Chapter 350 Back for the Soph.o.m.ore Year 4

This calmer Jake interview helped the university calm down the players" family and show that everything would be all right, the other star players on the team were very shaken by the revelation that Coach Smith was retiring and seeing calm Jake helped the university.

This was natural because Jake already knew about it, but it showed people that he had better control over his emotions, in the next few days Jake was calmer with all this and continued with his marathon training with Zack.

They also interviewed Eva about Coach Smith"s retirement and she was neither shocked nor worried about it, she had rarely seen and spoken with Coach Smith because it was Coach Guthridge who spoke to her more often and Jake told her that everything was fine.

Coach Davis had also returned from Miami and was at the hotel where he had previously lived with his family, he just had to supervise Jake"s training because temporarily he had nothing more to teach Jake.

When his basketball team training resumed Jake would stop the current training he was doing at the gym and start using only basketball player training just like the whole team did.

After more than a week of training with the basketball team returned just over 10 days before Jake"s marathon, he had already talked about it with Coach Guthridge after everyone learned about Coach Smith"s retirement.

Coach Guthridge was the one who took Jake to the team and knew how well Jake was dedicated to training and an excellent player, so he would naturally allow Jake to miss a few days of training to run a marathon.

After all, it was almost certain that Jake would win this marathon and it would only further improve the image of the university and the Tar Heels team, Coach Guthridge had hoped that the team could win the NCAA t.i.tle this year as well.

That would be great for the university and it would be even better for him as a coach this year, he did not intend to have a long career as coach of the Tar Heels team and if not well could leave even before the end of this season.

But if he could, he would like to win an ACC tournament and maybe also an NCAA tournament, so when he left the team he would be more proud of what he did, and he knew he would have to rely on Jake to do that.

Just as Jake had told Serge Zwikker that it was the team"s Center graduated and now the team had no Zwikker-level players for that position, Coach Guthridge was perhaps considering using Makhtar N"Diaye to play as Center if needed.

But upon further thought he decided to do something bolder with the team formation, the Tar Heels team last season was one of the teams that took the most offensive and defensive rebounds.

It was often Zwikker who caught the most rebounds, but that was because he was taller and better positioned most of the time, the other players like Jamison, Carter, Okulaja, Williams, and Jake also being great at rebounding.

Because of Jake on the team and the team having great players many skilled players sometimes had to take turns to play, only Zwikker, Jamison and Jake stayed on the court almost all the time for the extreme quality they had.

But with Zwikker out of the team maybe Okulaja could play longer on the court and Williams, Carter and Ed Cota could take turns in two positions to play longer on the court, Williams and Carter would play longer just like last year and Ed Cota could have more time to play than you had last year.

In games that the team needed to attack more Okulaja could come out and the team would be more offensive than ever with Jake, Jamison, Carter, Williams and Ed Cota playing together, Jake was an excellent PG and was what organized the team, but Coach Guthridge, I knew Jake could play as PF and Center for a few minutes if needed for defense.

Those were the thoughts Coach Guthridge had, and he thought it might work, with Ed Cota on the court playing PG sometimes Jake would have more freedom to score without worrying about positioning.

He had no problem with that last season, but this season Jake would be the most marked player and would have many teams with opponents that could hinder Jake to make the plays.

Of course, this was just a thought of Coach Guthridge, because with the initial formation he thought was Okulaja, Jamison, Carter, Williams, and Jake the team would already be very offensive and would have no problem winning most games for lack of power offensive.

Several positioning and tactical drills were done without coach Guthridge telling the players what he planned to do, even Jake wasn"t sure what coach Guthridge could do with the team at the time of the game.

Just like every year some players came back a little out of perfect physical condition, the holidays were a relaxing time for the players and that was normal, naturally just as everyone expected Jake had come back even better than at the end of last season.

Some players realized that Jake was much stronger and faster than at the end-of-season games, which was too terrifying to think about a.n.a.lyzing Jake"s incredible season last year.

Players just thought they were lucky to be on the same team as Jake, coach Guthridge was pleased with that and was much more confident for the season with Jake getting even better.

Coach Guthridge knew it was because of the marathons that Jake was in such good shape even though he had just returned from vacation, so he even liked Jake to take part in some marathons to get more excited.

After several days of training with the basketball team at the end of September Jake had to stop to go to Germany in Berlin to run this year"s marathon, John was already in Berlin and had already arranged a hotel for Jake to rest a day before the marathon.

Coach Guthridge was kind and let Jake rest 3 days to partic.i.p.ate in the marathon in Berlin, Jake accepted only two days and would return to university after running the marathon and resting for some time.

This Berlin marathon was special to many people in different ways, it was Jake"s first time running this marathon and being a major marathon he could gain 1 point in endurance and 1 point in agility if he won this marathon.

Another thing John was so excited about that Jake also knew was that an American athlete never won in the Berlin marathon, that was amazing if it was thought that a long time ago American athletes won many marathons around the world.

For a country that was known to be very good at athletics in general never having won a marathon in a country that had one of the world"s leading marathons was a source of shame, as was the Tokyo Marathon, but the Berlin marathon was known for a long time much longer as one of the world"s leading marathons.

So if Jake won this marathon he would go down in history for a different reason than other marathons, Jake trusted John so he can just rest quietly in the hotel and just wait to run the next day.

The next morning Jake went to the race site to prepare to race in the Berlin Marathon when they saw Jake many were surprised that no one expected him to decide to partic.i.p.ate in the Berlin Marathon this year.

He had already raced in London and at the World Champions.h.i.+ps in Athletics this year and as it was near the time of the new basketball season everyone expected that if Jake was going to run a marathon it would be in Chicago or New York.

Even more so now that everyone following the sport knew that team coach Tar Heels Dean Smith had retired and now Bill Guthridge was the new coach, this was a sensitive moment for Team Tar Heels.

Everyone had realized from his interview that Jake was very calm about Coach Dean Smith"s retirement and trusted Coach Guthridge, how Jake had come to Berlin to partic.i.p.ate in the marathon was proof that he had confidence.

This was bad news for the other athletes thinking of winning the Berlin Marathon, after a while, the 1997 Berlin Marathon had officially started, Jake was still wondering whether or not to try to break his own world record in this race.

"And another Berlin marathon begins in 1997, the weather is very good today for the marathon and we can expect to see a quick marathon."

"Yes, to everyone"s surprise too, Jake Smith is an American athlete and the world"s best current marathon athlete came to run this marathon in Berlin, no one ever knows that Jake marathons are going to run this year and this is the fourth marathon Jake partic.i.p.ates in."

"True, he has run three marathons this year that are important to the whole world, in Boston, London, and also in Athens now at this year"s World Champions.h.i.+ps in Athletics."

"After winning the gold medal at the World Champions.h.i.+ps in Athletics and having won the gold medal at the Olympics last year and several major marathons around the world, Jake is more than recognized for being the best marathon player in the world today."

"Jake also has the current marathon world record and can try to break here in Berlin this year."

"I find it hard for him to try to break the record in this marathon, if he tries, I think it will be in Chicago the next time he runs there."