Mitts (OLD VERSION)

24. Tour

"Hey Mitts, since you're going to be stuck off the ice for a bit and won't be at practice anyway..." Riv started, "Would you want to do the recruit tours next Sunday?"

I looked up from my physics lab report, "You want me to do the tours?" I asked.

"You want him to do the tours?" Jamie asked, "...You want Jake. That Jake right there, to convince parents and recruits to officially sign on with us? When they still have another three months to potentially try to find another team when he scares them off?"

"Hey." I warned and he cracked a grin.

"Yes." Riv grinned, "Because Tombow needs to finish his capstone, I have to finish my honors thesis, Davey has to study for his practical, and Mickey is finishing up his research project with the city. So none of the seniors can do it."

"So you're asking a freshman?" I asked.

"Sonny said no, Ports is losing his mind over a pharmaceutical programming class, Murph has a presentation to the English department so he can do an independent journalism study instead of his capstone. So none of the juniors can do it." Riv took an exasperated breath in, "Devs is going to be on a site tour of the water treatment plant on the day we invited them, Ever is an engineering major and I walked in on him crying over a differential equations assignment so I didn't both to even talk to him because yikes. And Trevy and Natty can't even find their way around campus normally, so setting them lose with a bunch of equally clueless high school seniors and even more clueless parents is just a bad idea. So I'm asking you."

I groaned, "Fine."

"That was so much easier than I thought it would be." He sighed in relief, "Alright, I'll let Coach and Maggie know."

He left the room while Jamie started laughing, "Can't believe you're going to be the guy that convinces the recruits to stay committed."

"Hey, most of them have verbal agreements. They just gotta come here to sign the paper," I pointed out.

He shrugged with a grin, "You'll do fine."

_/ \_

There were five recruits. They were with their parents waiting in a conference room in Everest. Coach Dave, Maggie, and I all walked in. We lined up in a row in the front of the room, which was now silent.

"Hey there folks, I'm Coach David Swansea. I am an Everett University alumni as well as a Husky Hockey alumni. I did play for the Boston Bulldogs as a goalie for a decade, so some of the parents in the room might recognize my ugly mug from that. I also did play for the United States in the Olympics as a reserve goalie. And I was hired as head coach here about a decade ago and I've been here happily ever since." He grinned.

I didn't know he played in the pro leagues. Or that he was an Olympic athlete. Or that he was an alumni here. Or that he played goalie. I was unlocking the Coach Dave lore. Next he would probably telling stories about how he and his teammates burnt down Husky Hall or something. Coach Dave definitely had dad lore, probably like copious amount of dad lore. He turned to Maggie.

"I'm Dr. Margret Weston, but most people just call me Maggie. I'm the athletic trainer for the team here, I've been here since 2017 and have no plans on leaving anytime soon. I do have my doctorate in athletic training from Everett and did almost all of my clinicals here with the hockey team, so I can assure you that I do know my stuff." Maggie grinned and got a couple of chuckles from the parents.

Both her and Coach Dave looked at me. I turned to face the people in front of me, "Um. I'm Jake Mitchell. I'm a freshman left wing forward, majoring in mechanical engineering. You will have to bear with me on the tour as I did tear my ACL three weeks ago, so I'm still in recovery from that," I explained, "But yeah."