In the same way that teams warm up their bodies before competition, many Trinity teams have established traditions that mentally prepare, relax, hype and unite the athletes before games. These unique rituals provide an intimate glimpse into the heartbeat of teams and individuals as they prepare for games. Some submissions have been slightly censored to preserve the dignity and privacy of athletes.

Men’s Soccer

Callum Squires: “We watch YouTube videos in the [Bell Center] classroom. Either soccer videos or funny videos just to get us in a good mood. Some players take a shower.”

Women’s Soccer

Kali Dawson: “The team does a clapping routine to “˜Wake Me Up’ by Avicii and prays in the locker room before each game.”

Volleyball

Rebecca Hayes: “We play music and sing, we go into our meeting room and watch dumb, funny videos (JUST DO IT) or music videos. Jade Schoenberger draws LeeRoy eating and or killing the opponent’s mascot and writes a poem about the death of the other team.”

Men’s Basketball

Taylor Kim: “I put my left shoe on before my right shoe. [Unnamed player] takes a poop. Kevin [Owens] does something stupid.”

Kevin Owens: “I do a dance in my underwear, but my shoes are still on.”

Women’s Basketball

Kate Irvin: “Grace Horn was in a vocal class last semester and they had a vocal warmup that goes ‘Tabaketah, tabaketah, hay yee, tada.’ We do it in the locker room before each game. The coaches are standing outside the locker room and they probably think we’re summoning Satan. Then we dance to this weird song about Candy.”

Baseball

Blake Frampton: “I don’t think you’d want to print this”¦”[summary: players bond in what may be an excessively intimate manner]

Holden Nix: “I say a prayer while sitting backwards on the toilet and taking a poop.”

Softball

Leah Rubio: “We all do our hair and makeup on game days. If you look good, you play good. Then we get in a circle, hold hands and pray. We sway and do a chant in Spanish: “˜Vamos, vamos tigres, esta noche, vamos a ganar'” [which means. “let’s go, let’s go Tigers, tonight, we are going to win.”]