by Beth Hoyer
are volunteering which Jinks spoke “I’ll take the job. I orders Bulk to set the ball for me to kick it.”
Jinks scored a field goal for his team that puts them in the lead by a narrow margin which in huddle he spoke “I orders you my team to keep New Haven from scoring just to hold onto the lead.”
His team listens to him and keeps New Haven from scoring any more touchdowns while setting up Jinks to score. Jinks figures that New Haven has changed their moves to target him which explains why he keeps getting tackled each time he does a route to the end zone while holding the ball. Jinks notices during the game that the New Haven players have stopped paying attention to his team’s players by not covering them very much. During the game he throws the ball to Nijon before being knocked down and hears that Nijon has scored a touchdown putting their lead even wider and hears the final whistle blowing finds himself on the bottom of a team celebration pyramid which he doesn’t complain about that.
His Mom the next day shows him the newspapers’ articles she saying “Their talking about you my son helping his team make history along with being the first quarterback in high school history to score more than one touchdown in a single game.”
Jinks during practice notices that the other players are treating him with respect but hears from Bulk “The players will bully you for the rest of the school year if they don’t win the State Championship title.”
Jinks helps his team break school records by defeating opponents to play into the title game versus Glastonbury in Rocky Hill’s high school soil. He finds that the crowd at the title game is heavily for Glastonbury with some of them cheering for Wethersfield along with his high school cheerleaders there. Jinks get put into the game which he motivates the team to keep Glastonbury from scoring touchdowns and to keep on trying whenever Glastonbury intercepts their moves for attempt touchdown scores. He finds that neither team has scored a touchdown till Glastonbury is awarded an opportunity to kick a field goal. Jinks during the huddle gets an idea to do a cheerleading move seeing the cheerleaders doing cheers and doesn’t get the opportunity to voice it when their time out time expires. Jinks position himself behind the tallest player Rawson figuring out that Rawson will toss him off if he feels him on his back from knowing that from practicing football with Rawson. Once the game starts he jumps onto Rawson’s back and feels himself launched into the air which he gets his hands onto the ball and jumps down to take off running towards the opponent end zone and gets tackled behind after running till he’s in the middle of the field.
During huddle his team spoke “Jinks thanks for blocking that field goal!”
Jinks doesn’t say much but he recalls on the news saying that there’s a new rule about awarding two football teams the State Championship title if both teams don’t score touchdowns during regulation and two overtime periods. He keeps this fact to himself while motivating the team to keep on trying for a touchdown and keep blocking Glastonbury from scoring. This lasts for the rest of the regulation time and two overtimes till the final whistle is blown.
The announcer announces “The new rule involving both teams tied for a state championship if neither scored a touchdown so congratulations to both Wethersfield and Glastonbury for the co-champion state title win!”
Jinks heard from the crowd who seem a little dejected hearing that as his team feeling the same way while noticing that the Glastonbury team don’t seem happy about it either. Jinks shrugs it off while noticing that the news reporters are oddly focusing on him by their cameras aimed at him judging by the flashes aimed at his direction. He finds it a little weird but doesn’t complain when the coach selects him to hold the trophy for a picture with his team which he does while noticing news reporters aiming their cameras at his team when he’s posing with them. Jinks also finds that their still aiming their cameras at him as he walks by them to the bus with his teammates.
Once inside Bulk shakes his hand ‘Jinks you got my thanks for blocking the field goal attempt by Glastonbury.” mentions “I’m not sure of the teammates’ reaction to sharing the title with Glastonbury. The title sharing feels oddly weird.”
He doesn’t comment keeps his mouth shut as the bus drives to Wethersfield High School where he goes to the locker room to take off his uniform with his teammates and showers with them in the shower room. He hears nothing from the teammates sensing that their not in the mood to talk figures to keep his mouth shut or suffer bullying from them. Jinks go home by walking home to meet his Mom in the apartment there who congratulates him for the title sharing which he sheepishly shrugs off. He sits in his room till after dinner hears his Mom yell for him to come down and he does and is indicated to watch the TV.
Jinks read the captions talking “There’s a historic title sharing by two teams in State Championship history.”
He discovers to his annoyance that their talking “Wethersfield team and Glastonbury teams have both made history!”
Jinks finds he doesn’t want to pay attention to more of it but ordered by his Mom to sit with her and read the captions. He feels a little uncomfortable as the news show clips of the title game along with a clip of him catching the ball in Glastonbury’s field goal attempt. This was followed by him taking off with the ball in a failed attempt to score a touchdown along with a camera view zooming onto himself without his helmet on.
Jinks read the captions talking “Jinks Montreal” mentioning his name which he feels uncomfortable about.
He continues to read that the news is talking “Jinks Montreal is being the player that blocked Glastonbury’s field goal attempt by doing a new move not done in football history to catch the ball. Jinks wound up shocking both teams and the crowd judging by their reactions by doing that new move. He later was running in a failed attempt to score a touchdown.”
Jinks frown as he continues to read “The crowd’s reaction to Jinks Montreal catching the field goal attempt ball was falling into dead silence with the players on the field appearing to be in shock by them hesitating to move after he caught the ball and jumped down took off. The players broke their shock and took off after him with one of the Glastonbury players tackling him down.”
Jinks feel as thinking “I feel like the news is focusing too much on me instead of my teammates.”
Jinks continue to watch the broadcast analysis him catching the ball while talking “The State Championship committee is examining the move and the rules. The analyses people are aware that there’s no rule against doing it but there might be something done about it for future football games.”
Jinks slouch leaning back on the couch watching the TV and sees to his annoyance that their focusing on the football game he just played along on him with some background mentioned “Jinks Montreal is a sophomore in High School.” along with said “He was out sick the day of the high school’s first football game. Wethersfield’s winning streak is a result of some of those games has resulted in his team coming from behind to win games each time he was put in the game.”
He slouches lower on the couch as the TV broadcast shows a clip of Wethersfield handing Glastonbury their only loss of the season by showing himself as quarterback throwing a ball to another player.
They mentioned “Jinks Montreal made a throwing record in that game that resulted in his team winning it from throwing the ball to a teammate that scored a touchdown. Wethersfield held off Glastonbury to win that game.”
His slouching gets noticed by his Mom who yanks him to sit up straight and gestures to watch the TV which he continues to watch them still talking “Possibly of the high school coaches voting to name Jinks Montreal the High School football league’s most valuable player. It’s mostly from polling people around the state a week before the title game who have already heard about him. Some of the people mentioning going to attend high school games just to watch him play after hearing he threw the historic throwing record ball.”
Jinks feel a little annoyed at the attention he’s getting feels a little put out as he continues
to watch a broadcast of the local news affiliates interviewing his coach awhile after the game who looks a little sheepish from the looks of his face while talking “I wound up seeing the sports potential in Jinks when he let him onto the team over a well known player when Jinks was a freshman. That player in question was in the game has resulted in wins over top ten ranked teams only to be knocked out by Glastonbury in an attempt to reach the playoffs.”
Jinks continued to read feeling a little sheepish himself that the coach spoke “I saw that potential in Jinks when he was a sophomore trying out for the team picked him instead of the well known player. I’m happy that Jinks turned out to live up to his potential as a player leading his team to victories over top ten ranked teams including handing Glastonbury their first and only loss of the season. Jinks getting his team to the title game something Wethersfield haven’t done before in their school history.”
Jinks continue to watch the broadcast as his coach cuts the interview by walking off and a camera view catches his face showing him looking like he’s grimacing of pain while having back to the news reporter and their camera.
Then the view changed to Glastonbury’s coach who looks uncomfortable by the look