THE NEXT CONTEST for Spirit and his Bobcats he was scheduled with the Idaho team in Sawtooth County. Spirit hadn’t played this team, the Grand Forks Falcons, in a long time. He was confident, but Spirit remembered years before that they were tough at home. The mood was upbeat all week; however, Spirit continued to work energetically with his team.
Finally, Friday arrived and the boys boarded the bus at noon. This was another long ride but almost two hours shorter than the first outing of the season. The team headed to Spokane, south on Highway 195 and then traversed through dozens of rolling Palouse hills as they took a series of paved back roads to reach Highway 95 and south to their opponent. This was a pastoral setting of alfalfa pastures and freshly plowed wheat fields interspersed with gently sloping hills framed by the majestic Sawtooth Mountains.
For the coin toss, Larry called heads. It was expensive and Captain Bobcat chose to receive. At first it was a slow march down the field as the defense focused on Skosum’s talented running backs. Larry finally hit Mac with a long pass downfield and the Moses kid gave the safety his right hip, took it off, turned left and went 50 yards for the touchdown. But out of the corner of his eye, Spirit saw a late flag on the field: hold on! Spirit looked at his linemen as they raised their palms and shrugged. Spirit asked the referee: “Who committed the holding?
The striped man replied, “Number 63.”
Spirit looked around, did a double take, and replied, “The Falcons have a number 63, but we don’t. Who did the hold?” But the umpire ignored Spirit, ran to the opposite side of the field and traded positions with the far sideline judge, who called a negative ten yards from scrimmage and the down was replayed.
Larry was frustrated because he was sure no one violated the retention rule. He called for the same play but the Falcons were ready for it. The defense intercepted the pass and ran back fifty yards to score. The game continued like this. Usually, when the Bobcats achieved long distances, a flag was thrown. The deepest frustration for Spirit and his team: Numerous violations by the Falcons, but only an occasional call against the home team. Coach Sintasket really wanted to yell at the Idaho umpires, but he stopped himself. More than anything, he wanted to teach the kids good sportsmanship. When Spirit suffered a severe headache accompanied by a narrow tunnel in his vision and stars flickering like snow on a television screen with no reception, he momentarily thought: That referee’s face looks a lot like a vicious animal.
The game continued like this with only an occasional touchdown from either team. Larry complained to the back field judge: “They’re holding on, taking low shots and grabbing our face masks.”
The referee replied, “You’re a big boy, play ball.”
Larry called for a deep pass on the next play. He stayed in the pocket, but a defender broke through and illegally hit Larry in the knees. When Larry went down hard with a scream, no flag was thrown. He had to be helped up and could not put his left foot down. Spirit called a timeout and put Chase-In-Winter, Jr. at quarterback. Abel put ice on Larry’s leg and tried to reassure the boy that everything would be okay.
With just a minute to go and down six points, Chase handed the ball to Swift. The hole closed in front of him, a broken play, and Swift ran to the Bobcat dugout, around the corner upfield, then up the sideline, thirty, twenty, ten. She was pushed out of bounds…and then a late hit while he was on the ground…a heavy hit from one of the smaller Falcons, a hoof to the back. The criminal appeared quickly and there was no flag. Swift couldn’t get up. The game was stopped until he could be helped further from the sideline. An EMT looked at Swift and suggested that they take him to the hospital. Abel and Swift’s dad stacked ice packs on the boy’s back. After 30 seconds of play, the game was over. The local team won 30-24. Mr. Skosum and Sylix helped Swift into the truck and they headed north on Highway 95 to Kootenai County Hospital in Coeur d’Alene. Mr. Lillooet helped Larry into his truck and they followed the Skosums north.
There was a long wait in the emergency room. But at 1 a.m. it was determined that Larry had a sprained knee and that Swift had swelling around her lower spine and a bruised back muscle. The doctor on call recommended not playing soccer for three to five days, depending on the conditions. For both children, he recommended ice, intermittently every twenty minutes for the next 24 hours, and a couple of ibuprofen every six hours for three days. He also gave each child two hydrocodons and a prescription for twenty more as needed for pain. On Saturday afternoon, both parents informed Spirit of their children’s disposition. Mr. Lillooet saved four of Larry’s opiate pain pills and tossed the rest into the fire. He was well aware that an epidemic of addiction was on the rise. Spirit was worried but relieved that his players weren’t in too serious a condition. He thought, It could have been much worse.
