@michaeltobass[/author_info] [/author]
EWING – When imagining TCNJ’s field hockey team, an image of girls bonding over rap is not a picture that immediately comes to mind. When not running on the field and practicing for hours on end in their quest to repeat as NCAA Division III Champions, the girls can often be found bonding with each other in much the same ways that any other college students would – by simply hanging out and enjoying life together.
Before each and every game, the girls make sure go come together and spend time as a unit, whether that means affirming each other before a game, or simply blasting the lyrics of Fetty Wap.
“We’re open to always doing very similar things before every single game, and a team bonding activity before each game,” said team captain Alicia Wagner.
These team bonding activities vary with each game, but the importance of these rituals is never diminished or overlooked.
The coaching staff could not be more supportive of the traditions that the team conducts before each and every game.
“That’s their thing, we never interfere with that at all, that’s their private time where they figure out how to motivate each other and add something very special to the group,” admitted Head Coach Sharon Pfluger.
These pregame rituals, known by the players as “the psych,” have been around for as long as Coach Pfluger can remember.
“Well, I will tell you there are have been pregame rituals forever since I’ve been coaching here, even when I was a player here,” Pfluger said. “Someone before each game has something that’s called ‘the psych.’”
Although ‘the psych’ can take on many forms, its most important function is to allow the girls to motivate each other before their games. During this time, the players are split up into groups of two and three. There, they have the freedom to do anything, from reciting poems, to showing videos, to simply listening to music.
These pregame rituals can breed unity and cohesion within the team, though that team unity is not limited to pregame rituals or playing time on the field. Instead, the players find that being friends off the field further unifies them as a team.
“I think what makes this squad so special is that we are a really close knit of girls, and we are all really close girls off the field,” said senior Captain Mikayla Cimilluca. “It makes everything we do and everything we accomplish on the field that much better because we’re all so close.”
The rituals that the players take part in on game day are not without their fair levels of superstition.
“I think a lot of us are pretty superstitious in certain things,” conceded Cimilluca. “I know a lot of us like to eat the same things before games, wear the same things before games, socks, headbands, hair tie, everything, ribbons, we just do a lot of team bonding before games.”
One of the more memorable pregame rituals which helps to unite and motivate the players is what Coach Pfluger identified as ‘yarnball’.
“Team bonding is great, like the yarnball, where I say something about another player and then they pass it on and then at the end you have this yarn that connects everybody,” Pfluger said. “That’s always a great one.”
In their quest for their second-straight NCAA title, practice and hard work are vital components that will be necessary for success. But make no mistake, if you ask any player on the squad, they will tell you that team bonding and unity is also of utmost importance in building a strong and unified team.
Whether the girls are tirelessly completing drills, or sitting back and reciting rhymes from Fetty, it is the team’s unity that will continue to lead the Lions for the rest of the season, and likely for many years to come.