Chapter 3

Jeff

None of this would have happened if Scooter hadn’t moved to Small Valley for our senior year. Before he got here I was the starting running back. I was good too.

Actually, I was really good.

That’s not bragging. When the all-conference list came out in the paper after my junior season, my name was on it: Stoddard, Jeffrey. RB. Small Valley.

There was no reason to think I wouldn’t be all-conference as a senior too.

I’m a big guy. Big shoulders. Big legs. My shadow on the football field is the shape and size of a refrigerator.

I might not have breakaway speed, but I have quick feet for a guy my size. I also have soft hands for catching screen passes. Sometimes Coach Douglas puts me at tight end instead of running back so I can run routes. All you have to do is get the ball in my general direction, and I’ll usually find a way to catch it.

Then Scooter showed up, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.