Bleachers

It’s the day of Rake’s funeral service, and the town of Messina is completely shut down for the day. Players and fans alike wear green to show their Spartan pride, a tribute to Rake’s coaching legacy. A tarp covering several hundred folding chairs is set aside for the Spartans—a final request of Rake’s.

The preacher, Father McCabe, opens the service by recounting the major events in Rake’s life: his birth, his marriage to Miss Lila, and his arrival to Messina. He tells the crowd that Rake was buried this morning next to Scotty Reardon’s grave. Father McCabe says Rake told him just last week that he was “dreaming of Scotty […] he couldn’t wait to see him up in heaven, to hold him and hug him and tell him he was sorry” (141). His statement arouses a wave of emotion from the crowd.

He is about to open a Bible when a series of radio noises and car door slams interrupts him. It’s a police escort for Jesse Trapp, who decided to come to the funeral after all. After a moment of awkward silence, his mother calls out his name, and she embraces her son. She hands him his old jersey, and he changes into it. As he walks past the crowd, one person starts applauding, then another, until the entire stand is full of people cheering to welcome Jesse back. He makes the rounds, hugging people he hasn’t seen in years, then finally takes a seat among the Spartans with tears in his eyes.

Neely’s mind wanders as Father McCabe reads from the Psalms and the choir sings hymns. He ponders the duality of Rake’s impact. On the one hand, Rake shaped him into an amazing player, and there was a lot of good he did for his town and his players. However, Rake also left so many of them with their private ghosts, and words that ring out in their heads to demean them with every mistake they make. Neely thinks that “maybe his death would kill the demon that dogged him, but he had his doubts” (144). After years of carrying the weight of his past on his shoulders, it’s hard for Neely to imagine a life without it.

Ellen Rake Young, one of Rake’s daughters, is the next person to take the stage. She fled Messina after graduating high school to escape the shadow of her father. In her hands is a note Rake left behind to be read at his funeral. It starts out as expected, counting the blessings that his family and the town have been in his life. Then, the note changes, and Rake’s words turn to express two regrets he had: the death of Scotty Reardon, and the assault on Neely Crenshaw during the 1987 championship game. Rake’s note tells all, and at last the entire town knows what happened in that locker room fifteen years ago. More importantly, Neely and his teammates finally know that Rake was truly and sincerely sorry for his actions.

Three former players were asked to deliver a eulogy, the first of which was the honorable Mike Hilliard, who played on the Spartans in 1958 and was on Rake’s first team. Rake ruled with an iron first from the start, and after “a week [the squad] was down to twenty-five,” leaving the team wondering if they’d “survive long enough to field a team” (147). When the season began, and even when the Spartans began to win, Rake never settled for less than perfect. He drilled those boys until they all had the moves down to precision. Mike continued to follow the football team closely for the next several decades, lining his office with a photo of the current team that Rake would send him annually. He notes the changes he saw in them over the years, but the one thing that connected them all was the greatness of Eddie Rake. Mike says, “Greatness comes along so rarely that when we see it we want to touch it. Eddie Rake allowed us, players and fans, to touch greatness, to be a part of it” (150). He concludes his speech with praise for Rake, saying he will always look back on their time together with great fondness.

The next speaker was the first black captain of the team, Collis Suggs. Collis is now a minister and has a sense of ease at the podium. His speech focuses on Rake’s role in integrating the schools, and how Rake was the one who paved the way for equality at Messina High. Rake was one of the first coaches to start his Black players, leading by example so that soon other schools would follow. He advocated to integrate the cheerleaders and the marching band as well as the football team and was head of security at the school to prevent any potential conflict between the teens. His sense of justice made Rake the kind of coach Collis and the other new Black football players wanted to follow. Collis says, “For all his toughness, he was incredibly sensitive to the suffering of others” (154). In his later years, Rake had volunteered at Collis’ church and, though he did not have much, was generous with what monetary funds he did have. Collis points out the irony that the man who brought the town together is the same man at the center of its division the past 10 years. He urges everyone in attendance to find peace with Coach Eddie Rake once and for all.

The last Spartan asked to give a eulogy is Neely. Neely is initially reluctant, but ultimately realizes he can’t refuse the request. Now that Rake has given his apology before the town, albeit after death, it’s time for Neely to acknowledge and accept it. Terrified, he walks up to the microphone and faces the crowd.

Neely manages to get through the introduction of his eulogy, and with each word finds himself more relaxed. He tells the town of the night Rake visited him in the hospital in 1989, right after he was injured in the A&M game. The two of them hadn’t seen each other since the night of the championship game, but they soon found themselves talking and gossiping as if no time had passed. When Neely told Rake he could never play football again, Rake grew quiet and somber, then made Neely promise that he wouldn’t quit college. Rake apologized for assaulting Neely two years ago, and he made Neely promise to forgive him. Neely didn’t keep either promise until today, when Rake’s note was read before the town and his apology was made public.

A lot of the last 15 years, Neely says, have been spent deciding whether he loved or hated Eddie Rake, and the answer changed daily. However, Neely adds that after you’ve “faced some adversity, some failure, been knocked down by life, you soon realize how important Coach Rake is and was […] Once you’re away from Coach Rake, you miss him so much” (159). Neely ends his speech by naming Rake as one of only five people he has ever loved, then returns to his seat.

Following the benediction, the crowd lingers to reminisce for just a moment longer. They can’t stay too long, however, because the Spartans are playing Hermantown tonight, and there is work to do. Everyone says their goodbyes to each other, and then finally they part ways.