Coach Biff Burlington only knew what alliteration was because he liked his own name so much. It made him feel like a comic book hero. He'd had to square out some practice schedule conflicts between the basketball team and the volleyball team during the class break and it took him a bit longer than he expected, but since today was a test day he figured Marta could handle both the boys and girls for the first ten minutes.
Biff walked out the big double-doors that lead to the field and spied Marta in the center of the running students. She looked good, but Biff had a hard time believing that she'd been a professional volleyball player as recently as a year ago. With a shot at making the Olympic team, no less. But a bad elbow injury, compounded with bad advice, forced her to quit. She had the height for it, at six feet even, but she looked like a troll. Sure, she had flawlessly smooth skin, but her legs came out of her spandex shorts like steel cords, giving her a look more appropriate on a weightlifter or a linebacker. She didn't look flexible enough to scramble for an outside ball and make it.
Aaron Meadows was a bit stringy, but he was the best quarterback the school had seen in years, and he looked to currently be leading the pack of runners. Biff smiled to himself in approval. He wouldn't have believed it when he first saw the kid at tryouts, but Aaron was the reason the team was climbing up the district ladder. It didn't matter to Biff how small the kid was or how long he kept his hair, just so long as he could avoid getting badly sacked.
Not far behind the cluster of boys leading the group, Christina Pasternak was leading a cluster of girls. She was something special, too. Maybe not the star that Aaron was, but she could get a softball into a catcher's mitt reasonably well. That's not what made her special. Christina was special because she could lead. She could get the most out of all of her teammates, which made her in many ways a bigger asset than Aaron.
Biff made it to the center of the field and took his place next to Marta, his clear brown eyes about even with her mouth. Biff knew this was going to be a good year for the Pine Ridge High athletic department.
