You are dribbling down the field after receiving a hard pass from the left middle field. You make a move around the last defender, and now it is just you and the goalie. The crowd is going crazy, your teammates are cheering you on, your coach is screaming to shoot now, time slows down, your heart is pounding. Will you score? That depends: are you wearing your lucky cleats?

The world of sports superstitions may or may not be a fantasy, but we will take a look at those at Fort Worth Country Day who claim they are real.

Our first superstitious athlete is the star soccer player and former select player Jinee Hira ‘18. Hira made the Varsity team her freshmen year and often started at center midfield. Her flawless foot skills come from years of practice, but her real trick she says, is that she always wears her lucky cleats and shin guards.

“I always play really well, thanks to my shin guards and cleats,”
Hira said. Perhaps her cleats and shin guards hold more than just sweat.

Katia Khammar ’18, a JV field hockey captain, always double French braids her hair for a game. Not only do the braids keep the hair out of her face, but they are also lucky and kept the team undefeated for the entire season and helped only give up one goal all season.

In addition, both the JV and Varsity field hockey teams make team ribbons for each game. The ribbons usually have the player’s name on one end and her number on the other. Even Coach Chisholm receives a ribbon each game and re-wears the ones from games that the falcons won. On Varsity, the seniors switch off making the ribbons, while all of the JV players take turns tackling the job. Before each counter game, the Varsity field hockey team also has team dinners that rotate between the players’ homes. The ribbons and team dinners are field hockey traditions and help unite the teams, improving their performance.

“We treat the ribbons as good luck charms and have to make new ones for every game,” Margeaux Mallick ’18 said.

Former football player Salman Shah ’18 would put his right sock on before his left sock, never vis versa. Changing the order of his sock system could ruin everything and cause the Falcons to lose. Although Salman did not play football this year, the superstition has stuck with him and made it into his morning routine.