Tiger Woods, arguably the best golfer of all time, always wears red on Sundays.
Michael Jordan always wore his University of North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball practice shorts under his Chicago Bulls shorts during games for good luck.
Superstitions are formed from nothing else than the brain. To cure these thoughts, rituals are done, or, the action taken to complete the superstition. Whether it’s playing or watching, sports lovers everywhere feel as though these rituals make or break their successes. Superstitions could be wearing the same clothes, eating the same food or something else that’s completely random to the sport.
Here at SCH, senior Alec Tulio believes in doing a little bit of everything before his games to succeed. “I have this T-shirt that says ‘The Players Series’ on it from a showcase I did freshman year. I’ve worn that shirt for every high school game. But if I play bad in one game, I’ll take a break from that shirt…but I’ve revisited it almost every game,” Alec said. “Another thing that’s important to me is…to eat Italian food the night before every game. I also like to pray before games.”
These rituals became frequent in high school for Alec, once he started to take lacrosse more seriously.
The same can be said for another senior lacrosse player, Finn Dougherty, who has a superstition that’s a little more out of the ordinary.
“The night before games, I always have to turn off all the lights, put my fan on and sleep with three blankets. I am able to keep it cool but stay warm, and…I feel better when I wake up which results in me playing better,” Finn said.
Switching sports, Frankie Decembrino, a sophomore baseball player at SCH, created his superstition before high school… at the age of ten.
“I always have gone right sock, left sock, right shoe, left shoe. My belt buckle has to be in a certain position. My hat needs to feel the right way, and my batting gloves also have to go on right glove then left,” Frankie said. Frankie blamed all of his failures on it when he forgot to do it one game. “I did not have a good game, and I was thinking, I was like why didn’t I have a good game? And it’s ‘cause I didn’t do the superstitions beforehand,” Frankie answered when I asked him if he’d ever forgotten to do it.
Danny Regan, a multi-sport athlete, had three rituals that he did to avoid playing badly during his football games.
The night before games, I always have to turn off all the lights, put my fan on and sleep with three blankets.
— Finn Dougherty
“We played on Saturdays…so me and Jayden Sumpter went to Dick’s every Thursday. We didn’t need anything most of the time but we kept winning,” Danny said. “On Friday nights, I would watch the same movie every single time, Black Hawk Down…then on Saturdays, when I woke up, I would eat the same meal. No matter the time, I would have 12 chicken nuggets and garlic mashed potatoes with extra garlic salt,” Danny noted.
Though Danny only performed these during football season, when he didn’t do them, it showed. SCH went 8-2 this fall, and 3-2 in the Inter-Academic League. SCH fell to Malvern 17-7 on their last game of the year… for the championship. Even though Danny watched Black Hawk Down on Friday and ate the same meal on Saturday, he and Jayden never went to Dick’s on either Thursday.
As the reader, take a moment to think if there are any rituals that you do to cure your superstitions before an activity. It can be during hobbies like cooking, gardening or doing chores.
