The girls softball team at Amador Valley High School have had traditions to prepare for the games. Senior softball players pass down pre game traditions to the younger athletes.
The mascots of the team have been around for the past 20 years and are a big part of the team. It helps and encourages the girls a lot, the players believe the mascots bring good luck with winning the games.
“We had this monkey mascot named Mojo and basically our coach brought it one day and apparently it helped the 2018 team win NCS, so that was good, they did really bad on the beginning of the season, and then towards the end of the season they started winning all of the games,” said Lauren Tran (24’).
The monkey mascot was a big supporter for the team back in 2018, and in fact, helped the team do better during the season and end up winning NCS. Mojo is a big part of the team, it makes the players look forward to accomplishing more on game days.
“I think it builds a sense of team culture, and it just helps us be more cohesive as a team and it helps us work together because we all have this one thing together that we do as a team, it helps us bond together,” said Lauren.
The traditions help the team to become closer with each other, creating a bond through years of sharing the same experiences and skills. The mascots helped the team with inspiration and support throughout the seasons, helping the team to succeed and achieve more in the fields.
Additionally, things like the celebrations, hanging outside of practices, and cheering for each other starts to create a cohesive team. These small things start to create traditions for the team, setting expectations and understandings for what they expect of each other.
