Issue date: 4/8/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jason Finley [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Adalto Nascimento Sac State's women's tennis players cheer themselves prior to facing off University of Montana on Sunday. [Click to enlarge]

Team chants, team prayers, motivational text messages, teammates greeting each other in different ways; these are just some of the many forms of team rituals that some of Sacramento State's athletics teams practice during their games.

Most of these rituals are motivational and they help the players stay focused during games, while some are just routine or even religious based. The one thing they all have in common is that help earn the magic "W".

For the baseball team, they don't necessarily participate in a specific chant, ritual or have any superstitious habits to practice. Instead, certain players participate in a team prayer before the start of each game.

During the prayer, the players ask God for strength and guidance and they also pray that they can honor God throughout the game and be thankful for the outcome of the game, win or lose. The players who participate in the prayer predominately have a Christian faith.

Junior Josh Powers said that he prays with the team to ask for God's blessings and to give him the glory when playing.

"We play in honor of him (God)," Powers said.

Junior Tim Wheeler said that other teams pray as well, especially when there is a group of players who believe in the same faith.

"It's common among other sports teams to pray," Wheeler said. "There's a group of us who have the same Christian faith and God is the number one reason why we get together and give thanks to God."

Head coach John Smith likes the fact that his players participate in a team prayer, but he does not ever obligate anyone to take part in it.

"I think it's a great thing that they pray before every game," Smith said. "It's not my place however to force any of the guys to take part in the prayer, but I think prayer is a good thing to have."

The women's tennis team have more simple forms of rituals, which mainly consist of chants and shout-outs to other team members during matches.

Before each event, the players would gather in a huddle, put their hands in the center and shout their team cheer. Sometimes the players acknowledge each other by shouting their names and yelling "GO HORNETS!" or "GO SAC!"

"Sometimes when I'm doing well against my opponent, other teammates would cheer me on for encouragement," junior Alieen Tsan said.

The senior players on the team would also send text messages of encouragement to their teammates.

"I would get text messages from the seniors wishing me 'good luck' before each of my matches," sophomore Milica Zivanovic said.

If there is one team where it almost seems like it cannot function without rituals, it is Sac State's softball team.

Between innings, the players would grab onto a short rope with pieces of carved hands attached onto the rope. Each of the hands has a player's name on it symbolizing the concept of the players holding onto something when on a cliff. The idea of "the rope" is to not give up and to persevere throughout the game.

"When everyone is in a huddle (the players), I'll ask them, 'Is everyone holding onto the rope?'" head coach Kathy Strahan said.

Also, every player has her own unique ritual that she would do before and during each game. Freshman shortstop Desiree Beltran has a ritual that she does every time before she bats.

"I say to myself 'she's just a pitcher and I'm the batter', then I wipe my bat," Beltran said.

Beltran said it was a habit that she picked up early on, but ever since she started her ritual, she has done them on a routine basis and it has given her mostly good luck.

One player who has the most rituals is sophomore pitcher Megan Schaefer. After every out, she walks around the bases as a habit. After each inning is over, she wipes off the pitching mound to dust away bad moments from the previous inning.

Schaefer said that all of these rituals that she performs during games actually help stay focused.

"I've always been a very superstitious person," Schaefer said. "The rituals have always benefited me though and they keep my mind in the game."

So if you next see your favorite Hornet sports team chanting, praying or doing something peculiar after every out or inning, just know that habit of theirs can be a big factor to a successful win.


Nick Hunte can be reached at nhunte@statehornet.com

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