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Jeremy bounced quietly on his toes, watching the stage manager through dim backstage lights. Right. We’ve been over this. You got this. The stage manager tilted her head, leaning in to her headset, and raised a finger. Listening closely, Jeremy heard the host’s opening patter die out, followed by a sudden surge of volume.
“And today’s guest is… Jeremy Knox!”
Thunderous applause rolled out. The stage manager pointed him on with a decisive nod. Jeremy took a deep breath, pasted on his biggest smile, and strode onto the stage as if it held nobody waiting to ask him awkward questions.
“Captain of the USC Trojans, starting striker, and a player who I think has a lot to talk about today! Thank you for coming, Jeremy.”
“Thank you for having me, Bob.” He followed his rehearsal staging up to the excited host, a middle-aged man with a body that had been muscled and athletic 15 years ago. They shook hands, Jeremy flashed his smile even brighter, and then waved to the crowd as he was placed in a seat. It was not nearly as comfortable and squishy as it looked on TV.
“It’s great to have you. Now, let’s cut to the chase: after last week’s exciting game with the PSU Foxes, I think we have a lot to talk about.” Bob was not a sports reporter known for barbed commentary, and he’d theoretically run the talking points through Trojans PR. Knowing that fact did not make Jeremy feel much better.
“Yeah, of course. We knew the reaction we’d be kicking up when we chose to field a reduced team, I’m excited to explain some of that decision. First, to get one thing out of the way: the whole team agreed to this plan. My co-captains and I came up with the idea and proposed it to Coach Rhemann, and then we pitched it to the team. They held a vote, and it was unanimous to go ahead with it. Then we spent a whole week hashing out the best lineup. It helps that by this point in the season, seniors have mostly been recruited, so we didn’t really have to consider scouting in the discussion.” Bob performed exaggerated surprise for the cameras – it looked a little hilarious close up – and there were some interested murmurs from the studio audience.
“A week! So you’ve been sitting on this plan for a while. If you convinced the whole team, you must have a pretty good argument. So what gives?”
Jeremy took a deep breath and deliberately did not clench his fists. This was it: time to get the public on the Trojan’s side. “Alright, I’m going to be more frank than I usually am: this year, the Trojans are not going to beat the Ravens. That’s not something we’d normally say. But it’s the truth.” Bob nodded at him, then grimaced.
“Sorry, it’s probably not polite to be agreeing with you,” he said, adding a sarcastic turn to the audience. He got few scattered laughs. “But yes, realistically: the Ravens have been undefeated since the inception of exy. It’s hard to believe they’d fall now.”
“Exactly. So we asked ourselves: do we want to throw our all at the Foxes, maybe get a chance to face Edgar Allan in the finals, and be happy with 2nd place again? Or take a chance, learn from it, and come back better next year? The choice wasn’t hard.” Murmurs rushed into his ears. “The Trojans are playing the long game: we know we’re not winning this year, and we can’t keep settling for second-best. So we’re planning ahead. We’re going to learn, we’re going to grow, and next year we’ll win championships.” He raised his voice on the last line, thinking about his stepfather and soundbites for the morning news. The crowd reacted nicely, gasping and ooh’ing.
Bob leaned back in mock-shock and chuckled “That’s a bold statement, Jeremy Knox! There’s that famed Trojan confidence. You say you’re not happy with second place?”
“Who is? We’re athletes; none of us got to USC because we’re happy settling for second. We’re always trying to be better, and sometimes that means you need to take a hit. As it stands, we realistically have no chance of beating Edgar Allan, so we need to take risks. The Foxes have had their gambles pay off all year, so now it’s our turn. It’s a coward’s game to take any chance for a short term victory in place of learning for the long term. The fans can stand to watch us lose one game; if they stick around, they’ll see it pay off.” That line was ultimately what had won the team over, and he grimaced internally thinking about them hearing him parrot it live. But it was true.
The crowd was very happy with this interview, and he could see the gleam of highlight reels in Bob’s eyes. This was more honest than the Trojans usually let themselves be.
“So the goal was to improve the team – always what we love to see. I’m excited to hear you say that the Trojans coaches are able to plan that far ahead, when too often we see teams get stuck going only for the most immediate goal. Even in the pros! What’s your plan there? How do the Foxes help?” Bob leaned back and invited him to keep talking with a gesture. The PR team at USC had been right, this really was the guy to let you say whatever the heck you wanted.
“It’s basically accepted fact in NCAA exy that you can’t beat the Ravens. That alone kills most of the chance of it ever actually happening.” He turned to the crowd and spoke right to them, as if he was letting them in on something. Pick a person and make eye contact. “If you haven’t played a really competitive sport, let me tell you a secret: half the game is decided before you ever step on the field. Psychologically, you need to go on believing you’re going to win, whether or not that’s actually true. Normally, I’d never open an interview with something like ‘we’re not going to beat the Ravens,’ even if it’s honest. You have to be able to ignore all the stats and odds and just know that you have a chance. But the legend of Edgar Allan does the psychological work for them. No team goes onto a court really, honestly believing that they’re going to be the team that knocks down the Ravens. I can lie to myself and say I’m excited to win, but it’s not real enough to matter.”
Bob nodded. “I know that from my own days on the field with Kayleigh.” He never missed a chance to bring that up. He’d only played three games with her. “Nobody had courage like her. Sports psychology is real, no matter what the numbers guys like to say. Have you got an example for me?”
“Of course, Bob. I mean, here’s one: normally, as a striker, missing a goal isn’t a bad thing.” He let the crowd gasp and boo that one. “It’s a learning opportunity. I watch the goalie, I gauge their reaction time, I see which angles they favor, and the next time I have a shot on goal, I know more about how to get past them. With the Ravens, that doesn’t happen. I can try to keep the habit going, but some part of me just believes they’re always going to be better, faster, stronger. Doesn’t matter where you hit if the defense is impenetrable, so might as well just try the same thing again and again. You can’t improve like that, and you can’t win.” That got Bob leaning forward, actually looking genuinely interested in the conversation instead of acting for the crowd.
“Very insightful analysis of sports psychology, Jeremy, and a wise warning to anyone watching with dreams of going pro. So you think the Foxes actually believe they’re going to win?”
“If they don’t, they’ve got the best PR front I’ve ever seen. Neil Josten made a splash when he came out last year with his bold claim of taking down the Ravens, but everything I’ve seen since then has backed him up. Whatever Coach Wymack and Captain Wilds are doing over in South Carolina, they’ve got the whole team believing him. Playing the Foxes on the field is incredible: they never give up. They were the most fun team I’ve ever faced on the field. Their energy is out of this world.”
“So, how does the Foxes beating the Ravens help the Trojans next year? Seems a bit convoluted,” Bob said with a wry twist.
“We need to prove to ourselves that Edgar Allan isn’t invincible. Right now, they’re the only ones in the game who really believe that. If they win championships this year, then next year every team knows Edgar Allan isn’t perfect, and that will light a fire under all of NCAA exy. If they can be beaten once, then it can happen again. That’s our gamble here: if the Foxes can shake up their legend, then we can come back next year with the mental game to take spot number one.”
“Now that’s a big move! I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a strategy this crazy, but honestly? I think I believe you. So what really makes you think the Foxes have snowball’s chance against the Ravens? It was only two years ago that they were dead last in Class I.”
“There’s a few things, Bob. Their increase in skill has been absolutely meteoric. They’ve been helped by the addition of some outstandingly good rookies to their lineup, and of course Kevin Day, but the rest of the team has really risen to match them.” He paused to sip the requisite bottle of water and used the break to organize his thoughts. “Think about it: two years ago, they were on a 15-match losing streak and everyone assumed they’d end the season demoted to Class II.” He looked at the camera over Bob’s shoulder and made an apologetic face. “Sorry, guys.”
Bob laughed and covered for him. “This is sports: we call it like we see it. It was no secret that they needed that miracle.”
“But Coach Wymack and Captain Wilds stepped it up. They’d nearly been written off, and instead they made their playoffs debut. This year, we were all interested to see if they could repeat it, but the analysis suggested that if they were lucky, they might just make it to playoffs again but not much further. Then instead of getting a second chance, they got hit with basically the most awful series of tragedies I can imagine.”
Bob did his thing again, raising a hand and turning to the audience to invite them in. “Very much so. I don’t think we need to go over the whole sordid story yet again, but in short, they’ve tragically lost two players – one a recruit who didn’t even make it to campus – and all season they’ve been barely large enough to legally field a team under ERC rules. On top of that they’ve dealt with an unending series of injuries that have reduced their team even further and weathered scandal after scandal.”
Jeremy jumped in to cut him off before he could decide to start detailing those scandals. He didn’t need to hear FBI investigation or detained for alleged murder ever again in his life. “Nobody would have blamed them if they took the chance to bow out gracefully and try again next year. Instead, they’ve been undefeated since October.”
“Exactly. Every week on our championships predictions, I’ve had the same conversation: ‘I think this week will finally knock the Foxes off their winning streak. I just don’t see them keeping up this level of cohesion.’ And I’ve been wrong every week for months. The Foxes have risen to whatever challenge gets put in their way, on the court and off.”
“Now they’re the second-ranked team in their division, and they’d be first if Edgar Allan hadn’t transferred. They’re well on their way to being top in the country. So, number one: the Foxes have heart. They came out of an unbelievable streak of bad luck and bad PR as champions. They believe in their ability to do it, and we need to borrow some of that.”
Bob nodded his agreement. “Heart has been the number one thing on their side for two years now. Teams go in thinking they’re going to stomp the Foxes and let their second-string players get some game experience, and come out wondering what whirlwind just hit them. I’ve seen it again and again. If you go back and review the starting lineups some of those teams have put against the Foxes, it’s practically insulting.” Jeremy had noticed that, but it wasn’t Trojan to say it out loud. He silently thanked Bob for being more aggressive than he could be.
“People would be rooting for the Foxes no matter what this year, after everything they’ve been through, and every interview that ranks their chances higher than zero adds to the excitement. No other team would be generating this kind of hype for the finals; it would be a question of how badly we’d lose. Not whether we have a chance of winning. That’s good for the Foxes, no matter how you look at it.” Bob had been a major part of generating that speculation. Always a good clip to be seen defending the underdogs; either you could go viral for being hilariously wrong, or for being unexpectedly right. Either one got him more viewers.
Jeremy kept going. “Everyone knows Edgar Allan’s unbeatable, right? Despite that, this year most of the chatter has said that the Foxes actually have a chance. And frankly, having watched their games, I believe it. So they must be doing something none of the rest of us are. How do we learn from the Foxes? Play like them. After our experience on the court with them, we’ve been totally rethinking our training style. I’m really excited with where we’re headed next fall.”
“So, you want to use the Fox’s courage against Edgar Allan. Anything else? What about their strategies interests your team?”
Jeremy felt his smile turn a little more genuine. He could always talk statistics, even in front of a crowd. “It’s been really fun watching them, Bob. Every other Class I team relies on size to put our best foot forward. Most of the top teams have more than 20 players; the Foxes have 9. In a typical game, only our best players would ever be on the field for more than a single quarter, and even then never for two quarters in a row. Every single Fox regularly plays full halves, and most of them have run entire games. That’s unthinkable for any other team. It nearly killed ours.” He let himself laugh and flop back a little. “We’d been training stamina all week and I was still dead tired after our game. Man, the next morning wasn’t fun. The whole team had to go for ice baths together. Bonding time.” That got him a good laugh from the audience.
“The Fox’s tiny size and incredible performance in spite of that has certainly been the talk of the spring. We’ve discussed the stats many times; Day and Josten have more charging yards each than any other team put together, and when Dan Wilds has subbed for their striker line she’s racked up similarly insane numbers. They’re making track teams everywhere green with jealousy. So how does that effect their strategy?”
“Well, when you know you’re only going to play 15 minutes, you put everything you have into that time. You can put every ounce of energy into it to be your best. The Foxes can’t afford that, so instead they play smarter. Coach Wymack and Captain Wilds have put together some really solid strategies, and they’ve managed to teach their players some incredible game sense. Kevin and Neil have some of the best self-restraint and judgement out there.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Jeremy rolled that over in his head and used another drink of water to figure out how to say it. “When I’m on the field, I can waste energy on hail-mary plays. If I fail some crazy stunt, I’ll just try again next time. Kevin and Neil don’t have the energy for that, so they have to go for only the most sure plays and choose very carefully where they take chances. Here’s a stat to back it up: the Trojans have over twice the shots-on-goal of the Foxes, but the Fox’s success rate on a shot is insanely high. They’re only going for the goals they know they have a chance of taking.”
Bob gestured to the booth in the back, then to the screen behind him. “Can we get some Fox stats up here? I think this needs to be seen. Because the same is true of their defense line: as Minyard’s performance has gotten more reliable this year, we’ve seen their backline actually make fewer blocks. They’re watching each shot, and if they know their goalie’s got it, then they let it pass and save the energy for when it matters. That requires an incredible level of snap judgements and trust that I don’t think anyone ever thought we’d see in the Foxes.”
“It’s beautiful to watch, Bob. That’s the kind of strategy we want to see in our team next year. We’ve been playing with brute force by always fielding fresh players. But clearly, there’s something to be said for forcing your team to work smarter instead of harder. That’s the energy we want to bring next year. We want to step up our focus on technical work and game skills, really improve our playbook. With the inception of Exy, there was an explosion of strategies borrowed from lacrosse and field hockey and those kinds of sports, but ever since it’s really not changed. Everyone just tries to do Raven plays, because of course the Ravens are the best. The Foxes have been innovating, and we want to borrow that and add a Trojan twist to it.”
“Now that’s exciting to hear. I can’t wait to see what you do next year. Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s Jeremy Knox for the USC Trojans! Next up: stick around for a bit more technical chat with Jeremy as we analyze his recent game against the PSU Foxes. Plus, some highlights clips and predictions with our guest. All that and more, after this break.”