By J.P. Hajjar ’16
THE ROUNDUP 

Sports teams and athletes tend to be creatures of habit and superstition.

Many have certain traditions before every practice or game.

“We listen to music to pump us up in the locker room and then do a prayer,” said Patrick Rottman ’16 when asked about what he does before a varsity hockey game.

For the hockey and soccer teams, they like to play music to get excited.

“In the locker room there is music playing. I don’t know, it kind of just pumps us up. That’s really it,” said Garret Anson ’16 referring to what he does before a soccer game. 

Some players have traditions of their own.

“One kid tapes his stick for like 30 minutes,” Rottman said. “Usually it takes like five minutes, but he takes thirty minutes and then he has to hurry and get dressed because he’ll be late.”

Football players like to keep to themselves and lock in focus.

“Some kids like to just walk around the school campus and kind of just stay away from everybody,” said Walker Adams ’16. “Me personally, I just like to keep quiet and remain to myself.”

Most teams have retreats before the season begins to get to know their teammates and enjoy each other’s company.

“We are a lot more of a team,” Rottman said. “I think we bonded a lot at Manresa and we went to California and not a lot of other schools do that.”

For football, they have film meetings where they talk about what they need to do better at in games or practices.

“Mostly in practice it is lots of film watching, applying what we see in film to running through those in practice and seeing how it works out,” Adams said.

The defensive squad likes to huddle up and talk about their hopes before the game.

“For defense, I wouldn’t really call it an odd ritual but we have one of the trees, out behind the gym, we go out to the tree before we head off to put our pads on and such to get ready for the game and we all stand by the tree and talk about goals for the game,” Adams said.

Adams has a favorite ritual of his own that the team goes through before hitting the field.

“My favorite ritual is probably right before the captains come back from the coin toss we do the good old ‘Broncos, what is your profession?’ Everybody yells and chants and it’s really good to get hyped for the game,” Adams said.

Varsity basketball player Michael Kempton ’15 said he likes to get loose before games with his teammates.

“Everyone does it, but I like warm-ups. It’s just fun to run around and get warmed up so that’s always been fun for me,” Kempton said.

The soccer team has a pre-practice and pre-game ritual that they complete as well.

“We have about a 10 minute warm up that we do. It consists of running and stretches and stuff like that,” Anson said. “Before games we always pray in front of the statue out in the mall.”