This is part of a series of articles about student-athletes’ pre-game rituals. Read them all here.

In this edition of Pre-game rituals, we glance into senior Alex Darby’s matchday and get some advice as well. Darby is a midfielder for Northwood’s U19 soccer (football) team. He is a jackrabbit in midfield, playing with a ton of energy and being a scrappy, hardworking player.

He began by sharing his must-dos on matchday: “Besides getting good sleep, rolling out, and eating 3 hours before kickoff, I have a few essential parts of my pre-game routine. I do like a good banana on matchday, it carries a lot of potassium, which is obviously good.”

Beyond the realm of nutrition and stretching, Alex had some particularly interesting parts of his routine. “I am not really a fan of listening to music before games; instead, I socialize as much as I can; it gets me out of my own head.” He then went on to share something that was super interesting and personal. “Before the game, I always call my dad. He’s always been my hype man since a young age, so for me, calling him gets rid of the nerves.”

Shifting away from his game-day routine, the Englishman thought to share an important piece of advice: “Be proactive. It may sound obvious, but in life, things aren’t going to just fall into place; So, you just have to work hard. Also, you must manage your emotions, in the sense that there will be times where you feel down, and you feel like crying, realize that that’s ok, you just have to find a way to rebound and get after it.”

What drives him the most? “Honestly, it’s the feeling of success afterwards.”