The Lady Cards went on a six-game winning streak, which some players think could be fueled by superstitions like praying and throwing away socks.
“We’ve won six games in a row for the first time since any kid on the team was born,” coach Matt Seifers said. “I think that it’s kind of significant.”
The Lady Cards are 7-4, having lost to Ben Davis in the second round of the Marion County Tournament, and have a 2-0 record in conference play.
Their winning streak started when they beat New Palestine 47-45. The Lady Cards then rolled past Bloomington South, Indianapolis Northwest, Avon, Bloomington North and Indianapolis Lutheran.
Seifers, senior shooting guard Desiree Kinney, senior guard Brooke Lightfoot and junior forward Lindsay Freije all have different superstitions that affect their game day mentality.
Seifers believes that superstitions can change a person’s approach to the game. For example, he uses the same Gatorade bottle on game days. He also says that if the girls lose, he then throws away the socks he’s wearing during the game.
“That Gatorade bottle or that lucky pair of socks, or whatever, makes me feel good about what I’m getting ready to do and it gets me into a positive place whether you call it superstitious, or whether you call it habits, or whether you just like to eat the same thing every day before a game,” Seifers said.
Similar to Seifers’ sock superstition, Kinney has started wearing fuzzy socks every game day since they started their winning streak. But, if the team starts to lose, she says she might stop wearing them.
In addition to Kinney’s and Seifers’ sock superstitions, Freije also wears a certain pair of socks under her game socks, and before every game, Freije and a couple of teammates pray. Freije says that sometimes superstitions can help the way people get into the game mentally, but that people could worry too much depending on what their superstition is.
To top it off, Lightfoot’s superstition is that if she goes to a certain restaurant before a game and they lose, then she won’t go to that restaurant again for the rest of the basketball season. She believes supertitions are about switching things up.
“A lot of people don’t believe in them, but then I don’t know,” Lightfoot said. “I guess it’s just a habit you pick up.”
Superstitions are everywhere in sports, but they could be a factor for this team’s hot streak.