Men’s Hockey (Caroline Shaunessy)

Title: Pre-Competition Rituals of the Dartmouth Men’s Hockey Team

General Information about Item:

• Type of Lore: Customary Lore, Verbal Lore, Ritual
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Alex Jasiek
• Date Collected: May 20th, 2019

Informant Data: Alex Jasiek is a senior on the men’s varsity hockey team. He is a forward and one of the team leaders. He is an Econ major and was born in raised in St. Louis, Missouri. His dad worked for the St. Blues allowing him to grow up around hockey. Many of his friends had NHL players for dads, who ended up coaching his teams. He can’t remember when he started playing hockey, but he imagines around 4 or 5 years old. Alex was recruited his junior year to play hockey at Dartmouth and feels the team and sport has played a huge part in his life and Dartmouth career. He has been a part of the team for four years, but does not plan on continuing to play after college.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: Hockey is a team sport that relies heavily on athleticism, but also has a large mental aspect. Games are the main form of competition. Players skate on ice and have to work together to maneuver a puck into the opposing team’s net. The game is extremely physical and requires a level of grit and intensity many other sports do not. This context is meaningful because many of the player often have to calm themselves down before games rather than pump themselves up. There is a fine line player have to fine in order to perform with peak results.
• Social Context: Alex first learned about the pre-competition ritual of the hockey team playing soccer his freshman year. He learned many of the handshakes, games, and timelines from older member of the team, most usually seniors. He also mentioned that many of the players have team have handshakes with other players that they do before they take the ice before competition. While Alex says he has played similar games on other teams, this specific iteration of the game he has only played at Dartmouth. He feels there are different games the team could play in order to get the same effect, but he thinks if players would not decide to just not play it because it keeps people loose and creates good energy for the team.

Item: The specific game the men’s hockey team plays is called “Sewer Ball.” The game involves all the members of the team joining in a circle and trying to keep a soccer ball or football in the air. If the ball hits the ground on your turn to keep it up, the player who let it hit the ground must run a lap around the rink before joining the circle again

Athlete’s Photo: