“—helped them see we want this. We want this sport to grow. Let’s just hope we get enough people to fill the festival and make it worth it.”
I hadn’t thought of it that way. If we only get fifty people through the gates, does that show management they wasted their time?
We set things up and man our stations. The doors to the field open, and in run at least thirty kids, with their parents trailing behind them.
Not a horrible start, I guess.
But as the hour continues, in filter more and more people, helping me breathe a little easier.
I’m done with my first station when a microphone squeals.
“Sorry about that, everyone,” Laney says from a platform on one end of the field. “Welcome to our FanFest to celebrate the Salt Lake Lancers!” She waits as the applause gets loud and then slowly dies down.
“We have some amazing players here, and I can’twait for you to meet them. If you’ll just divide so they can walk up there, we’ll get this party started.”
The crowd parts, but the rest of us freeze. Clark takes charge and runs through the crowd, giving little kids high-fives on the way up. The rest of us follow, climbing the stairs to the platform.
Are there people from one corner of the field to the other? No, but there are at least four or five hundred, which is a pretty good turnout.
Laney walks down the line, asking us to introduce ourselves. When she holds the microphone in front of me, I make my voice go deeper and say, “Burton from Northern Virginia, and I graduated from Boston University.”
The crowd cheers, and I give them a big smile.
“Let’s give a big hand to our Lancers!” Laney calls out. There’s clapping and whistling, and it’s all surreal. We don’t typically have an overflowing number of fans, so this is a pretty cool experience.
She sends us off the stage, and the large screen behind her lights up.
“We’ve loved seeing all the posts you sent in. Lacrosse is a team sport, but it needs the fans to keep the momentum high. We love seeing you get excited about the season. You’ve visited fields, parks, and watched games. You’ve worn Lancer colors and recreated our logo. You’ve shared the pictures with so many people.As a club with a newer sport to Utah, we thank you for supporting us.”
The applause is loud, but I can see the buzz of excitement in Laney. For being a small-town farm girl, she’s great at this.
“We want to thank our lacrosse sponsors for donating all the equipment for the kids today. There are tables in the back set up for you to go through and have your child fitted in their gear. The entire package is for you to keep.” She waits for the applause to die down. “Once everyone has their gear, we’ll split the kids into a few teams for scrimmages. Then we’ll have our “Challenge-a-Pro” events and announce the winners of a few different categories here from the scavenger hunt. Enjoy the day, and I’ll be back to share more about our program.”
There’s a mad dash to line up next to the gear tables, and I can’t help but chuckle. This is an incredible opportunity.
“Thanks for putting this together, Clark.”
“Like you said. I just came up with the idea. This is a hundred times better than I thought it would be.”
“Weren’t we supposed to host a VIP or something?” It was part of the winning package for the intermission game.
Clark shakes his head. “The marketing team decided to shelve that for another event. For this one, they just wanted to get as many people here and enjoying lacrosse as possible, without separating them.”
I nod and search the crowd for Laney, seeing her talking with a group of fans, a wide grin on her face.
She’s something else, someone way better than me, and yet, there’s something between us, a certain chemistry I haven’t felt in along time. Do I deserve her? Probably not, but I’ll take every moment I can get with her.
CHAPTER 26
LANEY
Today was both exhausting and amazing. Throughout the course of the day, there were over two thousand people who came to the event. I know Clark said he was a little worried about it only having fifty people, but this was bigger than I think most of the management expected.
They ran out of almost every food item there, and some interns were sent to get whatever they could find at the grocery store.
The festivities are still going in the dark, when it’s time to get ready for the concert.
We intentionally kept it a secret, even from the lacrosse players, but Coldstar is one of the top bandsright now, and the crowd goes wild when they see them come on stage.
