When Jericho shows up for his first football practice, he still has many doubts whether he has made the right decision. He hardly knows anyone on the team, and he likes the fact that he doesn't have to talk to anyone.Between now and the time the season officially starts, the team has to have ten days of conditioning. Jericho realizes that even though running in the heat is hard, the days when he doesn’t have practice are worse because football at least helps him run away from his thoughts. 

As Jericho begins to run, he realizes that Josh lives in his head all the time. When Coach Crawley talks to Jericho about him joining the team, Jericho promises that he has what the coach needs, although he is still not entirely convinced himself. 

During the drills, Jericho does very well, and despite his size, his reactions are swift. The rhythm of the drill has a surprisingly calming effect on Jericho and “[f]or an hour or so, his head [is] free of guilt and turmoil” (128). When a couple of hours of drills and sprints are over, the coach gathers all the players around him. He tells them that the Douglass High Panthers haven’t had a winning season in five years, but he is determined to change this.