Page 64 of On His Team

The facilities and event operations office is at the end of the second floor. There are four desks, a wall calendar covered in handwriting, and radios charging along one counter.

The man at the desk near the window sees Rowan and lifts one finger while he finishes a phone call. When he hangs up, he pushes his glasses onto the top of his head.

“Laurens.”

“Hey, Derek.”

Derek looks at me.

Rowan gestures slightly in my direction. “Gianna Reeve. Sophomore. She’s doing the 240 project.”

Derek puts a hand out. “Derek Hall.”

I shake it.

“Reeve like Benson?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “He’s my brother.”

“Huh.”

That is apparently all he has to say about that.

He pushes a chair away from the desk with his foot. “What are you trying to do?”

I sit. “Youth clinic tied to a home game. Morning clinic, registration includes a ticket for the kid, parents can buy theirs separately, sponsor covers jerseys if Compliance lets me, and some kind of intermission component.”

Derek looks at me for about two seconds. “How many kids?”

“That’s my first problem.”

“Good.”

I blink. “Good?”

“You know it’s a problem.”

He turns slightly in his chair. “You don’t recruit the kids yourself. Camden already works with local youth hockey programs through Community Engagement. You’d partner with one of them and let them distribute registration to their families.”

I immediately open my notes. “So I don’t need names.”

“You should absolutely not have a list of children’s names sitting in your personal email.”

“See,” I nod in agreement, “that felt illegal.”

From the chair beside me, Rowan says, “Told you.”

I ignore him.

Derek continues. “You decide what the clinic can physically hold first. Twenty kids? Forty? Sixty? Then you talk to the youth program and see whether that number makes sense for their roster and age groups.”

“So the number comes from capacity before demand.”

“Exactly.”

I type that.

“Who owns the event?” Derek asks.