The Foxhole Court Tumblr Part 2

The Pro Teams

You wrote in a blog post that Matt, Kevin, Neil, and Andrew ended up on different pros team at first - could you expend on that? Specifically, how Andrew's team is dealing with, well, Andrew. (I say this with utter love)

Kevin had his pick of teams when he graduated, but he eventually went to the team Thea played on. Matt was approached by a couple teams and chose the one closest to the state where Dan was working as an assistant coach.

Andrew's first team respected him for his skills, but they were never quite comfortable around him, and the manager wasn't overly sorry to let him go because Andrew wouldn't cooperate on the things the mgr wanted him to (e.g. participating in publicity events and playing nice with the press). He traded Andrew to another team in exchange for future draft picks and a dealer he liked.

New team happened to have a former Raven as a coach and a few Raven graduates on the lineup, so Andrew was a much better fit personality wise. Neil was secured a year later when the coach realized how much effort Neil & Andrew made to see each other around their conflicting schedules. Pretty quickly the coach & manager realized Neil and Andrew were a matched set, that you couldn't have one without the other, a la Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks. All contract renewals going forward were approached with that in mind, and they made any and all necessary trades to keep under the salary cap.

Neil and Andrew saw Matt and Kevin from time to time on the court when their teams faced off. Neil & Theodora struck up a complicated not-quite rivalry, partly due to their importance to Kevin and partly because they had a hell of a time with each other in matches. (Thea had Matt's aggressiveness and Kevin's single-minded obsession, and Neil was the fastest, shortest striker Thea ever had to guard against, so they got on each other's last nerve in games.)

The "at first" was because Neil, Kevin, and Andrew technically ended up on the same team when they qualified for Court–they still had their pro teams, but the national team was an addition to their resume where they could finally play together again. I'd like to think Matt made the cut, too, but I don't think he'd mind if he just tried it out for a while and then went on his way–two teams to juggle would mean less time at home with Dan and his kids.