William Gilmore Simms was an author. He wrote many stories sch as, "The Yemassee, " The Life of Francis Marion", and many other books. So because he was an author, I would think that he would be a great storyteller. Especially if he wrote all these books. Hope this helps :)
Since nothing is underlined i presume that the underlined pronoun is them. It is in the dative case because them is an object and answers the question to whom was something done. Them refers to the trainer's team.