2008 Woodie Awards
The strange and disturbing rituals of Hopkins sports teams
Out of Left Field
Issue date: 5/1/08
Even the top athletes at Hopkins aren't beyond performing a few superstitious acts before they play. Nationally ranked sophomore tennis player Dave Maldow has a very precise routine that he follows before and during each match.
"In between sets, I'll go towel off in the corner," he said. "Before a point, if I'm serving, I have a ritual of bouncing the ball five times, picking my spot on the court, then tapping my foot on the ground. Also, I listen to certain playlists like Van Halen or Jackson 5 before a match."
These rituals, however, aren't limited to the individual athlete. Several sports teams at Hopkins maintain long traditions in which the entire team participates.
Perhaps some of the oldest (and possibly strangest) traditions come from the generally wild characters of the Hopkins rugby team.
"After every match against another school the host team takes it upon themselves to procure beer for both teams to consume at the home team's rugby barracks," sophomore rugby player Christian Lewis said. "What ensues is a remarkably friendly (if not altogether civil) encounter, during which time both teams sing rugby songs. This is part of an old tradition and culture of friendly rivalry and thoroughly diseased senses of humor."
The team's so-called "diseased sense of humor" gets even sicker among the members of the actual team. Each rugby player, in their first semester on the team, receives a nickname which they will go by for the remainder of their time involved in the sport.
"These are unquestionably offensive or inappropriate, but a rite of passage for any young player," Lewis said. "Humiliating to the outside world in most cases, names such as Gaysian, Pinkd***, Tumor, Tits McGee and Tinkerbell have been given in the past. It further solidifies one's role in the greater social dynamic of this school (or most schools elsewhere) as a rugger."
Sophomore lacrosse attack Brett Bathras said, "We do this thing called 'the pipe game.' At the end of a practice before a game, we all get a ball (including our coaches and our trainers) and we shoot at the cage but aim to hit a pipe. We don't really read into what it means if certain people do or don't hit pipes but it's just something fun that we have to do before every game no matter if we won or lost the previous game."
Sophomore Dante Ross of the Hopkins crew team takes part in a tradition that has gone on for several years, a tradition that could eventually cost him the very shirt off his back.
"Betting shirts is still a thing that all the big-name crew teams do," Ross said. "All the teams have shirts and you go out on a race, whether you're racing head-to-head or with a few other boats, and you decide before the race 'hey, let's bet shirts.' So whoever wins the race gets the shirt off the back of all the other rowers. It's one of our big traditions."
Strange, unhealthy and often disgusting, this is what Hopkins athletes go through to do what they do. The rituals and superstitions off the field may even be as important as their performance on it.
"In between sets, I'll go towel off in the corner," he said. "Before a point, if I'm serving, I have a ritual of bouncing the ball five times, picking my spot on the court, then tapping my foot on the ground. Also, I listen to certain playlists like Van Halen or Jackson 5 before a match."
These rituals, however, aren't limited to the individual athlete. Several sports teams at Hopkins maintain long traditions in which the entire team participates.
Perhaps some of the oldest (and possibly strangest) traditions come from the generally wild characters of the Hopkins rugby team.
"After every match against another school the host team takes it upon themselves to procure beer for both teams to consume at the home team's rugby barracks," sophomore rugby player Christian Lewis said. "What ensues is a remarkably friendly (if not altogether civil) encounter, during which time both teams sing rugby songs. This is part of an old tradition and culture of friendly rivalry and thoroughly diseased senses of humor."
The team's so-called "diseased sense of humor" gets even sicker among the members of the actual team. Each rugby player, in their first semester on the team, receives a nickname which they will go by for the remainder of their time involved in the sport.
"These are unquestionably offensive or inappropriate, but a rite of passage for any young player," Lewis said. "Humiliating to the outside world in most cases, names such as Gaysian, Pinkd***, Tumor, Tits McGee and Tinkerbell have been given in the past. It further solidifies one's role in the greater social dynamic of this school (or most schools elsewhere) as a rugger."
Sophomore lacrosse attack Brett Bathras said, "We do this thing called 'the pipe game.' At the end of a practice before a game, we all get a ball (including our coaches and our trainers) and we shoot at the cage but aim to hit a pipe. We don't really read into what it means if certain people do or don't hit pipes but it's just something fun that we have to do before every game no matter if we won or lost the previous game."
Sophomore Dante Ross of the Hopkins crew team takes part in a tradition that has gone on for several years, a tradition that could eventually cost him the very shirt off his back.
"Betting shirts is still a thing that all the big-name crew teams do," Ross said. "All the teams have shirts and you go out on a race, whether you're racing head-to-head or with a few other boats, and you decide before the race 'hey, let's bet shirts.' So whoever wins the race gets the shirt off the back of all the other rowers. It's one of our big traditions."
Strange, unhealthy and often disgusting, this is what Hopkins athletes go through to do what they do. The rituals and superstitions off the field may even be as important as their performance on it.
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