LC athletes’ pre-game rituals inspire play

A ritual is an exercise in spirituality; perhaps frivolous to an observer but indispensable to a practitioner.  Whether it is out of superstition, religion or just getting in the game mindset, many athletes perform some sort of ritual, or tradition, for the sake of their sport.

The Lewis & Clark Cross Country team has a number of special things they do in preparation for meets and practices. Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach Matthew Barreau has the athletes stride out to him before every race starts. As they stride out, he gives a motivational speech before they do a quick Pio chant. 

The team also has a range of activities they do somewhat ritualistically on their own. During pre-meet workouts they run four miles and walk the last half, on Fridays they wear hats as an unintentional “Mean Girls” parody, they have team pasta dinners to load up on carbohydrates for races and some of them walk to their practices barefoot.

Athletes have personal practices they do as well. Jack Hyde ’22 takes a series of supplements everyday including iron, ibuprofen, super B complex and fish oil. He also makes a shake with gold standard whey and a tea with beetroot powder that he swears by. At the end of every season he has all of his teammates sign his race spikes as a reminder of what they went through together. 

Caleb Silverman ’24 wears the same chain, one his mother received at her wedding, for every practice and meet, as well as the same pair of Brooks PR brand socks. Silverman’s game-day ritual is buying a pack of Peanut M&M’s before every race, and eating them if he does well and throwing them away if he runs poorly.

Other athletes practice rituals as well. Alex Hensley ’22 plays guitar the night before every football game, Whitney Maxfield ’25 likes to “listen to pump up music and boogie” before swim meets and Desmon Holton ’25 listens to the same game-day playlist and tells himself to “look good, feel good, play good,” before each football game.

There are many other athletes who do not have rituals they perform. The majority of the cross country team had no spiritual practices to note. The effect of these rituals can be debated and the lack of uniform practice among athletes speaks to their personal, non-universal benefits. 

The benefit of these rituals is to get in the right headspace. That can be done by distracting yourself from the task ahead, assigning yourself a good luck charm, motivating yourself or just putting yourself in a positive mindset. As long as your ritual helps you do your best, that is all that matters.

Illustration by Zach Reinker