Can't Stop the Questions

Chapter 33: Highlight reels

The day after the finals season ends, Kent invites Audrey into his office, and not just to show her highlight reel from the basketball season.

"Audrey, I know it's three months late, but I want you to understand that I made the effort to compile your highlight reel for the season: when June fifteen comes, you then have something to show to college coaches when you start contacting them" Kent explains to her as he shows her the video, which contains footage from games against Lacassine, Eunice, as well as all three VA playoff games.

"Some coaches won't be satisfied with a montage of my best moments of the season. They might want to see a few minutes continuously" Audrey retorts.

"That sort of coaches would prefer to see clips from playoff games. I'll just leave out the buzzer beater from Wossman though"

"One more thing: right until the ACT scores came out, Heather kept obsessing about getting me to play in the Ivy League. Sure, I might be the brainiac of the basketball teams, and I know it's not a GPA issue..."

"I advise you against contacting coaches at elite colleges before you get actual ACT scores back, so you should sign up for the earliest ACT date possible. I will then contact college coaches accordingly"

This means the July date, and I will even tutor the other sophomores on both basketball teams for it! Audrey thinks while texting Pablo about signing up for the July ACT date.

"Heather told me about how, for me, the Ivy League is going to be a question of playing better on the court!" Audrey retorts.

"Sorry, but Heather is right. Playing in the Ivy League would be a far bigger basketball stretch than an academic stretch for you. And even then, if you were playing for, say, WUSTL or UChicago, or even a NESCAC institution, it would be a crushing academic schedule, the same as if you were playing in the Ivy League. Don't fool yourself: playing for the WUSTL Bears or the Maroon is going to require approximately the same amount of work as playing for an Ivy, if we consider the athletic plus the academic work! If you want, you can always watch highlight reels from Ivy League commits. Or even commits of other Division I colleges within the same academic range"

Most players who make all-state teams can't sniff even the Green Wave from an academic standpoint, and Tulane is perhaps the college whose athletic recruiting practices look most like the Ivies', Kent ruminates while he also prepares the same materials for Heather so he can send both to Tulane's coaching staff. It might be a Hail Mary, but even though I don't expect much from either, because I don't feel like Audrey is significantly better than Heather, I may as well kill two birds with one stone!

Audrey returns home, the night before they leave for Atlanta, and invites not only Pablo, but also Heather, Carrie and the underclassmen on the girls' basketball team. And their love interests as well.

When they arrive, there is a large number of people in Audrey's home on short notice, and she is owed a few explanations to her parents.

"We trusted you a lot for the past few months. Why is it that you invited your hoops teammates here tonight, before the start of the HSNCT?" Audrey's father asks her.

"The coach wanted me to watch highlight reels of Ivy League recruits and Heather kept obsessing over getting me to play in there for months. However, I feel like all non-seniors should be given a chance to see the cold, hard truth of what it takes to play basketball in college!" Audrey retorts.

"I understand what the basketball team means to you, so I will let that slide so long as you do what you claim"

Audrey then starts looking for showcase videos of the most recent Ivy League basketball recruits. Heather might have watched some of these videos, but I didn't. And I don't expect anyone else on the team to have done so.