Control Before Contact
The locker room at Varsity Stadium was already warm before the charity match had even started.
Not hot exactly.
Charged.
Bodies moved through pre-game routine: soccer cleats hitting tile, shin guards sliding into place, tape ripping clean from the roll, water bottles opening, lockers shutting, voices bouncing off concrete walls. Outside, the stands were filling with families, local youth players, Golden Army supporters, Pride jerseys, Canada scarves, club kits, and community volunteers.
The charity tents were set up near the entrance. Donation signs flapped in the warm air. A youth sports banner hung beside the touchline, reminding everyone why they were there.
A Golden Army charity soccer match in support of local youth sports programs across Toronto.
Simple enough.
But simple did not mean small.
Not to Trey, who had been pacing for the last five minutes like his body had too much current running through it.
Not to Coach, who treated every pitch like it deserved discipline.
And definitely not to Wells.
Varsity Stadium always did something to him.
He had spent enough time around the University of Toronto to know the rhythm of the place: the old stone edges of campus nearby, students cutting through with backpacks, the downtown air pressing in from Bloor Street, the feeling that sport, study, ambition, and memory all overlapped here. Back in his U of T days, he had walked past this stadium countless times, sometimes tired, sometimes wired, sometimes wondering what kind of man he was becoming.
Now he was back in gold.
Stronger.
Sharper.
Still learning, but no longer uncertain.
Wells sat on the bench in his gold kit, one foot planted, one soccer cleat in his hands, lacing it slowly. Calm. Controlled. Focused. The kind of calm that made people watch without meaning to.
Coach Stone stood near the tactics board in matching gold and black, cap low, whistle resting against his chest, marker in hand. He had drawn the formation twice already, not because anyone had forgotten it, but because Coach liked proof that every man understood his position before he started moving.
Trey did not sit.
Trey paced.
Gold shorts. Gold socks. Soccer cleats half-tied. Too much energy, not enough direction.
Wells glanced up. “You’re going to wear a trench into the floor.”
Trey rolled his shoulders. “Just staying warm.”
“You’re nervous.”
“I’m focused.”
Coach did not turn around. “Negative.”
Trey stopped. “Excuse me?”
Coach tapped the tactics board with the marker. “Pacing is not focus. Talking is not focus. Standing around smirking at your own thoughts is definitely not focus.”
Wells bit back a smile.
Trey folded his arms. “I was not smirking.”
“You were preparing to,” Coach said.
That made Wells laugh.
Trey pointed at him. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I’m on the side of truth, bro.”
Coach finally turned from the board. “Listen carefully. First touch matters. Control the ball before you drive forward. Do not rush the finish. Pressure only works when applied correctly.”
Trey’s face betrayed him immediately.
The smirk arrived.
Wells looked down at his soccer cleat like the laces had become fascinating.
Coach saw it too. Of course he did.
The room went still in that dangerous way it always did when Coach had noticed something and decided silence would be more effective than shouting.
Trey cleared his throat. “Sorry, Coach. Just, you know. Lot of phrasing happening.”
Wells made a strangled sound into his hand.
Coach’s eyes settled on Trey. “Explain.”
“Negative,” Trey said quickly. “No explanation required.”
Coach stepped closer. “You heard tactical instruction and turned it into distraction.”
Trey opened his mouth.
Coach raised one finger.
Trey closed it.
“Locker room talk,” Coach said, “is not an excuse to lose discipline before the match.”
Trey nodded, but his eyes still had that wicked little spark.
Coach noticed that too.
“Something else amusing?”
Trey held up both hands. “I’m just saying, Coach, when you start talking about clean touches, firm pressure, and not rushing the finish, you can’t blame a guy for hearing layers.”
Wells lost the fight and laughed properly.
Coach looked at him.
Wells immediately cleared his throat and returned to his soccer cleat. “Professional environment. My mistake.”
Trey grinned wider. “See? Even Wells heard it.”
Coach’s expression did not change. “Wells can hear it and still maintain control.”
Wells leaned back, smug now. “That’s experience.”
Trey pointed at him again. “See, that’s worse.”
Outside, the crowd swelled. A group of kids started chanting Wells’s name from somewhere near the fence. Someone tested the microphone by the charity table. A volunteer announced that every goal scored would trigger another donation pledge from one of the sponsors.
That sobered the room slightly.
This was not just a game.
It was a promise.
Wells glanced toward the tunnel that led out to the pitch. Beyond it waited Varsity Stadium, the same ground he had once passed as a student, now filled with kids waiting to see what the Golden Army could do. He remembered being younger here, less certain, trying to figure out how discipline and confidence were supposed to fit inside the same body.
Now Coach’s voice cut through the room, and Wells knew exactly why he had come back.
Coach lowered the marker. “Real locker room talk is not bragging. It is not trash. It is not showing off who has the biggest mouth before pressure starts.”
Trey’s eyebrows lifted.
Coach’s stare sharpened. “Careful.”
Trey pressed his lips together.
Wells smiled into his water bottle.
Coach continued. “Real locker room talk sharpens the team. It tells every man where to stand, when to move, when to hold back, and when to commit. It either focuses the room or makes it sloppy.”
“Sloppy is bad,” Wells said solemnly.
Trey looked at him. “You are not helping.”
“I’m helping a lot.”
Coach pointed the marker toward Trey’s chest. “You are wound tight because this match matters. Those kids out there are watching. They do not just see the shot. They see the setup. They see the discipline before contact.”
Trey swallowed, the grin fading just enough to let honesty through.
“I don’t want to mess it up,” he said.
There it was.
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
Just real.
Coach nodded once, like that was the only useful thing Trey had said all morning.
“Good. Now there is something to train.”
Trey sat down at last, elbows on his knees. “Nerves?”
“Control,” Coach said. “Nerves are energy. Uncontrolled, they become mistakes. Controlled, they become speed, awareness, timing.”
Wells picked up the ball from beside the bench and rolled it gently under his foot.
“First touch,” Wells said.
Coach nodded. “Control before contact.”
Trey repeated it quietly. “Control before contact.”
“Focus before force,” Coach added.
“Focus before force.”
“Team before ego.”
Trey exhaled. “Team before ego.”
Coach held his gaze. “Again.”
Trey sat up straighter.
“Control before contact. Focus before force. Team before ego.”
The locker room settled around the words.
Outside, the announcer called for the teams to prepare. The sound of the crowd rose again, warmer now, closer. A charity match in Toronto. Varsity Stadium. A city full of noise, pressure, pride, and kids waiting to see what Gold looked like when it moved with purpose.
Wells stood, gold kit catching the fluorescent light, and tossed Trey the ball. Trey caught it against his chest.
“See?” Wells said. “You can behave in a locker room.”
Trey’s mouth twitched.
“For now.”
Coach gave him the look.
Instant silence.
Wells laughed, grabbed his water bottle, and headed for the door.
Coach opened it.
Sunlight cut across the floor.
Beyond it waited the pitch, the crowd, the charity banners, the youth players pressed against the fence, and the stadium Wells knew from another version of his life.
For one second, Wells paused.
U of T had known him before the Gold had fully settled into his bones. Before Coach. Before Trey. Before moments like this, where the past did not pull him backward, but reminded him how far he had come.
Coach noticed. Of course he did.
“You good?”
Wells nodded. “Yeah. Just feels different being back here.”
Coach’s voice stayed low. “Then show them what different looks like.”
Wells smiled.
Trey stepped forward, calmer now, ball tucked under one arm.
Then Coach leaned slightly toward him, voice low enough that only Trey and Wells could hear.
“And Trey?”
Trey glanced over. “Yeah, Coach?”
Coach’s mouth barely moved.
“If you still need help learning control after the match, Wells and I can run you through some after-hours drills. First touch, firm pressure, clean finish. Repetition until you stop rushing.”
Trey froze.
Wells looked away, grinning.
Coach walked out first like he had said nothing at all.
Trey stood there for one full second, gold kit bright under the locker room lights.
Then he muttered, “That man is dangerous.”
Wells clapped him on the shoulder and steered him toward the pitch.
“Focus before force, bro.”
Trey exhaled, shook his head, and followed them into the sun.
This time, he carried the talk with him.
Not noise.
Not nerves.
Instruction.
Control before contact.
Focus before force.
Team before ego.
And maybe, if Coach decided he had earned it, extra drills after dark.
Coach was already a few steps ahead when he stopped at the edge of the tunnel and looked back over his shoulder.
“And for the record,” he said, voice calm enough to be dangerous, “after the match, Wells and I will decide whether you need those extra drills.”
Trey froze again.
Wells looked at Coach, then at Trey, grin spreading.
Coach’s eyes moved between them both.
“First touch. Firm pressure. Clean finish,” Coach said. “And if you rush, we start over.”
Trey stared at him.
Wells laughed under his breath. “You heard Coach.”
Coach turned back toward the pitch.
“Good,” he said. “Now move.”
Trey swallowed, adjusted the ball under his arm, and followed them into the light.
The crowd roared.
The Gold walked out.
And Trey suddenly had every reason in the world to stay focused.
Control wins the touch. Focus wins the match. Brotherhood carries the Gold beyond the final whistle. Step onto the pitch, sharpen your discipline, and join the Golden Army. Contact: @alton-gold77, @polo-drone-125
Featuring" @hero21us
