Wake up. T-shirt, shorts. Warmup jacket, pants. Eat cookies. Double check bag. Drive to South. Catch the bus. Put in music. Sleep. Unload the bus. Sleep. Warmup. Spikes, skip the socks, triple knot. Nervous sickness. Race.

Every cross country meet senior Sandis Simchuk ensures that his pre-game rituals, eating cookies, not wearing socks and triple knotting his spikes, are fulfilled.

“I always have cookies before a meet, no matter what time of day,” Simchuk said.

With the cookies, to not only calm Simchuk down, but also mentally prepare and energize him, along with his choice to not wear socks and triple knot his spikes, which add to his comfort level during the race, Simchuk is ready to succeed.

Like many others, Simchuk and junior Natalie Warshaw’s rituals started back in the middle school years when they began cross country. Warshaw has a similar ritual. Before every meet, Warshaw eats a banana, even though she claims she does not like bananas.

Pre-game rituals aren’t strictly a cross country thing though. The exercise of pre-game rituals stretches across all sports. Sophomore Cameron Maxey, a varsity soccer player, is another South athlete that has an interesting pre-game ritual. Before every game, he likes to spray water on himself with a Gatorade water bottle.

“It happened during the summer when I was playing club soccer, and it was really hot, so I’d always dump water on myself,” Maxey said, “Then, the first game we had this year, it was really hot again, so at first I just did it to refresh myself, but now I do it to wake up and get ready for the game.”

Some people may argue that having a ritual like that would have no effect on the person’s overall performance in a game, including teammates. Maxey and many other, may defend their rituals because rituals often offer a sense of relief of the stresses put on athletes mentally, physically or spiritually.

Not all rituals have to be physical actions though. Sophomore varsity gymnast Cosmina Backs has a mental ritual at the start of every meet.

“I always tell myself to pretend that this is the last meet that I could ever compete in, so I try to make it my best,” Backs said.

Where do people draw the line on whether something is a pre-game ritual or a superstition? Many people agree with the idea that a ritual is more of an action that has beneficial effects, while superstitions are more of an action that has no logical reason or effects, it’s simply a routine created by the individual that they rely on for good luck.

Senior varsity football player Trent Flagler has a superstition before every game. Since freshman year, the night before every football game he hangs everything in his locker a certain way. Even he admits that it probably has zero effect on his playing.

“[I do it because] I feel like it’s bad luck if it’s not [hung up a certain way], even if I’m proven wrong,  I still do it,” Flagler said.

No matter how understandable or ridiculous an athlete’s ritual or superstition is though, it makes the person feel better and more confident the day of a game.

“Routine becomes comfortable, and it’s not good when you aren’t comfortable,” Simchuk said.