Cheerleader- Boy for the Cheer

by Daring Diane

  “Darby,” she answered.

  The coach continued, “Can you help me out with something? Barnes, get over here.”

  The coach asked, “Do you go to school here?”

  “Yes sir, I’m a freshman.” Darby answered.

  “I understand you wanted to try out for softball.”

  “That’s right sir. I’ve been practicing and I hope to make the team.” Darby explained.

  The coach explained, “Well, Barnes here has a problem. He thinks he is god’s gift to women and the team. I wondered if Barnes showed you how great he is at batting if you would be willing to see how your abilities might compare to a big mouth senior.”

  Darby smiled sheepishly, “Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to make Mr. Barnes look bad. But, if you think it would be helpful, I can show him how girls bat.”

  Barnes was clearly pissed at being singled out by the coach and needled by some little girl. Jerry leaned back in the stands and smiled.

  Barnes stepped in the box and tried his best imitation of Babe Ruth. On every ball he tried to hit it as hard and far as he could. He connected on 4 out of the first ten and then simply tried to hit the ball. With 9 out of 20 pitches, including 4 whopper hits, Barnes felt pretty good.

  Darby went over to the sidelines and took off her earrings. She gathered her hair in a scrunchie and walked back on the field. Lee handed her a couple of batting gloves. Darby walked to the box. As she neared the box, slid her hands up and down the bat, took a few practice swings and positioned her feet in the box, it was clear she had swung the bat in the past.

  Darby missed the first ball. Barnes immediately started in making fun of her. She did not move. The second ball dropped over the first baseman’s location short of where the right fielder would stand. The next ball, a line drive, dropped in short center field. The next ball did the same in left field. She began cycling, center, right, center, left, center, right. Then she stepped back and looked over her shoulder. Barnes was behind the side backstop. A pitch came whistling in, she stepped back and smacked the ball which struck right in front of Barnes face. “Watch your mouth.” She stated. Turning, she bunted two balls and then stepped out of the box.

  Lee ran up to her and congratulated her. They were laughing as she brushed some dust off herself while walking back to the seating area.

  “Darby, hold on.” They heard the coach say.

  “Darby and Lee those were amazing demonstrations of batting. Darby, can I assume you are able to field and maybe have been training with Lee?”

  Darby smiled, looked from Lee to the coach and nodded.

  “Darby and Lee, can I see you two in my office tomorrow right after lunch?”

  They both agreed. The coach turned and told everyone practice was over. Barnes and his buddies did not know what to do. They could not let some girl or two girls show them up. On the other hand, they really needed players with batting abilities.

  Darby and Lee ran into Jerry as they were leaving. He congratulated them. As they walked off, Jerry said, “Darby, you know that under title 9, baseball and softball are different sports. And if they do not offer a sport for your gender, you can play on the boy’s team. What I am saying is you could play baseball instead of softball. Think about it.”

  Darby and Lee giggled about her performance all the way home. They could not wait to tell their parents. Lee was almost assured a spot on the team. And, based on today’s performance, Darby was a better batter than almost every boy on the team.

  Jack was excited to hear about Lee’s performance at the tryouts. Even though he had evolved to being very proud of his son’s involvement and leadership in the cheer squad and cheerleading, Jack was excited to hear about Lee’s performance in a man’s sport. Moments later, he and Sally were laughing uproariously at the description of Darby’s performance. For some reason, Jack was much more comfortable with a girl on the boy’s team than he was with his son on the girl’s team. They all looked forward to hearing the outcome of tomorrow’s meeting.

  Liam liked the idea that Darby had shown the boys up. He was worried about his daughter getting hurt playing with big boys who would be looking to put her in her place. He carefully expressed his opinion and told her to do whatever she thought was right.

  After lunch, Lee and Darby made their way to the coach’s office. On the way, they passed Sylvia Steiling. She stopped them, “I want to be up front. The baseball coach asked me about both of you. He apparently checked your grades and saw you were both involved with the cheer squad. By the way, I did not realize you were both pulling straight A’s. With everything else you guys do, that is very impressive. I answered his questions directly and told him you were both in better shape than any other students I knew of in the school. I told him you were dedicated and you would not let him down. Good Luck.”

  The coach bade both of them to sit down in his office. “I understand the two of you are friends.”

  Lee jumped in, “That’s right sir. We’ve been working out together since last summer and we have been working on enhancing our baseball skills for over three months.”

  “Well in all my years, I have never had a freshman put on a performance like you did yesterday. In fact the only time I have ever seen something like that was when we brought some guy over from the Tiger organization. He had spent time with a hitting coach and he could hit anything. Of course, he was a professional.”

  After a pause he continued, “I talked to the fielding coach and he was very impressed with your skills in the drills. Obviously, we need to see how you do with real pitchers and in a game situation as far as fielding skills are concerned. But, based on your hitting, I expect you to be on the varsity team this year. I have only ever had one freshman on the varsity team. Congratulations.”

  Turning to Darby, “And you young lady, put most of my players to shame. Because of your physical size, you aren’t going to be hitting homers all day long. But, if you hit line drives like you did in practice, you could be the centerpiece of any team. In spite of the potential issues, I want to ask you to consider crossing the line and actually trying out for the school baseball team. If you can field like your friend here, you may be the second freshman to make the varsity team this year. Will you think about it?”

  Darby was thrilled. She had already thought about it. “Coach, I like baseball and I like doing things with Lee. I talked to my parents last night about this possibility. They and I are concerned about abuse or people trying to hurt me. I talked to Lee and he encouraged me. I am willing to give it a try.”

  The coach seemed relieved. Maybe he had not expected her to say yes. The smile said it all. “Great. I’ll see both of you at practice this afternoon. And if anyone gives either of you any trouble, I will deal with it instantly. Tell me anything no matter how small it seems. We may have to work out some locker room issues. But I know we can handle that.”

  Lee was wearing his baseball pants and a t-shirt with his favorite Cardinals baseball hat. Darby in black leggings, knee socks and tennis shoes sported her favorite Cubs hat. Neither team was the preferred team in the area. Both Lee and Darby had used a hair tie to fold their hair up to the cap hole. This shortened the hair hanging and would lower its attraction as a focus of the bullies.

  The coach seemed to think a nice run was a good way to start the day. Lee and Darby blew everyone away and were waiting for the team to complete the exercise. Darby did apparently have skills at fielding and during a scrimmage, both Lee and Darby demonstrated their capabilities.

  Hitting off real pitchers was different. Of course, the pitchers were not continually throwing strikes. Both Darby and Lee demonstrated their hitting capability and the coach was very excited.

  In the end, the coach gave slots on the varsity team to both Lee and Darby. Lee was the regular shortstop. Darby played outfield and rotated with a couple of other players. However, when she did not start, Darby was the go to person with men on base and when a pinch batter was needed.

  The baseba
ll team had a pretty good season and Lee was one of the stars. At the start of games, other teams often chided them saying things like, “You guys ran short of men and had to go to the cheerleaders. Good luck with that.” Others made fun of Darby or Lee’s hair. They both took to braiding their locks for games. They would let it hang until game time and then roll it up in a bun or fold the braid on itself and hold it in place with a scrunchie or simple band.

  Once games got going, the two strange team members inevitably became the main problem for the other team. The team members all became very protective of Darby. Any other team’s player who got out of line with Darby could expect payback every inning.

  In the bottom of the ninth inning of a very confrontational game where the other team never let up on the cheerleading comments and harassed Lee and Darby throughout the game, Darby as the tying run got on base with a single. Lee followed her to the plate with runners on 1st and 2nd bases. Lee had kidded around with Darby before they got to bat. A pitch low and almost outside was perfect for Lee. He pounded the ball over the wall. Then Lee and Darby in unison performed cartwheels, back walkovers, front walkovers and other spins all the way around to third base and both of them walked home on their hands. On their way home they gave the most popular cheer for their team.

  The crowd was cheering and laughing. The coach for the other team came out and congratulated Lee on the hit and praised both he and Darby for ignoring the unsportsmanlike conduct of a few of his players. He apologized for them and said he would deal with it after the game. He raved about their athleticism and demonstration of skills.

  Most of the members of the team, who paid little attention to anything other than their own lives and friends, did not even realize that Lee and Darby had been part of the cheerleading and cheer squad. Their own team was congratulating them for putting it to the other team and bringing home a winner.

  Chapter 25 – Baseball Awards

  At the spring baseball dinner, the coach took great pride in awarding Lee and Darby varsity letters in baseball. Jack and Liam completed the evening by giving their children letter jackets to mount their letters on. Sylvia who had come to the dinner as a guest of the coach gave Lee and Darby sew on emblems of the school’s cheerleading logo like on the back of their warmups. Sylvia said that this way it did not matter which of their school coats they wore, everyone would know they were also on the cheerleading squad.

  Jack and Liam had the graduation year and school logo pre-sewn on the coats. Lee and Darby spent the next day with assistance from their mothers sewing their varsity letters along with their cheer megaphones onto their jackets.

  Lee had never been prouder of anything other than the coat with both of his team logos sewn on. For the rest of the school year, it was virtually impossible to find him wearing anything else.

  Darby was the first woman to ever earn a letter in a major men’s sport at their school or anywhere in the region. Earning that letter in her freshman year made it even more important to both Darby and the school.

  Darby was very proud of her accomplishments. But, Lee had dreamed of earning a letter in baseball since he was a little boy. It confirmed to him that he was a boy and could play a man’s sport. There was only one thing that could have made earning his varsity letter better and that was sharing it with Darby. And with that, Lee found comfort in school and with his life. He had a best friend and they shared everything that was important to him.

  **********

  What’s Next?

  Lee’s summer break will have more unexpected circumstances leading to further feminine immersion. In their sophomore year, Lee will be pulled further into the cheerleading programs. He and Darby will enter the dating fray and he will find himself wearing more feminine clothing. After an injury to one of the cheerleaders, Lee has to lend a hand.

  Lee wants to lead a regular life. But, he also wants to enjoy his new found interest in women’s clothing.