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Chuck Henneke looked like what he was, a tough former athlete with a good head on his thick neck. He was a legend among college scouts, one who, if he bothered to collect trophies for the college athletes he turned up, would have a whole den full of them.
Henneke was just the man that Benning, Bynum, Caxton, Braithwaite was looking for.
Sure, his services didn't come cheap, but they weren't worried. If it turned out that he helped the firm in its pro bono altruism to enable several deserving young athletes to earn an Olympic medal, then it would be worth the cost to the firm, easily.
Accordingly, three of the partners (Bynum was in Washington on a trade negotiation) were assembled in their walnut paneled meeting room to hear Coach Henneke's report on the athletes he'd spent most of the day with: Gary Lollar, a swimmer from Arkansas, sponsored by Caxton, Cheryl Ford, the runner that Braithwaite knew, and an unknown character named Darcy something or other that Cheryl Ford insisted Braithwaite look at. Braithwaite was the newest partner and a productive one, so if he wanted a walk-on checked out, they would gladly humor him.
Henneke was right on time. He took a chair at the table with grace and firmness, laying a notepad out in front of himself. After the necessary chatter about local teams they got down to business.
"Gentlemen," he began, looking at each of them in turn, "this has been a most interesting day. Let me cover the easy parts first, if I may. The swimmer, Mr. Lollar, and the runner, Ms. Ford, I think are both excellent medal prospects. Both have a shot at several medals, more so Mr. Lollar, which may be due to the nature of the organization of the swimming events as to his own talent. His talent is considerable, however, and his present training level is good. I think the Olympic coaches will be able to work well with him.
"The same goes for Ms. Ford, basically. Her strongest event would seem to be the 10,000-meters, but she might also do well in the 5,000-meters. Her present training level is excellent, and I have talked to her coach and confirmed her hardiness and motivation. She has timed better than her likely competitors by convincing margins, repeatedly. You can never predict Olympic outcomes accurately, but I would think she is almost a shoo-in for some kind of medal in at least one event, possibly gold."
He paused to flip open his notebook.
"The third candidate was unknown to me before today. She calls herself Darcy, but says that is her last name, and if a first name is needed, it would be Ana. She says she's Canadian, but she's hazy on just where in Canada. She said her age was 28, but she had to think about it before saying so. When I asked her what her event was, or events were, she just said she runs, and added she might 'do some other stuff too.' She's five feet two inches tall, weighs 103 pounds, and is lean and lightly muscled.
"As you might imagine, I wasn't expecting much from her."
Saying nothing, the men watched as he glanced at his notepad.
"I asked her to run four laps around the track at her best pace." Henneke looked up from his notes, his face more solemn than ever. "Her best pace turned out to be nineteen seconds under the world record for the mile—the men's mile, not the women's mile. And yes, I said nineteen seconds."
He paused and glanced at the partners, who were looking slightly confused.
"I thought my stopwatch had malfunctioned. It seemed impossible. She didn't even seem to be breathing that hard. So I asked her to run four more laps at the same pace, but I used the stopwatch on my wrist watch. That time she beat the world record by fifteen seconds. The exertion didn’t seem to affect her."
Braithwaite's brows furrowed as if the numbers were finally beginning to register. "Go on," he said in a low voice.
"I asked her how long she could keep that pace up. She said she didn't know, that she'd always run behind Cheryl Ford, and held her pace to Cheryl's. So I timed her at the 100-meters. Her technique is terrible, but she came within a half second of the world record, twice.
“I set up the hurdles. She's small for a hurdler, but she sailed over them like she had wings. I asked her if she could high jump. We started at five feet, and in six jumps she was clearing nearly six and a half feet. Again, her technique is awful. Most high jumpers are tall and lean. This woman is short and lean. I have no idea how she generated the necessary vertical momentum.
“Then we went to the long jump pit. I won't bother you with the distance she jumped, but if it had been properly judged, there would be a new world record right now.
"I asked her if she could swim. She said yes, and that she really used to like diving. When I asked if she could do a few dives for me, she said she didn't have a swimsuit. By the way, the shoes she ran in looked like they came from Goodwill. They're practically children's sneakers—not proper footwear for a serious runner.”
He flipped his notepad closed, sighed, and looked at each of the partners in turn.
"Bottom line in the case of Ms. Ana Darcy: I have never seen an athlete like her in my life, nor have I ever heard of one. I am still having trouble believing what my own eyes told me all afternoon. She needs to be put through more trials over a variety of events. She needs to be drug tested thoroughly. If she's clean, believe me, you want to sponsor her. See that she gets proper equipment and top-flight training. For God's sake, get her a swimsuit and see if she can swim and dive anything like she can run. She needs to be tested at marathon distances. If you would like me to continue tomorrow, I will adjust my schedule. I won't even charge you for my time.
"I have no idea what events Ana Darcy might end up in, but the medals could be the least of it. This young woman is likely to make athletic history. She already has, as far as I'm concerned."
After Henneke had departed, the partners sat in stunned silence a long minute. Finally, Jack Benning cleared his throat.
"Well, gentlemen, maybe our first venture into sports public relations is going to work out after all."
Hartley Braithwaite was shaking his head back and forth slowly. "We hoped one of our athletes would get a medal, any medal. It would appear those odds just improved."
Dick Caxton, the firm's contract man, spoke next. "It does look very, very promising. But I'm wondering about that Darcy woman. She was pretty fuzzy about her background, according to Henneke. We better put someone on checking that out—maybe you, Hartley, since your Caribbean Initiative case doesn't start for two months. This was all your idea in the first place. What do you know about sports law?"
"Not a lot," he admitted. He continued in his low rumble, "but I can find out. Let me talk to the athletes and get the contracts moving. I'll see what can be found out about Ms. Ana Darcy."
Benning, the chief partner, peered over his glasses at Braithwaite.
"Yeah. Do that."
