[
HER SPACE] editorial
The Power of Rituals
Before you take your last lap, try leaving something behind for the next class of players
A
t Notre Dame, they say the Hail Mary in the locker room. At
McDonogh (Md.) School, everyone touches a statue of the eagle mascot before they take the field. At Navy, players can bestow their “first salute” as officers to younger teammates. “It’s an honor to go above and beyond just friends and just teammates,”
Midshipman sophomore midfielder Lindsay Rheiner said. “We really have become sisters.” Rheiner gave former teammate Elaina Ponchione her first salute when the latter graduated in 2012. Ponchione also bestowed another Navy tradition upon Rheiner — she passed down her shoulder boards, the gold-trimmed epaulettes midshipmen wear until they graduate. It’s easy to imagine a friend and mentor as an angel on your shoulder, urging you toward greatness, when you are literally wearing a physical reminder of her on your actual shoulder.
There are a lot of beautiful traditions in women’s lacrosse. But it was a football team that got me thinking about the power that these rituals can have. Yahoo! Sports produced an excellent piece about the “last lap” of the Harvard football team. After the final practice of the season,
the Crimson seniors take a slow, contemplative lap around the field at beautiful Harvard Stadium. Then they exchange thanks and advice with younger teammates and coaches in the end zone. It’s one of the final moments when just the team is together, with no fans or refs or opponents. And it’s a powerful moment. Here’s the proof: Harvard’s last game of the season is always against Yale. The Bulldogs lead the series 65- 55-8, but the Crimson has won nine of the last 10 and six in a row, setting a team record for consecutive wins against Yale. Want more proof? I asked around the lacrosse world to see if anyone had a last-practice tradition that’s similar to Harvard’s last lap. No one did, although quite a few said, “Maybe we should,” after they saw what the Crimson are doing. I agree with them.
Traditions are a huge part of building a team.
A tradition can be almost anything — an object, a gesture, an event. These things begin as small symbols, and gradually they become part of a team’s DNA.
28 LACROSSE MAGAZINE April 2013>>
Sometimes, a team’s funny habits crop up out of nowhere. A certain song catches everyone’s ear, it gets played during warm-ups and an anthem is born. Or there’s a story of triumph over adversity in your community, and an individual becomes your team’s hero. (Think about how one little girl’s lacrosse fandom inspired an NCAA champion at Northwestern back in 2005, and how that grew into the Friends of Jaclyn organization.)
But in the absence of spontaneous inspiration, I recommend just making something up. Lacrosse is growing so quickly that your program might be too new to have any history to use as a touchstone. The upside of that is that you can start something, for your current team and the future of your program.
A tradition can be almost anything — an object (hair bows, shoelaces), a gesture (a handshake, a word written on your wrist) or an event (a last lap for seniors, standing one-on-one lunch dates between upper- and lower-classmen).
These things begin as small symbols, and gradually they become part of a team’s DNA. To this day, if I hear the song “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems,” I have to suppress the urge to scream out the line, “And a team much stronger than yours,” because it was on my high school team’s mixtape and we always sang that line together. Yeah, we made mixtapes with songs featuring the artist formerly known as P. Diddy. What can I say? It was 1997. At the time, both mixtapes and P. Diddy were cutting edge. Not all traditions stand the test of time with elegance. It’s still an incredibly fun and happy memory, and that’s what really counts.
In fact, what I like best about Harvard’s last lap is it celebrates the last practice, not the last game. Lots of teams have senior days, with banquets, speeches and starting spots for all the graduating players. Game day is amazing for sure. There’s nothing like it. But practice is worth celebrating too. Practice has no audience and no glory. Teams are tested in games but forged in practice. LM
— Clare Lochary
clochary@uslacrosse.org LAXMAGAZINE.COM
Does your team have a tradition that has stood the test of time? Tell us about it at
LaxMagazine.com/Mailbag.
LaxMagazine.com/Mailbag A Publication of US Lacrosse
©JOHN STROHSACKER
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