“You’ll have to excuse our dust,” Olsen said, gesturing around the room. “You guys know this move happened pretty fast. But rest assured, things will be up and running in time for camp.”
Off to my left, a familiar guy grumbled something to the man next to him. Ryan Cane. Hot shot veteran D-man who’d been with the team in Atlanta. From the look on his face and the way he continued to grumble while the GM talked, I got the impression he wasn’t all that pleased with the move.
Up at the front of the room, Olsen was still talking. “We’re going to take a short tour of the facilities, let you guys check out your new home. And then we’ll have a quick meeting to go over a few things and get you a schedule for the next week.”
“Do we have a coach?” Cane asked bluntly.
“Of course,” Olsen said. “Wayne Dillion has stayed with the team during the transition. He’ll be at our meeting later so those of you who are new can be introduced.” Cane looked happy to hear his old coach had stuck around—or at least he seemed slightly less annoyed than he’d been since I first laid eyes on him.
“You’ll also be meeting the team owner, Andrew Knight, and some of the support staff. But for now, I’m going to put you in the very capable hands of Skylar Vaughn. She’s going to be heading up our PR department.” He gestured to a chipper looking blonde in a dark red pantsuit, who waved at us with a smile. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cane whisper something to his friend and they both laughed, their eyes roving over the woman’s figure in an obviously lecherous sort of way. Real classy.
If Skylar Vaughn heard them, she didn’t let on. Instead, she took over from the GM, her tone professional and brisk. “First I’d like to introduce you to Willie Blake.” She nodded at the guy next to her. “He’s in charge of building operations here atKnight Arena, so if you have any questions about the facility, Willie’s your guy. Now, this part is exciting! I have the pleasure of showing you your brand-new team uniforms!”
There was a murmur of interest around the room—with how quickly this had all come together, management hadn’t even announced team colors or settled on a logo.
“This is the final artwork,” she continued, walking to an easel covered with a black cloth. “But your physical uniforms should be here in the next few days.” She pulled on the cloth to reveal the large posterboard behind it. “I present to you the official uniform of the Austin Sting!”
The poster featured a faceless model dressed in red and yellow. In the center of the chest was a sleek logo comprised of what I thought was probably a scorpion stinger wrapped around two crossed hockey sticks.
“Sweet,” Jay said, craning his neck to get a better look. “That looks badass.”
Glancing around the room, I could tell that most of the guys agreed with him, though a few—namely Ryan Cane and his buddy—were rolling their eyes.
“What’s the meaning behind the name?” someone called out. “The Sting? What does that mean?”
Skylar gestured at the logo. “We wanted to incorporate a local element,” she explained. “Management decided the scorpion was a perfect representation for how we envision the team. Scorpions are fast, sneaky, and frightening.” She grinned. “And they can be lethal.”
“Hang on,” Enzo cut in. “What do you mean alocalelement?”
She cocked her head at him. “I mean…scorpions are fairly common in this area.”
The guy actually swayed on his feet. “Are you kidding me?”
“No?” she looked around the room as if uncertain.
“There arescorpionshere?” he yelped.
“This is Texas, son,” Willie the building manager said.
“Oh my God,” Enzo whimpered. “Scorpions. There are fuckingscorpionsaround here. Oh myGod.”
“You gonna be alright, buddy?” Jay asked.
Enzo just whimpered some more. “I can’t handle scorpions, man. I can’t.”
“Could be worse,” Willie said in his thick Texas drawl. “You get away from the city center a bit and you might see a tarantula.”
Enzo’s hand snapped out to grab Jay’s arm for balance. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“Get it together, man,” Jay said. Enzo just moaned under his breath.
“Anyhow,” Skylar continued, her voice bright as she tried to get things back on track. “If you’ll all follow me, we can show you around. We’ll start with the weight room.”
Like a bunch of little kids on a field trip, the guys fell into line to follow Skylar out of the room—Enzo making a big show of swerving to avoid the scorpion on the poster, earning him some good-natured shoves and jeers from his new teammates.
“Don’t know how I’ll wear that thing on my body,” he said, shuddering.
“You want to watch yourself, Rookie,” Jay said. “You keep carrying on like this and someone is definitely going to prank you with a scorpion in your dressing stall.”
