Lou Walker is Syracuse swimming and diving. The head coach has been in charge for 34 seasons.

And over those three-plus decades, Walker has never resorted to superstitions, something that is commonly practiced in the pool. And despite whatever situation the program may be in (the team is in its second-to-last year of existence), Walker isn’t planning on starting any time soon.

‘To me it’s about what you do in the pool,’ he said. ‘That’s where the excitement is, that’s where the focus should be.’

Walker expects his team to rely on what it has been practicing all season instead of getting bogged down by mental games or rituals. With Big East competition less than two weeks away, he feels that a straightforward approach is what will help the swimmers do well.

During his four years as a swimmer at SU, Walker’s only concern at meets was beating his opponents. His ability not to get sidetracked has translated to his current team’s performance in the pool this year. But swimmers are still swimmers, and some will always practice their superstitions.

Before each meet, senior diver Kirsten Thomas listens to ‘Hands Up’ by Lloyd Banks to pump her up and to remind her to keep her hands up. She goes through the same keywords each time she does a dive. She has to step on the board the same way and have the fulcrum in the exact same spot every time. Most importantly, between dives she always uses her Sammy, a diver’s towel, to dry off.

‘I’m obsessive compulsive about using (my Sammy),’ Thomas said. ‘I have to be a certain dryness, but not too dry. I need to be able to stick my hands to my legs. You don’t want to slip out of it. If you’re too wet your hands will slip off, and if you’re too dry they’ll slip off, too, so you need that right amount of moisture combination on your hands and legs.’

For junior Stephanie Lefebure-Kuczynski, she gets into her competition mindset during warm-ups. Once she warms up a certain way the first day of a meet, she has to warm up the same way for the rest of the meet. If she doesn’t do well on the first day, however, she will switch it up to work out the problems.

The goal is mental preparation without unfounded superstitions like putting your right foot into your suit before your left, a pregame ritual Walker has encountered. Nonetheless, many of the athletes do feel more comfortable when they are able to be consistent as they get ready for a meet.

During Winter Break, the team went to Puerto Rico, where Thomas had to dive in the rain. By the end of the trip, she was able to dive without controlling how wet she was. She said that the more an athlete uses something like a Sammy, the more he or she depends on it. Once she’s taken that first step onto the board, and slid the fulcrum into place, however, all she can rely on is the hours of practice she’s put in.

But even with the superstitions his swimmers and divers bombard him with, Walker won’t relent. In his mind, superstitions are pointless. Whatever they may be.

‘If you have an exam coming up, and every time you have an exam, you get up and you drink hazelnut coffee instead of French vanilla,’ Walker said. ‘It’s got nothing to do with the outcome.’

alguggen@syr.edu