. His “concussion” still needed more time before he was ready to get back out there. Whatever. It wasn’t going to matter anyway. Colonial would have been tough for us to beat with me running the rock, but with Lee back there, we didn’t stand a chance. And without Lee, Coach Robertson was scrambling to find anyone with the ability to run the ball…..

I wasn’t allowed to go to the game with the football team. In fact, I wasn’t supposed to be going at all. I managed to borrow a car from a friend for the evening, and snuck into the stadium to watch it all from the Colonial stands. I wanted to avoid any attention, so I wore a ball cap down tight over my head and a big coat. I sat alone in the top row of the stands, watching the game unfold.

It wasn’t pretty. Colonial jumped out to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter, and it didn’t seem like it was going to get much better. By halftime, we were down 28-3. After Colonial scored on their opening possession of the second half to make it 35-3, I had seen enough. I walked back to the car, and drove myself home. I was mad at myself for throwing away this opportunity, but I knew that there had to be some coach -- somewhere – willing to take a chance on me.

[buckeyeryan]

November 30, 2007

I’ve spent the last month or so just thinking back on my playing time, and doing a lot of community service. A lot of community service. I don’t know the exact hours, but it seems like it never ends.

My momma didn’t say too much about the whole money incident. She was angry at me, sure, and I could tell she was really disappointed. She didn’t ever find out why I stole the money – no one did, really. I think she felt partly responsible, though. She knew we didn’t have much money as family, and that I was probably doing it to help all of my brothers and sisters out. Man, if she knew the truth, I think she would be a little bit more upset.

Coach Robertson still calls me on occasion to inform me of the recruiting process, and to help me make some decisions on what avenues we are going to take. After my huge game against Lakewood – my last high school game – Coach had said that he had at least gotten some calls from some position coaches and offensive coordinators from some of the bigger schools inquiring about me. Even a call from Michigan State. There were never any offers discussed, but just some general interest shown in me, and trying to feel out if Coach thought I might be fit at their program. After the incident with the money and Mr. Jackson, though, those calls stopped. Coach Robertson tried to go on the offensive and call some of the schools on my behalf, but he wasn’t getting much return on his efforts.

I go through all of the mail with Coach once a week. There’s a bunch of letters from smaller schools, but I haven’t seen anything from a Division One school in a while. Coach had his staff and the Audio Visual club at school put together a highlight reel for me to mail out to some coaches, but it wasn’t very long. When you only have 8 games or so of tape to pull from, the highlight reel is pretty short.