To a college athlete, preparing for each game is not as simple as just flipping a switch the instant the game begins.
Whether they’re a cross country runner or a soccer player, each game or meet they are scheduled for is one that the athlete takes seriously. But readying themselves for that moment of truth –– that moment when the ball is kicked, or the start gun fired, or “play ball!” yelled out by the umpire –– is far more important for these athletes’ games than you may think.
Trey Frierson, senior outfielder on the Union baseball team, finds that maintaining a certain routine helps his focus.
“I’m very superstitious,” Frierson said. “So in the morning, I always want to eat breakfast, get a smoothie, and then I have a certain playlist I listen to. I don’t like to do too much, because then I feel like I’ll get outside of my head. I don’t talk too much on game days, even to my teammates, I just keep to myself. I’ll turn my phone on Do Not Disturb, just to get in the zone.”
Though quite a few players on the team will use the time before games to listen to music and pump each other up, Frierson finds it focuses him more when he does his own thing.
“Sometimes, our team will bring a speaker on the bus, and they’ll listen to the music out loud on the speaker, but I sit in the very back of the bus and look out the window with my earphones in,” Frierson said. “And before each game, I always go down the right field line and I just lay on the ground, and I just stare at the sky. Just flushing out any thoughts that are running through my head and getting ready to play.”
For players like Rylee Iorio, a junior athlete on Union’s soccer team, staying in the zone looks a bit different.
“Usually, we’ll play music –– I have a speaker I’ll bring, and one of the girls has one of those microphones that gives people funny voices, so we’ll make people get up and sing,” Iorio said. “If there’s a locker room, we’ll play music and make people dance and act all silly. We’ll have time where we’re getting energy up and building our adrenaline, and then we get in the mindset of knowing what we’re gonna do and what our gameplan is.”
Soccer is a team sport in which verbal communication is difficult, the players scattered all across the field. It’s crucial that the teammates all have a high level of trust between each other, one that Iorio says comes about through these shared pre-game moments as a team.
“You get to know people pretty well,” Iorio said. “Growing in those moments getting hype together, you learn little things about people that can help you on the field. It gets everyone excited and ready but it also grows relationships with people.”
As for superstitions, Iorio is not a believer.
“I’m actually really against rituals,” Iorio said. “I don’t like when people have a lucky sock or stuff like that. I think each game is different and I think superstitions will cause people to make excuses.”
Some athletes take different approaches altogether when preparing for events. Micah Winn, a freshman cross country runner, described the differences it has from other sports.
“A race is gonna hurt the whole time,” Winn said. “Races are different, than, I think, anything else, in that I want to be hype for the race, but being hype is more staying focused. The night before, I like to visualize the race. Usually, if I can, I’m gonna run the course –– if not, I’m gonna look at a map and study it, just so I can visually see, ‘Oh, at this point, I want to go this pace, or I want to speed it up,’ which helps me in preparing for the race.”
The conditions always change for cross country runners, each new race bringing with it new routes, weather, and obstacles to account for. So, for Winn, moving into the headspace that will allow him to run well no matter the circumstances is his preparation for the race.
“On the bus the day before a race, everyone is just excited, talking, having a good time,” Winn said. “The morning of the race, we’ll go into a bus ride of 10 minutes, and usually everyone is listening to music on their own and is just focused. For like, thirty minutes leading up to the race, I’m not talking, I’m just thinking about what I want to do. A lot of running is just visualizing the race and staying in the zone.”
Despite the variety of ways these athletes prepare for games, all three agreed that the importance lies in each athlete finding a way to enter a headspace preparing them for what’s ahead — a game or meet that will be physically and mentally taxing, but potentially rewarding as well. A game they want to win. And finding a way to ready themselves for that reality boosts their play to the next level.
“I feel like everybody has their own thing,” Frierson said. “Some people, you gotta get them hype. We have some guys on the team that make it a thing that they have energy drinks before the game. There’s another guy on the team, like me, who just kinda only listens to his own music, only does his own thing. I feel like everybody’s different –– I don’t think everybody needs to be the same. It takes whatever you like to play the best you can.”
