People might say that we are crazy, that we have issues or that we are the weirdest people ever, but this is the way we work.

I believe that every athlete has their superstitions that truly matter to them. Whether they have a pair of lucky socks, a specific headband or even the order in which they get dressed for a game, they have to follow and do everything in a specific way.

Here’s the thing with superstitions; you are NEVER allowed to talk about them with anyone while you are winning multiple games because then after you talk about it, you end up losing the next game. You may think I’m crazy, but every time I’ve talked about it or if someone else brought it up, something went wrong and we lost. You are also NEVER allowed to break them. If you win one game and that day you ate a bag of chips, the day of the next game you better eat the same chips.

Personally, I know that I have my own superstitions and yes they are pretty crazy. I’ve never really talked about them, but I’ve realized that now I can say them since my high school athletic career is officially over.

It all started my freshmen year when I had started softball. I was the only freshmen, so if something went wrong, it was always my fault. We won our first game and then after that we had continued winning. Every game day I would go to the cafeteria and eat an apple and drink a soda from the vending machine, honestly that was the only time I would go into the lunchroom. However, things got much worse from that moment on.

(I’m so weird like this makes me laugh because people think I’m actually normal)

This year during the basketball season, I did some very odd things. I would wear mid-calf Nike socks and then I would put Nike ankle socks over them and I would wear them every game day. I would also wear my moccasins every day, they actually ripped which made me very sad, but that’s life. During the school day, I would always go to Burns’s room during lunch with everyone else from the team. If I stopped by a teacher’s room on a game day and then we won that game, then the next game I would be stopping by that teacher’s room and EVERY game day after that. I’m positive that I annoyed them, but I know they enjoy my witty and sarcastic comments when I walk in their classrooms.

I have a collection of headbands, I actually have way too many. However, during a basketball game I would tie my headband between my chair and my bench buddy’s chair and we all had to sit in the same seats every game. And along with the headband I would tie my warm up shirt to the chair as well.

There was one basketball season that I would carry a completed puzzled that the whole team had completed together that we had framed. I carried it with me to every state game that season and it sat in my seat. And I was the only person who was allowed to carry it or even hold it.

This year for both basketball and softball I could only listen to a specific playlist that I made on my phone, so yes I listened to the same songs over and over on our way to games. You might not think this is such a bad thing, but the whole season I could not add new songs or delete other songs. However, listening to The Temptations, The Jackson 5, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder and Guns N’ Roses before a game isn’t so bad. Also, yes I did get annoyed from listening to the same songs every bus ride.

What I find to be the worst thing ever, is when you question yourself about whether or not you should follow your superstitions. There were times when I would change sneakers or cleats in the middle of games because I wore one pair the last time we won. Times when I would have to drive back home because I left something and if I didn’t have it with me then the world was literally going to end.