Chapter 18

Mr. Cleaver Toes influence

Like his mother had instructed, sometime, Adrian would play some few minutes’ playful football with the juniors beside the dormitory building to kill boredom when lonely or tired of reading. He never dreamt of playing outside the college vicinity, let alone representing the college in a competitive tournament.

Meanwhile, it was Mr. Friday who had picked Adrian to join the college team. One evening, when he was displaying great football skills in a playful six-a-side football game with some junior students besides Dormitory-A, Mr. Friday saw him and was amazed at his skills.

"Wonderful skills you’ve got there, boy!’’ Mr. Friday, a man of about 40, well- built, tall with square shoulders hollered at Adrian from afar. The Physical and Health Education graduate, who would always dress in sport wears and sneakers, would walk on his tip-toes as if there was a thorn on his Achilles hills. He would walk with his arms and shoulders always raised high as if he would pounce on someone at the slightest provocation. That accustomed gait made the students nicknamed him "Mr. clever toes’’ out of his earshot. He was so respected among the students because he knew how to give an erred student a punishment so deep and without using a cane or fist. So, that made the name not to ring bell in the school like the Housemaster’s. The students also feared to call him so because he had many loyalists among the students. If they called him the nickname, someone they least expected could report them to him.

"You’re talented with great skills and also physically fit for football, you know?’’ Mr. Friday pushed on, tugging Adrian’s shirtless body playfully. "You must join the school team on the pitch today! We train every Thursday evenings after school hours. And as you are aware too, today is another Thursday. The next one hour we will be having this week’s edition of the training.’’

"But sir, I don’t think I could…’’ Adrian sounded uninterested as he wanted to continue playing with the young boys.

"Common boy, leave those kids alone and join up with your mates at once!’’ Mr. Friday cut Adrian short in loud voice, sounding upset.

"But sir,’’ protested Adrian, "my parents hate my playing football so much. More so, I’m afraid, being in the school team might my affect my academics grades, somehow. I’m sorry sir; I can’t play serious football in the college. I have to follow my parents’ directives.’’

"Sport is part of education, Adebayo,’’ the sport master insisted. ‘'About your parents, are they always here seeing you? Will they come from your far away village to be checking on you always? You would just play when you’re in the college compound only, okay? Don’t you know reading only without exercising your body regularly could make you a sluggish boy full of book--a dull bookworm?’’

Adrian was convinced. So he agreed to join the school team that day.

After few weeks training with the school team, he was chosen among the players to represent GBC in the next governor’s cup competition. The Governor’s Cup was a competition among all the secondary schools in Ondo state, Nigeria. It was held every two years and organized by the state’s Ministry of Sports and Youth Development. GCB, since it was funded 20 years back, until Adrian came, had never won a governor’s cup. Martin had been the school team captain and also their best player for two years but couldn’t lead his team to win any tournament. Even the lesser Principals’ cup tournament, held among 4 qualified secondary schools in Iddo town every year; he couldn’t help winning it for the college. But when Adrian came, with his great football skills, he helped GBC to the governor’s cup final. Martin had been very angry with Adrian because he’d come to steal the show of GBC’s most skillful player from. His much cherished respect became declined in the minds of the principal, teachers, students and sport master.

More so, Mr. Friday had promised Adrian that he would strip Martin of the team’s captain band after the cup and handed it over to him. Though Adrian didn’t want to be the team’s captain; he had thought that might put more loads on his shoulders, thereby making his academics grades suffer. But Martin cherished the captain band more than any school certificate. Though, apart from being honoured by the staffs and students of the college and the opponent schools’ football teams, no other special laurel is designed for the captain post.

Another thing which made Martin’s hatred grew for Adrian was the fact that he injured him in training prior to the governor’s cup final. Though, it was a total mistake but Martin had taken as a deliberate act. He was in the college’s sickbay nursing the groin injury and also the pain in his heart for not playing in the final; while GBC team led by Adrian won the Governor’s cup for the first time in the college’s history.

In the final of the tournament, three best players were always chosen from the two finalist teams by the national under 17 team squatters. That was the main reason Martin wanted to play in the final by all means. He had had a longtime ambition of becoming a professional footballer in future, so he had seen that as an opportunity to climb the ladder of his desired career. Perhaps, he didn’t like schooling at all. His father, Chief Adekola had forced him to go to school instead of football academy which Martin had begged of his father after his Primary School Certificate Exam.

Adekola had wanted his son to take the role of leadership from him after he might have gotten tired of it or dead. Like Adrian’s parents, he didn’t belief football could make his son a great man in life. Meanwhile, if not because of football, Martin wouldn’t have been coming to school at all.

Before coming to GBC, Adekola had secured a befitting private school, one of the most expensive and popular in the country for Martin, but he rejected it bluntly because it wasn’t a football oriented school like GBC. It had taken the intervention of the principal of GBC who was a friend of Adekola before he allowed Martin to be enrolled in GBC. However, in GBC, the boy has been very poor in his academics and people like Richard and Adrian had wondered how he had passed his class exams and get promoted over the years.