After the dishes are done, Imélie goes back to check on the bites she got from the social media pages of the Tulane [undergraduate] Class of 2038 regarding potential quiz bowl players, and to see whether there are trolls lurking and that are out to troll the student organizations that make their pitches to the incoming undergraduates. While there are opportunities for immature people to take advantage of their immaturity in a college's student organizations, quiz bowl is not one of them. But the last troll that attempted to reach out to me about quiz bowl didn't actually feel like a quiz bowler, Imélie thinks, while she examines the files of the candidates that she deems legitimate, of which there are only a handful, at least one of them was assuming there just wasn't a quiz bowl team at all at Tulane up to this point.

On this first day of making attempts at scouting, the most promising of the first-day prospects is, without a doubt, Alyssa. She is a Boston Latin senior player that specializes in fine arts and literature, and so to her eyes would complement her well. From what Imélie can make out, based on the information Alyssa provided, the prospect seems to be a good enough player for start for Tulane – pending on the other prospects, especially given that she played at the HSNCT last year. Plus Alyssa commented on how she was the only girl on that team, and asked Imélie more questions about her own experiences as a woman in collegiate quiz bowl.

Oh Alyssa, if only she is as nice in person as she is through emails and social media... I'm sure we can get along all season long, Imélie thinks, while combing the other prospects' quiz bowl records as a preliminary screening measure so that she would place the others on a reserve list should the need arise.

And, that night, Imélie starts dreaming of a roadmap for the season, starting with the ACF Fall with the undergraduate rookies, she will write a half-packet, but she will not be playing in it because of her having been the top scorer on a Power-Six team senior year at the HSNCT. That said, she can be coaching the Green Wave at that tournament. Plus she feels it's good to play some online games against other teams mostly made up of other players that are new to the collegiate quiz bowl circuit prior to the ACF Fall and Winter tournaments, and preferably other teams that they are expected to play against at ACF Fall or Winter. There's only one way to get out of the shadow of my past: making sure the execution of this roadmap for the season is done properly, scouting or scheduling! If, say, Emory or Georgia expects us to be pushovers next year, they are going to feel the difference as clearly as they can get! We're going to need a rigorous training regimen, and... Imélie cogitates while she is having nightmares of what is going to happen if she graduates from this MBA/MGM program while the Green Wave quiz bowl program is not making any improvement over the sad state she inherited the team in! Upon awakening the next morning...

"These next three years will determine both my own future as well as the Green Wave's future in quiz bowl!" Imélie shouts.

"I saw you going around combing the social media pages of the university's incoming class in search for what looks like prospects. But why do you think the next three years will determine the future of Green Wave's quiz bowl program rather than just your own future? You act as if you were thrust into the coach's position as well as playing for the Green Wave for next year!" Sun seems to be questioning her role on the Green Wave quiz bowl team.

"As of right now, I am the only confirmed quiz bowl player for next year, I must shoulder the responsibility that comes from being the most senior player of the team!"

In collegiate quiz bowl, often the coach is the most senior player on the team, or some other player, as opposed to middle or high school quiz bowl coaches, who typically are teachers at the school they coach for.

"Also, if I don't seize that opportunity, then I will live out the rest of my life regretting not having done more in graduate school!"

"Can you point at any specific regret you would then have?"

"I would then be afraid that I would live out the rest of my life trying to recapture the glories of my youth, either through our kids or by myself. Or I would otherwise be forever a prisoner of my own past!"

I am one of Louisiana's female quiz bowl all-time greats, and the consensus greatest female Green Wave quiz bowler! A poor tenure in graduate school, regardless of whether I am coaching the Green Wave for the next season or not, would forever tarnish my quiz bowl legacy! And the stain would be even greater if I coached the team, and we keep underperforming! Imélie keeps to herself, not wanting to irritate Sun any more than she did in this burst of anxiety.

Then Imélie was not happy with how things turned out with some of the other prospects: these prospects in question were not of the same caliber as Alyssa was, but with a class as talented as Tulane's, she believes it is just a question of time for new prospects to come forward that might be good fits. History, RPMSS are the priorities to Imélie, but she is also willing to consider a strong M&S player for scheduling reasons.

After all, she can't compete at ACF Fall, and doing well at competitions such as Division 2 ACF Regionals requires a balanced team, and since she is a graduate student, she feels she would hurt the university by taking part in ACF Regionals and therefore force the Green Wave to compete in Division 1 at the ACF Regionals, for which she knows they are not going to be prepared for it in only a few months' time.

"I know that quiz bowl is heavy on your mind right now, but you mentioned that Tulane's future in the quiz bowl world was at stake with you. Any reason for that statement? That seems a little hyperbolic even from you" Sun asks her, unsure of her state of mind.

"Tulane's quiz bowl program is in dire straits, and I represent their last chance to save the program. The university could axe it if the team underperforms next season" Imélie answers as succinctly as feasible.

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"You seem to be implying that they underperformed for years, so why is it that rebuilding this program mean so much to you?"

"When I was an undergrad there, we were hamstrung by poor leadership, the coach of the time was a control freak that silenced the other players at every opportunity, which made me feel like the university pinned all their quiz bowl hopes on me. If we succeed, take part in the ACF Nationals or ICT at least once when I'm in graduate school the potential for glory is greater for me than even a top-six at the HSNCT in high school, especially since, in seasons two or three, I might be competing at WNCC once again, and be in medal contention by then. Wait a minute, I got another email from the faculty liaison"

The faculty liaison's email is straight to the point: "Dear Imélie, the coach has been stripped of coaching duty. Also, there will be no returning player next year; the last player has resigned from the team last night. So you're the interim coach and you may be confirmed as quiz bowl coach later by the university"

"And now I'm the coach of the Green Wave quiz bowl team, and not simply a player. Apparently, the university didn't trust the faculty liaison to coach the team, all the faculty liaison really did for the team when I was an undergraduate was to secure rooms and funds for us"

"I wonder why the university made you coach the team, and not the person you called the faculty liaison. What made that professor a poor fit to coach the team"

"He knew only the resources side but not how to effectively coach a team beyond that. There's more to collegiate quiz bowl than just securing a room on a weekly basis and transportation arrangements for tournaments! If the faculty liaison could just stick to that..."

Even then there are those prospects Imélie believes, right or wrong, they would be better served doing intramural quiz bowl if it is at all possible. But intramural quiz bowl was perhaps a harder sell than intercollegiate quiz bowl and, at Tulane, often devolved into sporadic games, or even a yearly tournament. She checks on the depth chart by subject to see who can realistically make the team and who can't on a daily basis. And some of these prospects request an online meeting with her so that they know who will coach them should they make it. Like Alyssa and her parents. More like Alyssa's parents requested this online meeting with Imélie.

"Welcome to this meeting. I'm Imélie, the Tulane Green Wave quiz bowl coach. On behalf of Tulane university, I thank you for your accomplishments and we hope that she will continue on her track to success while in New Orleans"

"I'm Alyssa. She then introduces her parents and they were all too eager to be on the webcam"

"Will my daughter get some playing time on the team?" Alyssa's mom asks the coach.

"Historically Tulane never had a large team, and the main reason is that we want to make sure everyone gets play time. If she was attending, say, Harvard, or the University of Chicago, play time must be earned, and when players do get it, they are subjected to a promotion and relegation system. This causes a lot of stress for players, as if college wasn't already stressful enough as it is. Given who is projected to play next year at Tulane, I would say that she is in a good position to be a starter and therefore get playing time"

"You make it sound like the team isn't finalized!" Alyssa's mom retorts on the camera.

"No, it's not finalized yet, but the other prospects excel in different areas. As of right now the players we have that we know for sure will play are stronger in science. Oh and another advantage of a smaller team is that more attention will be given to each individual player and closer bonds can be formed between each other. So do you, by any chance, want to be a quiz bowl booster for Tulane?"

So it took five years after I graduated from this school for the previous coach to be removed from office? Or they cycled through coaches during the intervening years? Come to think of it, the coach of my time yelled at players, especially the dairy queenies or buzzer rocks, and his cluelessness at scouting made him replace buzzer rocks by other players that turned out to be buzzer rocks as well, not knowing what people were good at, nor their weaknesses. Despite this, he was a control freak regarding roster decisions! But yes! This I vow: as the Green Wave's quiz bowl coach, I will do everything in my power to set right what my predecessors did wrong! Imélie muses but once again keeping her thoughts to herself.

"Hopefully quiz bowl will make my daughter stay out of partying"

"Yes, mom, I know. Just because I go to college this far away from home does not mean it's an excuse for me to go all-out" Alyssa retorts to her mother.

"If I may, Alyssa, you might find it useful to convert the material in class into toss-ups or bonuses when you review the material for a class. And that applies to areas of weakness in quiz bowl, too. That worked for me during my playing days, even though I didn't really start writing class notes that way until senior year in high school. Also, you will be given the opportunity to moderate quiz bowl tournaments, too; often college quiz bowl players are called upon by tournament directors in the region for staffing these"

"How am I to benefit, as a player, by moderating a tournament?" Alyssa asks, skeptical of whether modding tournaments carry any benefits if people play.

"You get to read questions from all areas regardless of whether you actually play a specific area, you get a better feel for the style of clues and questions. In that case I advise you to read the packets you then get for yourself once the tournament ends. Just make sure you don't post questions on the Internet until the set is cleared for use in practice. People say they learn by osmosis but when you play, your focus is on whether you know it or not, and you may not have a whole lot of attention to devote to learning the clues in a game situation"

Usually quiz bowlers that play well in college, or even on a HSNCT-level team, are high achievers with strong studying habits, so I am not worried about her academic success. Not like her parents. Speaking of which, while I don't like her parents very much, I can tell Alyssa is passionate, and willing to step up to the plate, Imélie ponders while realizing that Alyssa might have decided to attend Tulane because it was far enough away from home for her to feel like she can have a better taste of freedom. And how important it can be for high-achieving students to keep some distance between them and their parents when their family life goes wrong.

"What do you expect out of quiz bowl in college?" Imélie asks Alyssa.

"I expect mostly the questions to get harder, and the opposition to get better as well. Now everyone will be playing on my level"

In the weeks to follow, up until May 1, she keeps scouting for players she knows will be a good fit, and maybe, if she's lucky, a history/RPMSS or M&S player could choose to attend Tulane over another college based on them significant play time in varsity quiz bowl games as a freshman. If push comes to shove, Imélie would become more of a generalist than she initially planned for when she dreamed of when she planned on returning to Tulane.