Shout out to Coach Hernandez, though. If it hadn’t been for him, the entire trilogy wouldn’t have even happened.
I always wonder what he’s up to? Like here’s this regular high school Exy coach who’s got the enigma that is Neil Josten on his team. He’s a quiet kid who learned Exy in one year, a kid who says he’s got parents, but they don’t show up to any games, a kid who can pick the doorlock to sleep in the locker room at night.
So he does the best he can without prying too much and instead he tries to set Neil up with a future, away from Millport. He doesn’t even tell Neil about it just in case but he even sends a tape instead of statistics because he knew how to sell Neil’s strengths, because he knows that actually seeing Neil play is something on another level.
And then imagine him watching in awe as the Palmetto State Foxes - a team that had been the joke of the Class I Division, a team that was literally last ranked! Imagine him watching in awe as it slowly rises to the top of the game, all in one season. Imagine him watching Neil play as starting striker alongside Kevin Day. His Neil! From his high school team!
Imagine him watching in shock as this quiet kid - who probably hadn’t spoken more than 3 sentences to him at a time back at Millport - imagine Hernandez watching as Neil absolutely verbally rips apart and challenges Riko Moriyama on national television, tells him that Riko’s going to choke on his own words.
Imagine him watching in wonder as Neil Josten develops into a striker that’s scary good, a striker that couldn’t have possibly improved that much in just a few months, a striker that can hold the floor with Kevin Day.
Imagine him hearing about the news about Neil’s past on the media, hearing things about gangs and murders and son of a crime boss, seeing him in pictures and thinking I could have sworn he had brown eyes and imagine him wondering who the hell this kid that he coached actually was?
Imagine Hernandez watching with his jaw open as his high school recruit, Neil Josten hold his own for a full game as a starting striker, then watching Neil switch in the middle of the game without a break and play an incredible defense, all against Edgar fucking Allan - the number one team, a team that has never been debunked in history - and fucking win. They fucking won. All in one season.
And imagine him years later down the line, sitting on his couch and watching Neil Josten and a few of his original PSU teammates win gold at the Olympics.
He might have thought it was just a small thing that he did, but just by that simple act of sending Neil’s information to Wymack, he changed the course of Neil’s life. Hernandez completely changed the outlook of Neil’s future - by giving him one at all. So, shout out to you, Coach Hernandez. Without you Neil would have never gotten that second chance to live his life, find a family, and play Exy.
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