The first game of the season had the neighborhood buzzing. Thursday evening at Pearl Park. All of the games for every team in the league were being played at Pearl Park this year over on Diamond Lake Road, and most of the games were being played on Thursday evenings.
The opponents? Boys Club. Big. Strong. Fast. Reputation for being rough. Reputation for being cocky. Reputation for stomping teams early. Every time they broke huddle, they chanted loudly: “BEAT KING!”
“BEAT KING!”
It echoed across the field like a challenge.
Tony rolled his eyes.
“Man, shut up.”
Marcus cracked his knuckles.
“Let ’em talk.”
Leon adjusted his helmet.
“They trying to get to us.”
Reggie muttered,
“It’s working a little bit…”
Derrick stayed calm. He always did.
It didn’t take long for Boys Club to show why people were nervous. On their first possession, they ran a sweep left with a huge halfback who broke three tackles and stiff-armed a fourth kid straight into the grass. Touchdown. Missed the extra point. 6–0 Boys Club. King Park got the ball… and immediately fumbled on the first play. Boys Club recovered. Two plays later—another touchdown. 12–0. The fans they had that came got quiet. Coach Tommy paced the sideline with his hands on his head.
“COME ON FELLAS! GET IT TOGETHER!”
Tony slammed his helmet on the bench.
“They BIG!”
Marcus growled,
“I ain’t scared of them.”
But they were rattled. Missed tackles. Dropped passes. Penalties. Confusion. Tony kept fumbling the ball. It wasn’t pretty. At halftime, King Park had gained a grand total of 10 yards. Meanwhile, Boys Club players strutted around, chanting again: “BEAT KING!” “BEAT KING!”
The girls behind the bench shook their heads.
“Mm-mm,” Terri said. “They better wake up.”
Cathy folded her arms.
“Come on, y’all…”
Tasha stared at Derrick, worry in her eyes.
“Sit down and take those helmets off those nappy heads.”
Coach Jimmy’s voice cut sharp across the bench. The boys sat. Helmet buckles unclicked. And then Jimmy lit into them.
“WHAT. WAS. THAT?! Huh?! WHAT was that first half?!”
A few girls behind them covered their mouths dramatically.
“Oooohhhh… he MAD,” Yolanda whispered.
“They ain’t better than you!” Jimmy shouted. “They’re not stronger than you! They’re not smarter than you! They’re not playing harder than you!”
He pointed at their chests.
“You’re beating yourselves!”
The boys looked down, ashamed. He let the silence hang.
“If y’all don’t wanna play football this year, just let us know, cause why can definitely find something else to do.” Jimmy said sharply. Stuart and Lenny both made their thoughts on how the guy were playing, well known. Then, slowly, the anger left his voice.
“I know what you can do,” Jimmy said, calmer now. “You know what you can do. So stop playing scared. Stop making excuses. Go out there, and beat them.”
He stepped back.
“That’s all I got.”
The boys stood. Derrick put his helmet back on.
“Let’s fix this,” he said quietly.
Marcus nodded.
Tony punched his fist into his hand. Leon clapped loudly. They ran back onto the field.
Something shifted. Like a spark lit. King Park got the ball first. First play: Tony took a handoff right, broke one tackle, spun out of another, and sprinted 30 yards. Loco had opened the whole wide open for him. Second play: Leon caught a quick pass and juked a defender so hard the kid fell over. Third play: Willie and James blocked a sweep so perfectly that Loco—newly slimmed down and hyped up—powered through the middle for a touchdown. 12–6. They lined up for the two-point conversion. (Park board teams almost never kicked.) Quarterback rolled left—hit Reggie in the end zone. 12–8. Boys Club suddenly didn’t look so confident anymore.
On the next defensive series, King Park hit hard. Real hard. Marcus blew up a run up the middle. Derrick chased down a sweep from the backside. Leon made a huge open-field tackle. Boys Club had to punt. And King wasted no time. Tony broke a 20-yard run. Loco smashed the middle for 8 more. Reggie caught a short pass and ran out of bounds. Then, on second and goal, Carter caught a play-action pass in the flat—touchdown. King Park players mobbed him. The girls on the sidelines screamed. Tasha jumped up, smiling wide. Two-point conversion: Loco bulldozed his way in. 14–12. From down 12–0… to up 14–12. The entire energy of King Park shifted.
But Boys Club wasn’t finished yet. Late in the fourth quarter, they began to march. Big run after big run. Short pass. Another run. The crowd held its breath. Girls backed up from the fence. Two other teams, playing after the King Park, Boy’s Club game, stopped their warm-ups to watch.
With under a minute left, Boys Club reached the One-yard line. First and goal. Four chances to win. And the whole park felt like it was shaking.
On First Down, they ran up the middle. Loco and Marcus slammed the runner backward. No gain. The crowd roared. Second Down. Sweep right. Derrick shed his blocker and dived low, grabbing the runner’s ankle just as Marcus hit him up top. No gain. The sideline erupted.Third Down. Play-action fake. Quarterback keeper. Leon didn’t bite—he hit the QB so hard the ball flew out (but the QB fell on it). Loss of a yard. People were screaming. Kids were screaming. Even the girls were yelling: “STOP THEM!” “LET’S GO, KING!” “COME ON DEFENSE!”
Fourth Down. Everything got quiet. Real quiet. Even the Boys Club players stopped talking trash. The ball snapped. The runner dove toward the left side of the line— but Derrick broke through. Marcus came over the top. Loco shot the gap. The three of them collided with the runner at the same time. WHUMP. The runner stopped dead. The ball didn’t move. The referee blew the whistle— TURNOVER ON DOWNS. KING PARK BALL.
The entire park exploded. Teammates hugging and jumping up and down. Girls cheering and dancing. Tony threw his helmet in the air. Reggie collapsed to the ground in relief. Leon pumped both fists toward the sky. Loco screamed like a victorious warrior. And Derrick… Derrick just stood there panting smiling soaked in sweat and proud.
After kneeling, and running out the clock, the team jogged off the field to claps, cheers, and back slaps. Coach Jimmy gathered them together.
“That,” he said with a grin, “is how you respond.”
They all cheered. The girls behind the fence cheered louder. And Tasha? She walked up to Derrick after the team broke huddle.
“You were great,” she said softly.
Derrick wiped sweat from his forehead.
“That was close.”
Tasha smiled.
“I wasn’t’ worried. I knew you would do it.”
His face warmed.
“You see that goal line stop?” Marcus yelled from behind them.
Tasha laughed.
“Yes, Marcus. I saw the whole thing.”
And Derrick knew— This wasn’t just a win. It was a statement. A beginning. A season opening the right way. King Park 14, Boys Club 12, and the neighborhood was proud.