The Ball

Title: The Ball

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Gabby Billing was born in Corcoran, Minnesota on October 18, 1999. Gabby was adopted by her parents when she was a baby. She grew up in Minnesota with her parents and older brother. Gabby is a sophomore at Dartmouth College and plays on the Women’s Ice Hockey Team.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Many sports teams have rituals and superstitions. These rituals can be performed by all the players at once or by small groups of teammates. Many of the Dartmouth Women’s Ice Hockey rituals are traditions that have been passed down by the players before them. While the team has many on and off-ice traditions, this material item is possessed by an individual but is one of the traditions that is performed by every team member in the same situation.
Social Context: This item is performed in the locker room, prior to off-ice warm ups. After the coaches come in to have a pre-game speech, the players all stay seated at their stalls, in the locker room. It was bequeathed to Gabby from a player that graduated in 2019. This ritual has been performed for decades.

Item:

Gabby was bequeathed a small soccer ball (pictured below). This ritual is a tradition where everyone sits in their stalls and the small ball gets passed around the locker room clockwise. When the player gets the ball they say a few goals that they have for themselves to achieve during the game. An example would be “I am going to play confidently and shoot to score.” Gabby starts this ritual before off-ice warm up before every game and hands it to her left until it goes around the whole team. The ball cannot touch the ground or it is said to be bad luck for the team during the game.

Transcript:

“After every pregame meeting, we sit in our respective stalls in the locker room and pass around a mini soccer ball. When you get the ball you say a couple things that you are going to focus on throughout the game and then pass it on to the next person (making sure it does NOT touch the ground). This ritual helps us dial in before off ice warm-ups and helps us make sure we are holding ourselves accountable to have a good game.”

Informant’s Comments:

Collector’s Comments:

This tradition is very important to the team because it allows us to have a goal in mind for ourselves. These goals prepare each player mentally and allow us to hold our teammates accountable to their goals.This tradition also varies based on the game, whether we play an ivy league team, and this make for an even more fun and interesting way to express our own individual goals.

Collector’s name: Bailee Brekke

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive