GETTING IN YOUR REPS

"Check the windows" commanded Dave Geren as we waited at the locked fieldhouse door.





"Here's an open one" I called, spotting an unlatched grate over a back window.

"I'm your ladder" offered the tough noseguard, bending against the wall for me to step up onto his back.

I pulled open the creaky grate, wedged the window up, and squeezed through. Leaping down onto the black and white tiles of the shower room, I marched to the front and unlatched the door.

"Better lock it in case he comes" advised my intrepid weight lifting companion.

_______________

The decaying building in a corner of LaMonte Field was painted in Bound Brook High School colors with white wooden shingles accented by red shudders and roof just like our home uniforms. Inside, the chipped concrete floors and dented lockers surrounding the Universal Gym were also Crusader red. 

The school had just moved the new weight machine into the fieldhouse for summer football training. Coach Eutsler had invited prospective players to use the equipment, promising to have the building opened three evenings a week. A dozen guys showed up the first Monday of July and shuffled through the stations in the stifling central Jersey humidity. 

"Move it, you pussies" laughed Coach Steffner, turning on a huge upright fan that drowned out the clangs and moans but provided a cooling breeze. 

By the second week it was down to two or three of us. On the third Monday the coach didn't show so we ran a couple of laps and went home. Wednesday night came and we waited a half hour before taking matters into our own hands.

_________________

"Kill that propeller" directed Dave. "We need to hear if he drives up."

After a couple of sweaty sets alternating bench and leg presses, we looked up at each other.

"Was that a car door?" I whispered.

"The back window" he laughed, running for the shower room.

We scrambled out, climbed over the tall back fence, and went around to the gate, arriving back at the front door as Coach Steffner came out.

"It's about time you loafers got here" he greeted, missing that we were both already drenched with sweat. "Now get to work!"