Inside the pregame sports cathedral

Deep in the shadows of athletics, there is a place so hidden that only those who coach or play know what happens there.

It’s the sports pregame cathedral.

Leading up to game time, the sacred locker room walls house a quiet yet busy blend of preparation and concentration. While each locker room may differ in size, all must provide athletes with a proper atmosphere in which to ready themselves for game day. It must also keep athletes isolated from outside distractions and help them focus on the job ahead.

This is where the term “focus” was derived and while players do so, several partake in rituals of many sorts. This is where some athletes pray, even though they may never attend church, and where others listen to music sometimes with unidentifiable lyrics.

Superstitions also take full command. The undershirt, wristband, headband, even lunch or breakfast. The thought of what needs to be perfect is in full throttle.

Then, there’s the weather. A sports season that goes from hot summer heat to flakes flying about the air. A heavy downpour, or dust-filled air of the dry August grass.

A bus ride to an away contest only seems to worsen the pot of nerves. All conversation is hallow as players simply pass time while biting at the bit deep inside. As the bus pulls into the opposing parking lot, the first real rush of anxiousness flows through the nervous veins. Tension is high. Emotions are wild.

While fans begin to file into the stands, the tamed athletes are concealed behind the closed, steel locker room doors like caged animals. The ticks from the clock on the wall seem to have never ticked slower — or louder. They haven’t eaten all day, yet stomachs are ready to burst with butterflies.
Now, it’s time to depart from the walls that have shadowed these reckless emotions from the outsiders, and there’s no relief in knowing the rest of the team replicates the same feeling. Making the long walk from the locker room to the field, cleats are click-clacking like horse hooves on blacktop.

Players are no longer hidden deep within their cathedral, as the crowd welcomes them with loud cheers, but the noise almost seem muffled by the intensity lingering about the atmosphere. Each squad lines up, and a baritone voice speaks from the announcers booth. A silence falls upon the crowd as the dew on the grass shines underneath the Friday night lights.

The audience is asked to remove their hats as our national anthem stats to play, and a lump sets in the throats of all competitors. The true reality of the task at hand now races through the brain. Heads are held high, uniforms are tight, and cleats are in double knots. A sense of pride runs deep through the blood, because for a brief moment, the Star Spangled Banner puts us all on the same page with American honor standing tall.

It ends with a large roar of the crowd. It’s go-time.

Regulation is begun, and fans are louder than ever. The first contact has been initiated, and the butterflies have magically vanished, and what athletes have practiced and learned all preseason is now crystal clear. This is when you know you’re in the right place, and why sports are the most precision piece of entertainment you’ve ever known.