Chapter Text
August 4th, 2025
Larry didn’t even know he was in the running to become captain. He stupidly thought the role would be passed on to last year’s assistant captain, fellow senior and his current roommate, Teddy Roosevelt. He didn’t know he was nominated. He didn’t even know there was a voting process. But there he was, two weeks before classes even start, slightly hungover in Coach McPhee’s office being handed conduct manuals and schedules and this year’s team roster printed out and stuffed into a binder that probably won’t even fit into his American University Hockey backpack.
“and don’t forget to go over last year’s game tape” McPhee finally finished his speech about expectations for the season with that awesome reminder. Great.
“Yes, sir,” Larry stood and put his new comically large binder into his backpack. He was hoping his last year of college would look just like his past three years. Dicking around with his friends and teammates at parties, sort of going to class, and being good enough at hockey to get by, but an end of season vote brought his plans to a screeching halt.
Larry Daley was known as a fun hang. He had a reputation for being easy in the bedroom and lazy on the ice, which, he guessed, made him decently likable amongst his teammates. He assumed his lack of intensity was what got him voted in as captain. His equally lazy teammates didn’t want Teddy, a serious and determined guy on and off the ice, having them attend 5 am workouts, 7 am ice sessions, and midnight screenings of game tape.
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“It’s bullshit, man,” Larry said to Teddy over their usual lunch in the dining hall, “It should have been you.”
“I don’t thinks so,” Teddy would never agree with Larry out loud, “If the guys think it should be you then it should be you.”
Larry rolled his eyes, “You know I’m not captain material.”
Teddy shrugged, shuffling his food around his plate. “Maybe,” he looked up at Larry, “a bit of responsibility will do you some good.”
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Larry stewed on Teddy’s words for a long time. It’s not like Larry has never been responsible for anything. His parents died when he was young, leaving him to figure things out on his own. He managed to get into school on scholarship, play for a great hockey team, and make some pretty decent connections while doing so. He was one year away from his business degree, and as long as leading this team didn’t get in the way, he was about to step into a great final chapter of his college career.
Sure, Teddy had always been more of a natural leader. He seemed like the logical choice, and he’d been the assistant captain for the Historians for the past two years, but he’d seemed like he wasn’t even slightly interested in the position of captain. Every time he brought it up in between the meeting with McPhee and classes starting, Teddy would quickly shut him down.
“I don’t want to be captain, Lawrence,” He would say, “You need to step up and take charge.”
Whatever.
The Historians were, well, historically, a mess. McPhee was never able to truly connect with the team. Last year’s captain, CJ Fredricks, was neglectful with his training tactics. They won 10 out of 34 games last season, finishing a few spots above last in the country’s team standings. Obviously Larry didn’t care. He led the team in goals, despite their weak defense, and his previous philosophy was as long as his numbers looked good, he didn’t care what the team looked like.
Now slowly, over the next three weeks and mostly due to Teddy’s encouragement, Larry found himself starting to care about this team. He often found himself sitting at his school-issued desk watching the most infuriating game tape he had ever seen. He would look up his teammates’ stats, new and old, and note down their strengths and weaknesses. He began to strategize and optimize plays and drills to maximize scoring potential and defense strength. He even missed the first party he was invited to.
He began to enjoy putting in the work. Once classes started, he was actually excited to begin practicing with the team. He was ready to shape them into a group that could win games and bring home trophies.
With Teddy’s help, he wrote out his list of goals for the team:
1: First line defensemen Jed and Octavius won’t even look at each other. Get them to work together AT LEAST on the ice.
2. Figure out how the freshmen play and work a few of them into the first line by game three.
3. Atilla is allowed ONE fight per season. He’s a strong offenseman and we can’t afford him getting ejected from every game.
4. Make sure Rex eats a huge meal BEFORE EACH GAME. Do not let him get distracted or tired halfway through.
5. DO NOT LET TEDDY FIND SACAGAWEA IN THE STANDS!!!
Teddy had his objections to the last rule. Larry did not care. He was captain now.