Trial by Fury by K.G. MacGregor Page A

academic progress. More than once, she’d been pressured by someone in the athletic department to grant exceptions that allowed players to make up work so they wouldn’t fail her class and lose their eligibility for sports. “You wouldn’t believe how many calls I get from coaches wanting special considerations for players.”
    Kay chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Why wouldn’t I believe it? I’ve made my share of calls like that. Then I have to go build a fire under my girls’ britches so they don’t cut class and make me look like an idiot.”
    “I don’t mind them missing class as long as they’re serious about making up the work. I know they have travel schedules and can’t be there all the time. But some of them think they ought to get a pass just because they play for the school. I’m not going to hand out grades for nothing—especially if they act like they’re entitled.”
    Frazier, Caldwell and Watson must have felt especially entitled when police officers took their word for it that Hayley had consented to gang sex even after seeing video of their brutal assault.
    The details of Hayley’s rape haunted Celia every day. To wake to the horror of knowing something awful had happened—she knew that feeling all too well—only to have it confirmed in the worst way. Then to have her trust shattered by those who didn’t seem to care she’d been violated.
    “…to be proactive in class,” Kay went on, bringing Celia back to the present. “They’re supposed to go meet with all their professors at the beginning of the semester and figure out the conflicts. I tell ’em to read ahead and take exams early whenever they can. And every time we hit the road, travel time is study time. No iPods, no video games. Just homework.”
    “Gina was the same way.” In fact, Harwood’s female athletes had always been far more conscientious about stopping by her office to talk about how to offset their participation in sports. “You know, I’m trying to think of the last time one of the football players came in for a meeting like that. Or anybody from the basketball team. Maybe twice in twelve years.”
    “Don’t you know, girl? The rules are different if you have dangly bits, especially if you play one of the big money sports. Hell, those coaches don’t even teach their own classes. They have grad assistants do it for ’em. It’s no wonder the players screw around. Sports is all they care about. They’re just following the example their coaches set.”
    Women’s basketball wasn’t exactly big money, but it was considered a major sport—certainly more visible than women’s soccer or softball. Gina had felt a lot of pressure to succeed on the court, sloughing off her teaching load on her assistant coaches as well. The AD—athletic director—actually encouraged it. “Gina wasn’t exactly a shining example as far as teaching her classes, but she never let her girls get away with anything. Not on the court, and not in the classroom either.”
    “I’m the the same way.”
    Gina also kept her team’s business in the locker room. Squabbles between players and coaches, academic struggles and love triangles—all of it took place out of the public eye. “You ever have a player get in trouble, Kay? I remember a couple of Gina’s underage girls got caught with a bottle of tequila in their dorm room. Then another one got into a fight with somebody at a bonfire. She always dealt with that kind of stuff herself…benched them for two or three games.”
    “The worst thing I ever had to deal with was when my starting left fielder accidentally borrowed somebody’s bike off a rack at the library. That was just last year. We talked the cops out of pressing charges, but I still suspended her ass for two games. Talk about tough love—that killed us because she was hitting four-fifty.”
    Celia was intrigued by the mention of the police. “How did you manage to get the cops to drop it?”
    “There’s this guy