Chapter 4 -- National Signing Day
Monday January 30
My breath came in steady huffs as I ran along the path through the park. It was barely past dawn, my favorite time of day if I wanted to be alone, and I was out for my morning run. The park was quiet as I followed the path to the pond. The only noise I heard was the sound of my feet slapping on the pavement.
The air was cold and dry, typical for a winter morning. I'd started to prepare in earnest for baseball, so I hadn't brought Duke. It would be a distraction to worry about him keeping up if I pushed myself, and I didn't want that. I'd worn my weighted vest and had brought my Bo staff to increase the difficulty. I felt good and soon dropped into my thinking zone.
This was the big week, the one everything football-related had been leading up to. I would officially announce that I planned to play for Michigan. I'd promised Coach Haber that we would all make our announcement to help him with recruiting, even though we wouldn't sign National Letters of Intent.
I'd had several people ask why we weren't signing if we were making a commitment, but once I explained, the reasoning was obvious--at least to us. Wolf, Tim, and I would not enroll at Michigan until the spring semester of next year because we'd be working on the
Star Academy
movies. That meant we wouldn't count towards this year's class.
Instead, we would be doing what was called 'gray-shirting': postponing our enrollment until the second term of our freshman year. That meant we couldn't take classes during the fall term. The university could use all its available scholarships on other incoming players.
The NCAA allowed college athletes five years to complete four years of eligibility after initial enrollment. We would get the whole time frame, which meant that if any of us needed to, we could redshirt if we suffered an injury or if we needed an extra year to develop our skills.
The downside to not being able to sign our National Letter of Intent was that technically, our recruitment hadn't ended. The act of signing meant that a recruiting ban would go into effect, and we would be committed to Michigan. In my book, that would be a win for both the university and us. I didn't need the Southwest Central State Universities of the world hounding me anymore.
Instead of signing our National Letters of Intent now, we would sign enrollment paperwork, including financial aid paperwork, right before classes started for the spring semester.
I knew that if my classmates were confused by how all this worked, we would need to explain it to the public. In particular, I wanted our plans to be made clear to the Michigan fan base so they wouldn't have a meltdown.
I knew I should probably consult Frank Ingram, my public relations guy, to get the right words for the explanation. We also needed to organize an announcement event.
That brought up a question. Who did I contact for that? In the past, I would call Caryn, and she would coordinate with everyone. The problem was that she no longer worked for me. Did I call Kent, who was technically my manager; Scarlet, who ran my remaining businesses; or Lexi, who had been my personal assistant and would be again when I started filming?
Then inspiration struck. If in doubt, dump it in my dad's lap.
I picked up the pace for the last mile, then sprinted the final two blocks. I probably shouldn't have pushed so hard since I had my strength and conditioning PE class first period. There was no doubt in my mind that Ms. Marshall would kick my butt again today.
---
I had Cassidy park the car in the lot. After she played with the drone to make sure no one was trying to do me harm, I got out of the car, put on my sunglasses, inserted my earbuds, and cranked today's song for my entrance--
Shake It Off
.
I began to snap my fingers, which caused Cassidy to give me a sideways look. When the tune started, it had an upbeat feel that made me want to dance. I began to strut my stuff and shake and shimmy what God had given me as I practiced my 'Walk Like
The
Man' walk for the movie.
Cassidy caught up with me and jerked the jack out of my phone so everyone could hear the music as we approached the school. Watching their reactions was fun. They ranged from 'Oh. My. God. He is
sooo
cool!' to 'Seriously?' Overwhelmingly, my entrance put smiles on their faces. I could see why they would want to take a video of me doing my thing. That way, they could say they were there when I first developed my signature walk for my James Bond movie.
As I made my way to the school's front door, I saw Mr. Palm, our vice principal, with his arms crossed.
"Mr. Dawson," he said in greeting, or at least that's how I chose to take his tone.
"Sir?"
"What are you doing?"
"Preparing for my role in the James Bond movie."
He contemplated his response.
"Very well, have a nice day," he said and opened the door for me.
I strutted and danced my way towards my locker. When I was almost there, Destiny Crown stepped in front of me. She looked me up and down like I was something the cat had dragged in.
"You're so weird," she decided, and then she turned and walked away.
That made my day. Weird was the new cool, right?
---
I'm just saying, people are rude. My 'entrance' might need some work if social media was any indication. Even my own mother made some unflattering comments. She claimed this might be better than naked baby pictures at scaring off unwanted potential girlfriends.
The thing was, I didn't care. People loved to give me a hard time. What could I say, haters were going to hate.
I was almost to the lunchroom when my day was made. I spotted Tracy Dole talking to her BFF, Pam. Tracy saw me coming, crossed her arms, and began to tap her foot with a scowl on her face.
"I have to come visit you?" she scolded.
I hung my head. Of course, I knew she couldn't be too mad because we'd just seen each other in LA.
"I know. I should have come to visit sooner," I admitted.
"Come here, you 'stupid boy,' and give me a hug," Tracy said, holding out her arms.
"What are you doing here?" I asked when she let me go.
"Lexi called me. We're planning your signing-day event," she explained.
It sounded like my dad had gotten the ball rolling. Tracy had been our de facto press spokesperson since my freshman year. She planned to attend USC in the fall to pursue a career as a sports journalist. I couldn't think of anyone I would rather have introduce everybody on Wednesday.
Once we finally got through the lunch line and found our seats, Tracy explained the plan for our announcement. Wolf, Tim, and I would share the stage in the field house. I suggested that Ty be a part of it because he was also going to Michigan, even though he had signed in the winter.
