Spring competition at Stanford brings more than packed schedules and conference rivalries. Across men’s teams, traditions and routines help shape the culture that surrounds competition. For many athletes, those small rituals are just as important as the games themselves.

Those moments often begin long before the first serve or pitch, when teammates gather for pregame routines meant to keep the mood loose and the energy high.

“Before we play, we play a game of football,” said Stanford baseball’s senior third baseman Jimmy Nati. “We’ll have offense and defensive teams, and we have one play that we run, and we do a little skit before it as well. So everyone kind of just stays loose and everything.”

When game time comes around, athletes have many traditions and rituals that create an energy that makes the game more than just a competition.

“Bench energy, what we call ‘benergy,’ is a huge part of the game,” said men’s volleyball redshirt junior outside hitter Alex Rottman. “We played Hawaii my freshman year, and I remember Adam Chang, Chris Kelly, some of these older guys were just penguin-diving across the court. The ref’s like, ‘Get off the court! What are you doing?’ Then we got a talk from our coach, like, we can never do that again. But the benergy was unmatched back then.”

The energy fuels men’s tennis, as well, according to senior Samir Banerjee.

“When we’re getting hype, and we’re really making noise, it definitely influences the crowd, especially when we get a lot of our men out there, they love it. . . we call [Taube Pavilion] the ‘rage cage,’” Banerjee said.

Many athletes hold onto superstitions on gameday, as well.

“Evan [Porter] wears one sock inside out, which is hilarious,” Rottman said.

“My on-deck routine is the same all 400 at-bats,” Nati said. “Every season, I’ll do the same thing on-deck.”

Tennis brings its fair share of superstition as well.

“I never warm up with the racket that I’m going to use for the match,” Banerjee said. “One of my teammates changes his racket between every set.”

Traveling creates opportunities for more traditions, often involving suits, to arise for the Cardinal.

“We all wear suits because, you know, it’s a business trip,” Nati said. “And then when we win on the road, we get to travel back in just the travel gear or the jumpsuits. And then if we lose, we have to travel back in the suits.”

Men’s tennis takes a more humorous approach to business casual.

“We always tell [the freshmen] we travel in suits, but we don’t,” Banjaree said. “The first trip of the year, they’ll show up in a suit, and we’ll all be in sweats or whatever, so it’s pretty funny.”

Across campus, music has become a staple of gameday routines in men’s sports.

“Music is a huge thing on our team. I think music’s like the biggest thing,” Rottman said. “We love jamming out in the locker room. We all kind of love the same music, which is awesome. Theoron, our setter, is a huge reggae guy, so we love reggae music.”

The baseball locker room has exciting music taste, as well.

“Charlie Bates likes to wear these black party glasses while we blast music in the locker room,” Nati said. “And he puts his headphones in, and he just feels around and dances. I think he does it to keep himself loose, but he looks like an idiot; it’s hilarious.”

Sometimes, the small acts of support from teammates and moments of calm are what place athletes into the headspace they need for a great performance.

“Having your teammates supporting you while you’re playing is huge. The matches can get really tough. There can be moments where you’re not playing well, you’re losing, and you need the guys around you to pick you up,” Banjaree said. “That’s kind of what gets guys over the line, you know, knowing that you got five other guys fighting with you, fighting for you, supporting everyone. It’s really a collective effort.”

Brotherhood is a massive part of the environment at Sunken Diamond.

“When you look around on the field, there’s 40 of your brothers out there, there’s no worries, there’s no stress. You’re cracking jokes with each other, just having fun. You’re laughing. You get to be competitive, and you get to have fun,” Nati said. “And I think that’s what inside jokes and the culture does, [it] lets you just get your mind off of stressing about playing well and just go out and play free and enjoy the game.”

At a university that takes pride in decades of athletic excellence, Cardinal traditions run deep. 

“It’s not just you, it’s about the guys who have been on this team much before us. It keeps us connected to them. Keeps us connected to the team. So I think it’s really important,” Banjaree said. “The connections you make with your teammates will last you a lifetime.”