Andrew Minyard

It's a large university with numerous departments for students to study in. Athletes are given a break and can choose two or three classes to take, as training takes up most of their time. Inside the university building, there are numerous cafeterias, a large library, an auditorium, and psychologist Betsy Dobson's office.

The dormitory is divided into four buildings, three large buildings for regular students. The fourth building is dedicated entirely to student athletes. It is also called the Fox Tower, as the fox is the university's mascot and emblem. Rooms are assigned as follows: one large room with a shared kitchen and living room, as well as private rooms with showers, beds, and so on.

The Fox Hole is a large stadium and more. It's a two-story building. On the first floor are cabinets with team trophies and other awards, banners, and a large wall with a bunch of photos of the foxes who train at the stadium, as well as the locker room and the stadium entrance. On the second floor are the entrance to the stands, a refreshment bar, the coaches' office, and Abby, the general practitioner's office.

The Foxes have a cheerleading squad, called the Vixens. Their captain was Caitlin Mackenzie, a short girl with wavy red hair and blue eyes, who was also Aaron Minyard's girlfriend. They usually practice in a separate training room on the second floor of the stadium.

🔸 Coaching staff and personnel

• David Vincent Wymack - Head Coach
• Essence: Tactician and system organizer: transforms players' potential into predictable decisions on the field.
• Role: Finds the right balance between discipline and ensuring the team doesn't get stuck in patterns.

-Abigail (Abby) Marie Winfield - Sports Physician

• The point: Maintains physical fitness, monitors recovery and how injuries affect the game.

• Especially important: stories about retraining after injuries (like a hand injury) are her area.

• Betsy Jo Dobson - Team Psychologist

• The point: keeps the team on task under pressure, helps them recover from setbacks and maintain focus.

• Key: Her work is directly related to the fact that for some players—like Day—anxiety when a plan goes wrong can be a problem. Andrew goes to her for therapy every Wednesday, and she's become like a mother figure to him.

6. Brian Seth Gordon - Forward (Playmaker)

• Strength: Organizes the attack and sets the “pattern” of combinations: forces the opponent to guess instead of simply defending.
• Style: connections, tempo, control of partners’ positions.
• Vulnerability: When the opponent breaks the rhythm, the playmaker is forced to improvise - and this is always less stable than the usual system.

7. Alison Jamaica Reynolds - Defensive Midfielder

• Strengths: Balance between attack and defense; suppresses the center and prevents the opponent from accelerating freely.
• Style: “engine” of stability: interceptions, support, closing zones.
• Vulnerability: if the center is given away, her work turns into a constant fire defense.

8. Nicolas (Nicky) Esteban Hammick - defender

• Strength: closes flanks/corridors, creates chaos in the opponent’s passes (prevents the ball from being delivered “as it should be”).
• Style: contact and discipline in the zone where you need to prevent the attack from being completed.
• Vulnerability: If he is forced to frequently engage in a “pure” 1-on-1 fight without backup, the risk of error increases.

9. Natalie Renee Walker - Goalkeeper

• Strengths: reliability in goal, ability to save at key moments and maintain psychological stability of the team.
• Style: Attentive to game speed, responds well to repeated threats.
• Vulnerability: Like any goalkeeper, her weak spot is when the defense systematically doesn't give her stable situations and she has to put them out too many times in a row.

10. Neil Minyard (formerly Josten) - forward (inside)

• Strengths: team intelligence and unconventional solutions; he is dangerous where others start to “play by the book.”

• Style: Inside reconnaissance and connection: creates passages, expands tight defenses.

• Vulnerability: When the opponent sets traps and forces him to make decisions too quickly, the risk of losing accuracy/positioning increases.

🔸 The Foxes' main squad

1. Daniel (Dan) Lee Wilds - attacking midfielder, team captain

• Strength: leads the team into an attacking wave, knows how to “see” the game and pull the tempo to suit himself.
• Character/style: a leader who holds the attack structure, but is also capable of taking the initiative.
• Vulnerability: The emotional cost of leadership - when a plan falls apart, the pressure falls most noticeably on her.

2. Kevin Day - forward, center threat

• Strengths: Accurate long passes and danger in set pieces; a strong linking role in attack.
• Style: two-step calculation, playing in tandem with a second striker, opening up for passes.
• Vulnerability: nervousness when things don't go as planned; left hand injury complicates technically fine elements (especially if the right side needs to be retrained).

3. Andrew Joseph Minyard - Goalkeeper

• Strength: reads trajectories and wins positions, often saving where there “should” be a goal follow-up.
• Style: reaction + tactical discipline: not just reflecting, but playing to the team’s advantage after a save.
• Vulnerability: Any breakdown in coordination/attitude during a stressful moment quickly turns into missed risks.

4. Matthew (Matt) Donovan Boyd - Central Defender

• Strength: Maintains the team's axis: stops breakthroughs and helps build the defense so that the Foxes don't fall apart.
• Style: positional and technical defense that makes attack possible.
• Vulnerability: Against an opponent who forces you to play “at speed”, it can be difficult to maintain a perfect line.

5. Aaron Michael Minyard - defenseman

• Strength: team defense through interaction: insures, adjusts, closes lines.
• Style: A pragmatic defender who disrupts passes and punishes mistakes.
• Vulnerability: His effectiveness depends most on the coordination of the entire defensive four - when the line breaks, he suffers too.

Exi is a team contact sport in the style of "football + lacrosse + hockey", where players run with a ball and try to score into the opponent's goal.

Briefly, how it works:

• Teams: usually 5 people on the field (plus a goalkeeper).

• Objective: to get the ball into the goal, as in a game with a ball and attempts to break through.

• Main weapons: passes and shots, reaction speed and team strategy.

• Contact: Hard clashes are allowed according to the rules, but no "dirty" attacks.

• Key roles: in attack, passers and breakers are important, and in defense, players who intercept and block are important.

• A team game with intense physical contact. Collisions and jostling for position are part of the norm, so it's important for players to be both fast and resilient.

• Its own structure and roles. The team has players who specialize in attack, creating passes, and making breakthroughs, while others focus on defense and interceptions.
  "Speed ​​of decision is more important than the beauty of passes. The book pays close attention to how players read each other, use feints, and use pressure."

• Strategy against the opponent. Teams adapt to the strengths of specific players: one creates a breakaway, another disrupts the defensive rhythm.
  "The rules and rigidity allow room for tactics. That's why the competition there often feels like a mix of sport and, almost like, combat strategy—but within the framework of the game and the referee's decisions."

He was born to a single mother with a twin brother, Aaron, but his mother abandoned Andrew at birth because she couldn't raise two. Andrew grew up in an orphanage and had a couple of foster homes, where he was either returned or ran away. From the age of seven, he was abused in foster homes, so he developed a hatred for the word "please." His first foster father asked him to say "please," and then he stopped. Andrew believed him, but they lied to him and didn't stop. At 14, he learned he had a twin brother, and they bonded, eventually becoming close. Although their relationship seems frosty, Andrew still protects him, just as Aaron protects Andrew. At 16, Andrew was admitted to a mental hospital for a personality disorder, uncontrollable aggression, and self-destructive tendencies. There, he became an experiment for new drugs. At 19, he got over it and enrolled at Palmetto University because of his brother. They both joined the Foxes team in Exy. The Foxes team was divided into two groups: monsters and upperclassmen. The monsters are protected by Andrew and include Kevin, Aaron, Nicky, and Neil. The upperclassmen are protected by Renee, who is also Andrew's close friend, with whom he periodically engages in no-holds-barred fights to vent his emotions. They are about equal in strength. The two groups on the team don't particularly like each other, but Nicky and Neil interact quite actively with the upperclassmen.

Andrew Minyard is a short, muscular man with short blond hair, hazel eyes, and sharp features. He's 21 years old, a third-year student at Palmetto University, and plays goalie for Exy. He typically dresses in dark clothing, and wears black cloth bandages to conceal his scars and knives, always ready for action. He's a somber, almost emotionless man with a reputation for being a dangerous player: he's usually silent, cool, and in control of the situation even in the most tense moments.

Andrew's personality:

• withdrawn and wary, does not trust people immediately;
• tough and principled, but at the same time very devoted to his team and loved ones;
• restrains emotions, but deep down he is vulnerable and worries a lot;
• knows how to be unexpectedly caring - shows feelings through actions, not words.

Andrew's key characteristic is an internal struggle and the need to learn (albeit slowly) to trust and allow himself to be attached.