A world-wide known way to prepare before a game is to have a special “Pre-game ritual.” We see this in pro athletes like former University of Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy with his 10 minute meditation on the field goal post; Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry who sprints up to the baseline; or even Michael Jordan who would wear his University of North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform because he thought it’d bring him good luck. This isn’t exclusive to just professional athletes though, student athletes throughout Skyline have their own special ways to psych themselves up.
Skyline’s Field Hockey team added new head coach Kylee Niswonger to their arsenal, and with that, she’s also brought new team rituals.
“We hold hands and our coach passes a squeeze to one person and they pass it along [the circle],” Maeve Kilbride (‘27) says, “While the squeeze is getting passed, our coach, Kylee, talks about us and our game and says things to get the outcome we want.”
Although these routines may appear as gimmicky, the consistency of it, repeating it every game at the same time before every game, adds a sense of security to many athletes and a mental anchor to keep their games consistent.
Kilbride says “I think this pregame ritual is something that means something to us…all coming together and putting each other first before ourselves.”
When it comes to Skyline Football, they’ve got a long process before Friday Night Lights.
In Rhys Hayman’s (‘26) case, he spends his whole afternoon getting prepared. “When we finish school we immediately go up to the commons to eat our pregame dinner. Afterwards [I] take a nap in the locker room, lastly, I do a group prayer within an hour before kickoff, which is optional,” Hayman says.
These habits aren’t just for players’ physical abilities though, they also impact the mental side of the game. If players aren’t able to calm their minds before games, it can be hard to play at their best.
Hayman says “at the end of the day everyone should come out of the game uninjured and healthy. [The prayer] gets us in a good mental state right before the game”
Individual pregame rituals, on the contrary, may prove to be even more important than team rituals when it comes to a sport like tennis, which forces a player to carry a lot more weight on their shoulders as they only have one to two people per match.
Connor Wilcox (‘26) is a prime example of this. Leading the Skyline Tennis team in the top spot in singles matches, Wilcox says “I find a quiet place to sit down and close my eyes and visualize for about 5-10 minutes. [It] helps me play [better] by telling my body how to perform.”
Visualizing before matches/games is a famous tradition many of the greatest athletes use to prepare. Many players think of how they want their match to go and picture themselves succeeding, although some, like Michael Phelps, imagines disaster to happen as well, to prepare for the worst.
“They’ve had a positive impact on my game play, allowing me to play my highest level and have a set plan throughout the match,” says Wilcox.
