With his basketball uniform on and his laces tied, JV basketball member sophomore Brock Henson stands in front of the locker room mirror and messes his hair all up to make it look crazy. This is something that he has been doing for a year now, before every game, it is his pre-game routine.

“It started last year before one of our freshmen basketball games,” Henson said. “My hair is always kind of all over the place, but before a certain game last year it was super bad and my teammates made fun of me for it, but I went out and played the game with crazy hair and I played really well, so now I make sure to mess it up before every game.”

Besides just putting on a uniform and fixing hair, some athletes have to also prepare all of their equipment and stretch to loosen their muscles.

“The night before a race, I wax my skis and then right before I race, I do stretches and then I’ll do a few free runs to get my legs ready,” sophomore Ethan Gibson said. “I started doing this because my first run is always my worst run so I try and get my legs ready as much as I can so I can perform my best when it comes time for my actual race.”

Girls varsity basketball team has a ritual they do before any game to help everyone get in the spirit of the game and get them ready to work together as they will need in order to perform well.

“Before we hit the court and before Mrs. Moore comes in the locker room, we sing the riff-off from ‘Pitch Perfect’ to get pumped up,” senior Ellie Reuschlein said. “After that Moore comes in and we have our pregame plan talk and then she leaves and we do two different chants. They both start out quiet and get louder.”

Many athletes have pregame rituals they believe help them loosen up or perform their best when it comes to the real game or meet. These can be silly things or more serious tactics; however, whatever an athlete’s pre-game ritual is, they believe it helps prepare both their mind and body for the game or meet that they’re about to participate in.