When asked in a Collegian interview last year what part of college football he will miss the most, quarterback Anthony Mifsud barely skipped a beat before responding.
His answer did not include two division II playoff berths or a GLIAC championship.
“Time in the locker room with the guys” was Mifsud’s confident response.
This is not an unusual reaction when college athletes reflect upon their careers. The relationship building that occurs in the locker room directly affects the sense of togetherness on the playing field. And it’s those team relationships that last a lifetime, not the minutes played and passes thrown.
Until this past February, the Hillsdale College women’s tennis team, of which I am apart, was in a sense, homeless. We had six outdoor tennis courts, but no place to store equipment or prepare for matches and practices. With the creation of the beautiful new Margot V. Biermann Athletic Center, our wish for a space of our own was granted.
We now have a state-of the art indoor tennis facility and spacious new locker room area, which we graciously share with the women’s track and field team. We have our own lockers to keep our bags and shoes in (so no more lugging three racquets to our 1 p.m. class before practice), and a space to shower and change in private.
These are the perks I thought I would be receiving from our own locker room. In fact, we have received much more. The women’s tennis team has been blessed with what I like to call “the Locker Room Effect.”
The Locker Room Effect is that time of bonding, and other athletes know what I am talking about – the times spent goofing around after practice, catching up on each other’s triumphs and trials across the shower, blasting music before a big competition.
Non-athletes can easily understand this concept too. It’s equivalent to time spent with friends in Simpson, having a laugh in the lobby of Strosacker, or having a spontaneously serious conversation in the dressing room of Sage. They are moments of community.
They are those moments no one plans for, but they are the reason football players arrive to the Sports Complex an hour and a half before practice (besides visiting the training room and suiting up in layers of pads and uniforms). They are the moments of calm and accomplishment while rinsing off in the shower, reminiscing with teammates about practice and exchanging the latest gossip.
That is what it has been for our tennis team. Besides ultimate convenience, we now have a place to lip-sync together, learn more about each other’s difficult classes, and even discuss team issues separate from our coach.
Everyone who has ever been on a team, whether in athletics, a school project, a musical endeavor, etc., knows how important community and camaraderie is to success. So much of this community time is founded in the locker room, day in and day out.
A locker room is much more than a storage space. It is that place of community so vitally important to the success of a team and the memories of a friendship.
