Category Archives: athletics

Student-Athlete Guide: Superstitions

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Superstition, Noun- a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event, or a practice based on such a belief.  You wanna see superstitions in action all you have to do is walk into any locker-room before a game and simply observe. These observations will reveal that some players have a routine that brings them comfort and others that boarder the line of insanity.

I border the line of insanity.

In my defense I think I get my superstitious habits from my mother. Stuff like that is hereditary right? I believe that there is nothing wrong with having superstitions when it comes to sports. I feel that it helps focus you into the game and finding a routine that gets you ready to play. I can tell you at exactly what time a player will be doing something on our team. Whether it is eating a certain food, talking to a certain person, or stretching in a different location, it is very easy to pick up on other teammates habits.

I am not going to explain all my superstitions to you because I would like to remain as a sane person in your eyes but when it comes to my superstitions I like to incorporate other people. I play soccer with one teammate, have a bite to eat with another one, and have handshakes with about half my team. But the thing about incorporating someone else into your routine is that it builds a sense of trust. I find comfort in my routine I also find comfort in regards to being around the person I do that routine with. If you are comfortable with someone that builds trust and trust in someone translates out into a game situation.

It’s when people get so obsessed with completing their routine is when things can get out of hand, and it can hinder your performance. For example let’s say your bus is running late to get you to an away game, which causes your pregame warm-up to be sped up. Are you going to be the type of player that lets the chaos of not being able to do your routine get to you, to the point of that’s all you think about during the game. Or are you going to be the type of player to adapt to the chaos and shift you’re routine to make things work.

I know of some coaches who are well aware of how a routine brings their players comfort. But in life and especially in sports you can never except to always be comfortable… that’s too boring. So these coaches will sometimes purposely mess up a game day routine to make their players adapt and learn how to deal with chaos.

That’s all sports is, is controlled chaos. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that athletes look to build a routine that becomes superstitions to find that sense of comfort. However there needs to be a give and take relationship with those superstitions.

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Members of the 2013 Oswego State Women’s Ice Hockey Team participate in a soccer pregame tradition. The same tradition continues today in 2015.

Student Athlete Guide: Hold The Rope

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Considering this is my senior year of collegiate athletics and ultimately last year of a true competitive sports season, now more than ever do I want to win. I get it, “winning isn’t everything,” but try saying that to any senior athlete and see what their response might be.  Everyone wants to go out with a bang in their final season, why would you want to settle for anything less?

Here is an example, I am sure we all at one point in our lives have been put in the position of missing the season finale of one of your favorite TV shows.  Something came up where you are unable to watch the show live. So what do you do? You shut off your phone, you avoid any public areas and social media, and you are  so high strung that you would curse out anyone who even slightly mentions what happened in the show (guilty). Why do we do that? Why do we go through such measures to make sure our show isn’t spoiled? It’s because we dedicated and invested our heart and souls into an entertainment program and we want to be in control to see what happens and don’t want anyone else to ruin it.

The same concept goes for sports.

One of our captains on our team came up to me and showed me an article that she wanted to read for our team. As I read over it, I was blown away by the message that it portrayed. The theme was quite simple, all you have to do is hold the rope. How many teammates when you look around the room would you trust to pull you up from a cliff that would lead to your death. How many of those teammates would be willing to let the rope burn their hands and blood drip just to save you?

It is a powerful concept, and when we read it to our team it was clear that not everyone trusted one another to hold the rope for them. However that trust throughout our team has been building during our preseason and people are starting to buy into the concept of exceeding expectations.

Throughout my career whenever I came up short in making it to the big dance, I was extremely upset and disappointed but I always knew that there would be a “next time.” It’s been three years of me saying “we will get it next time,” but now there is no next time. No do overs. No shoulda coulda woulda. There is only right here, right now.

So when it comes down to winning it’s all pretty black and white. All you have to do is answer this one question. Will you hold the rope?

 

Student Athlete Guide: When It’s Over

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They say all good things must come to an end, but that is the last thing any athlete ever wants to hear. However every year all student-athletes have to deal with the closure  of their seasons and finish that chapter of their athletic career. No matter how well you team did or did not preform there are always some mixed emotions about a season coming to an end. As off season begins athletes often find themselves as deer in the headlights. The reason I say this is because between all the practices, games, workouts, and school work that needs to be done rarely do you ever have any free time. When season ends, so does the routine you built and all of a sudden you have all this time on your hands that you don’t know how to occupy.

Don’t get me wrong having free time to yourself is an amazing thing but you need to remember that as a student-athlete you still have a job to do for not only your school but also your team and that is being prepared when season rolls around next year. So when that last buzzer goes off, here are three things to remember when you begin your off-season.

1) Take Time Off

When your season ends do yourself and your body a favor and take some time off. By the time season is over you are so mentally and physically drained that it is all going to catch up with you and you will feel completely exhausted. This is the time where you can eat all the ice cream your heart desires, see how many Netflix episodes you can watch in one night, sleep till noon, and just be lazy.

You will notice that some of your teammates might take a different approach and immediately jump back into training mode. That could be their way of dealing with their end of season depression but by taking time off you give yourself the opportunity to regroup. You can sit back and evaluate your own personal experience of your season. Think about the pros and cons and what you want to get better at for next year. After figuring all of this out you can set new goals for yourself that you will benefit from.

2) Find A Hobby

When season ends new door opens for you to follow your other passions and you have the chance to participate in clubs and organizations on campus. Find what you are interested in and go after it. It is crazy how many people I know that have benefited from finding a hobby in their off season. From landing an awesome internship, to kicking butt in intramural sports, to getting involved in the community, the opportunities are endless.

A teammate of mine loves music and in the off season she taught herself how to mix music together. Now she is our team’s resident DJ and has landed some job opportunities out of it. She did all of this by finding a hobby she enjoyed. If you are having trouble trying to figure out what to do grab your teammates and start an intramural team, do a fundraiser or simply just hang out.

*Our warm-up mix this year made by our resident DJ Jayme “Jay-Birdy” McCreary. Give it a listen and check out her other mixes*

https://soundcloud.com/jaymccrey/oswego-state-hockey-warm-up-2014-2015

3) Get Back To Work

Once you have regroup and took some well deserved time off, it is time to get back to work. A student-athlete’s job is never done and championships are won in the off season. Like I said earlier make goals for yourself and set your standards high to achieve those goals. Even if you only have time for just a 30 minute workout you still striving to get better. Push yourself physically in the off-season and the results will come.

So grab a teammate and get after it! You only have 4 years in your athletic career so make the most of it and leave no regrets when it comes to doing what it takes to be successful.

The Women's Ice Hockey Team Celebrates Their Senior Day

The Women’s Ice Hockey Team Celebrates Their Senior Day

Student Athlete Guide: Tis the Season

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"It's A Great Day To Be A Laker"

“It’s A Great Day To Be A Laker”

Twas the night before season and all through the dorms the athletes are anxiously waiting to get out there and and preform…

Fall, spring or winter, there has always been much debate over what season has it best for its athletes. However in reality each season has its pros and cons. Especially if you are a multi-sport athlete, depending on when your seasons fall they could overlap with one another causing you to miss out on part of your other sport.  Below is a rough schedule guide of what to expect depending on what season you play in.

 

Fall Sports:

Field Hockey
Men’s Cross Country
Men’s Golf
Men’s Soccer
Women’s Cross Country
Women’s Soccer
Women’s Tennis
Volleyball

The Fall sports season officially start in mid-August and will go to early November (depending on if your team is eligible for playoffs). Most fall sport athletes  arrive on campus earlier than the other students in order to complete preseason. What this means is that there will be about a week or so period where it will just be your team and the other fall sports teams on campus. The pro side to playing a sport in the fall is that you get to arrive on campus earlier and get the hang of the whole college atmosphere before the other students arrive. The con side to participating in a fall sport is that your summer is cut shorter than everybody else.

Along with preseason and season, some fall sports will participate in “Spring Ball” where they will compete in some scrimmages.

Winter Sports:

Men’s Basketball
Men’s Ice Hockey
Men’s Indoor Track & Field
Men’s Swimming and Diving
Women’s Basketball
Women’s Ice Hockey
Women’s Indoor Track & Field
Women’s Swimming and Diving
Wrestling

The Winter sports season officially starts in October and can go all the way through mid March (depending on if team is eligible for playoffs). Depending on your winter sport, preseason/captains practices could begin as soon as you step onto campus. Also all winter sport athletes come back for “Winter Intersession” that takes place over winter break for all students. Winter break last from early December to late January, however due to intersession all winter athletes will have only about two to three weeks of that break off before arriving back on to campus to continue their season.

Although winter sports have their winter break cut short, winter session allows students to enroll in winter classes to get ahead in credits. The cool thing about coming back for “Winter Intersession” is that all you have to focus on is your sport, you don’t have to worry about classes unless you are taking an online course.

Spring Sports:

Baseball
Men’s Lacrosse
Men’s Outdoor Track & Field
Men’s Tennis
Softball
Women’s Lacrosse
Women’s Outdoor Track & Field

The Spring sport season officially starts in early February and goes until late April (depending on if your team is eligible for playoffs). For Spring break most of the spring sports will go to training down south, so although you sacrifice your spring break you still get to go somewhere relatively warm and play your sport. Since SUNY Oswego its know for its snow-apocalypse winters a lot of the times games will get cancelled and postponed due to the weather. So keeping that in mind, rescheduling of games can cause you to play up to three to four games a week, so keeping on top of school work is crucial.

Depending on your spring sport, your preseason will be held in the fall and you will participate in “Fall Ball.”

 

Ice Effects Interview with Brittany Hoffmann

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When I was told that the Oswego State Ice Effects team went to Nationals this year, my first reaction was apparently on-point with the rest of the student bodies’: “What team is that?”

“Most people have no idea that we have a skating team,” said Hoffmann, as I let out a collective sigh of relief knowing that I wasn’t alone on the subject. “You and probably everyone else in this room.”

The thing is, even though I had no idea about anything related to skating or the Ice Effects team, I walked away from this interview thoroughly impressed with everything that I had heard. Read on to learn more about Brittany, the Ice Effects team and the Disney Program here at SUNY Oswego… Continue reading →

Lacrosse Season Has Arrived!

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To any new students, seniors, and anyone in between, lacrosse season has begun in Oswego! Saturday at 1:00 our men’s lacrosse team will kick off their year with an away game at SUNYIT. I figured I’d give a little break down of the situation.

SUNYIT just got a men’s lacrosse program last year (Title IX Restriction) in which they only managed to come away with one win. They’ve started this season 0-2 and have been outscored  41 – 4 in those two games. This should be a soft ball for the Lakers. As a lacrosse fan and former player, I can’t help but feel sorry for those guys; it isn’t easy getting a program started from scratch. Best of luck to them.

Oswego is looking to find the same spark that they had at the start of last season which saw them win 9 in a row, a feat never before accomplished in program history. Chris Porten, Casey Balzer, and Josh Roetzer are hoping to lead this years squad to the same booming start as they did last year. Although, losing 6 of the last 7 games was a hard pill to swallow. Fortunately for the Lakers, their top 4 scorers are all back and will be back for a few more years. Coach Ryan Martin has recruited a solid sqaud of young players who should mature in the next few years of his young coaching campaign.

This author was a benchwarmer on the Lakers’ squad once upon a time, and I wish them all the best. Only two of the names on the roster are familiar to me– I’m starting to feel pretty old. Also, their schedule is changing somewhat drastically with unconventional out-of-conference opponents, such as Adrian, Elmira, Misericordia, SUNY Canton, and SUNYIT. SUNYIT and SUNY Canton just began formal lacrosse programs in the past 2 years while Adrian is in its 6th year as a D III contributor.

Weather permitting, the Lakers will have their home opener on Saturday March 9th at 11:00 AM against Adrian in front of Laker hall. Go State!