THIS IS YOUR GAME
Name: Henry Isaacs Age: Twenty One Class Year: Junior Position: Striker, #16 Hometown: Travelers Rest, South Carolina
THIS IS YOUR MOMENT
TW: alcoholism, abuse, homophobia
There was absolutely nothing unusual about the Isaacs from the outside: high school sweethearts William and Marilyn married only a year after graduating college. The two of them settled down in their hometown of Travelers Rest, South Carolina, where William began his career in politics and Marilyn worked as a schoolteacher. Five years after they married, Marilyn gave birth to a lovely little baby girl, Holland, and a year and a half after that she gave birth to Henry. Due to the proximity of their ages, Henry and his older sister got along so well that many people would have thought they were twins if they didn’t know better. Growing up, Holland and Henry were different, but their differences were what made them a pair. Neither was seen without the other and when one got into trouble, the other was always right there beside them. They were two sides of the same coin. Holland was Henry’s best friend, the one and only person he could count on.
At home, Henry’s father disciplined them with a heavy hand, often going a little too far after a few drinks—and because of this, Henry did his best not to anger his father as much as possible. Henry didn’t want to anger the man any more than he had to with frivolous little kid problems. His father always wanted a career in politics; however, his career never really took off past local government, where he served several terms as a city councilman and eventually mayor. Henry and his sister were always to blame for their father’s failed career, and nights when he was half a bottle of whiskey in he made sure they knew it.
Holland’s dresses were always a little askew or Henry didn’t answer a press question the exact way his father wanted; it was never his own fault. Every failed election, the two of them were to blame—and their mom just stood off to the side, continuing to tell her children: your father’s career is important to him, to us. Neither child understood what they did wrong, but at least they had each other. On nights when Henry couldn’t sleep because he could hear his dad downstairs, drunk and causing a scene, he’d sneak into his sister’s room and curl up beside her and hoped that one day all of it would go away. Though the second they were in the public eye, nothing was wrong—their dad knew where to hide their bruises, but more importantly, he acted as if everything was perfect, and made sure that they did, too.
In high school, Henry and Holland branched out slightly. Hol—as she preferred to be called—found comfort in theater. Whereas Henry took to sports, despite his own love of books. Exy wasn’t on the top of their father’s list of sports that he wanted his son to play, so in a small act of defiance, that’s what Henry choose. He excelled at it, too, with all his unresolved anger towards his father fueling him on the court. And while Exy might not have been what his father would have chosen for him, he told Henry that if he was going to play Exy, he had to be the best at it. So he worked harder and got better, and by his junior year he was practically guaranteed the captaincy for his senior year.
But it was his junior year that everything started falling apart. Coming from a family that had been raised Southern Baptist, there were some things that just weren’t alright. For the most part, Henry did his best to avoid his dad’s anger when it came to his own sexuality—which he’d figured out at a young age, only whispering it to his sister. When his dad came in raging one night, Henry had no reason to assume that anything was wrong other than his dad’s usual anger. That night, however, was different. Usually Henry and his sister didn’t fight back, hoping that would make it end sooner, but that night there was a voice arguing back—Hol’s voice. Henry rushed downstairs to try and calm the situation down, but realized almost instantly that it would do no good. Henry watched as the argument got heated and stood there unable to move. He knew what the argument was about, even if he stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face. Their dad gave Hol an ultimatum: break up with her or get the fuck out of my house. She stood up and walked towards the door, pausing only for a second to turn back to Henry and ask him: Well, are you coming? And Henry shook his head no in response.
Months went by where Henry regretted the decision he had made that night. He should have gone with Hol instead of being a coward and choosing their father. He wanted the comfort of a warm bed and to know where his next meal was coming from. He hadn’t meant to choose his dad over his sister. In one night, Henry lost the one person he had always counted on, and it was his own decision, his own fault. He tried to reach out to her, but she refused to answer his calls—eventually his calls were answered by someone other than his sister, and he gave up trying. She probably hated him, and she had a good reason to. But as much as he hated his father, he couldn’t help to think that Holland was also wrong. Why couldn’t she have conformed to their dad’s ideals for just a little longer? She was closer to leaving than he was, and he had no intention of his father finding out any of his own secrets.
With Holland gone, life didn’t get any better at home. Whereas before he and Holland had to share the wrath from their father, suddenly it was all directed at Henry. His father was more brutal than ever, angry at his daughter for everything she was, and taking it out on Henry as if he was the reason why. To cope with the pressure of having to deal with his dad for another year and a half, he turned to drinking. No one noticed the changes at first. People always asked about Holland, until they got tired of Henry’s snappy remarks. He finished his junior year broken and angry. His senior year wasn’t much better. His drinking was at an all-time high, and it showed on the court: eventually Henry’s playing got bad enough that his coach benched him for the rest of the season.
SEIZE IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT
The end of his senior year was rough. Henry spend most of that summer locked away in his room, getting yelled at any time he left. It was after a particularly nasty fight that Henry left—his father had stormed off to the nearest bar and Henry got in his car to go anywhere but Travelers Rest. Where he ended up surprised even himself: Palmetto State. He drank an entire bottle of bourbon before knocking on the door to Wymack’s office. He was bruised, sore, and tears stained his face. The man took one look at Henry before making him a cup of coffee and offered him a place to sleep for the night so they could talk in the morning. Wymack knew who he was, and Henry wondered if he’d ever raised any flags that he was Fox material. The next morning, Henry explained mostly everything, framing some of the situation as his own fault, and didn’t expect anything in return—but Wymack did more than that when he offered him a spot with the Foxes, if Henry went to therapy all summer. So, he did.
Coming off of a year spent on the bench, he knew he wasn’t good enough to play for the Foxes, but he made every effort he could to get better and trained harder than he ever had in the past. Henry didn’t want Wymack’s decision to sign him to be a mistake. Though he spent most of his first semester on the bench, by the end of his first semester of sophomore year he had improved enough that he was no longer at the bottom of the team. But his issues remained unresolved, including his own pride—because regardless of the state he came to Palmetto in that fateful summer night, he refused to stay anywhere on Palmetto’s campus during the summer and goes home during the essential holidays. He does what he’s always done, and plays his problems off with his dad as issues that weren’t as bad as they were. Henry doesn’t think Wymack believes him, but it isn’t as if anyone can stop Henry from going back to Travelers Rest each summer, even if going home means coming back to Palmetto with a fresh set of bruises—because despite everything, the man still has a hold on Henry that he can’t seem to shake.
HENRY ISAACS is portrayed by ALEX FITZALAN and is TAKEN
