’VARSITY VS.  SECOND TEAM

Saunders, who was going around on crutches those days, viewed the advent of Clint on the ’varsity squad with misgiving, but he was very nice to him whenever the opportunity occurred.  The same was true of the older candidates for the tackles positions, Trow, Tyler and Crewe.  It was evident to a blind man from the first that Coach Detweiler had made up his mind that if such a thing were possible Clinton Thayer was to be converted into a tackle of ’varsity calibre.  Hence the other candidates, especially those who had been practically certain of their positions, could not be blamed for feeling a little resentment toward both Mr. Detweiler and Clint.  That they refrained from showing it was creditable.  But Clint felt it even if he didn’t have optical or auricular evidence of it and for the first few days at least experienced some embarrassment and constraint.

But life was too busy to leave him much time for troubling about whether or not Saunders and the others approved of his presence.  His work was cut out for him from the start.  Mr. Detweiler was forever at his heels and Mr. Detweiler’s voice was forever raised in criticism or instruction.  More than once Clint felt like giving up.  Toward the end of that first week it seemed to him that the coach paid no heed to anyone but just Clint Thayer and that nothing Clint Thayer did was ever quite right!  But he never did give up, however.  He was often discouraged, sometimes angry, always tired out when work was over, but he kept on trying.

Mr. Detweiler dogged his footsteps every minute, or so it seemed to Clint.  Returning from practice the coach would frequently range himself alongside and deliver one of his brief lectures.  Sometimes he would intercept him between locker and shower and tell him something he had forgotten earlier.  On Thursday evening Clint found him awaiting him in Number 14 Torrence when he returned from supper, and, punctuated by lugubrious wails from Penny Durkin’s violin, the coach delivered a twenty-minute lecture on “The Duties of a Tackle on Offence when the Play is on the Other side of Centre.”  Clint got so he dreamed of football and neglected his studies wofully until both Mr. Simkins and Mr. Jordan remonstrated.  In the Southby game, which was played at Brimfield, Clint started in place of Trow at right tackle, with Tyler at left.  Offensively he showed up particularly well, but it must be acknowledged that on the defence he was far from perfect.  The Southby left end was a clever player and Clint’s efforts to out-guess that youth were not very successful.  Several times during the two periods in which he played the runner went over or around Clint for good gains.  Considering it afterwards, it was a surprise to him that he had not been taken out before he was.  Perhaps, though, the fact that Brimfield scored twice in the first period and so secured a lead that was never threatened had something to do with it.  Probably the coaches were willing to sacrifice some yards of territory in exchange for experience for the new tackle.  At all events, when, at the commencement of the third quarter, Clint’s name was not in the line-up and Clint bundled himself in a blanket and took his place on the bench, Mr. Robey paused long enough to say:  “Watch your game, Thayer.  You did pretty well.”