This afternoon was going to be simple. Play little miss public relations and chauffeur two Everblades players to Gulf Elementary School.
Somewhere in there, word of a man with a gun turned our day upside down.
It's common knowledge among my friends that my driving skills are less than acceptable, so on the drive there I was extremely concerned with keeping the players mildly unscathed.
If I crashed my PT Cruiser and gave former Minnesota Wild first round draft pick A.J. Thelen (who was riding shotgun) another concussion or somehow injured forward Dominic Osman who was half asleep and hungry in the back seat, I had a feeling coach Cameron wouldn't be too pleased with me.
Playoffs are approaching, they need players on the ice... not in the hospital.
After initially wandering into Gulf Middle School on accident (we were greeted with confused looks and 8th grade boys scrambling for autographs), we finally found the elementary portion right up the street.
We walked in and were immediately greeted by a chipper, brunette teacher named Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: "Hi guys!"
Osman: "Where's the bathroom?"
We walked through the main office and into the library ("media center" as they call it). The 3rd, 4th and 5th graders were doing an Olympic-themed project, so the teachers recruited some Everblades to come and talk about what it's like to be a hockey player.
As we stood around waiting for kids, all admiring the hockey puck fashioned out of a can of chewing tobacco (Dominic: "That. Is. Brilliant."), the Principal approached us. He was holding his walkie talkie and seemed very concerned.
He turned to me, A.J., Dominic and a photographer from the Cape Coral Breeze who was also along with us.
Principal: "I'm going to ask an odd question. But I really need to know the answer: were any of you just in the boys bathroom?"
portant. I have one minute of air-time twice per game and maybe an extra minute if one of the stars of the game is an Everblade.
