Some coaches have lucky habits

High School Sports Some coaches have lucky habits Some coaches have lucky habits By STEVE RUMAN November 13, 2026 7 min read Staff file photo / R. Michael Semple McDonald head coach Dan Williams walks down the sideline during the Blue Devils’ regional quarterfinal playoff game against Warren JFK on Nov. 7, 2025, at McDonald Stadium in McDonald. Trending Tonight, Garrettsville Garfield will travel to Lake County to take on Perry in a Division V, Region 17, semifinal. Both teams enter the game seeking their 12th straight win. At some point today prior to kickoff, Garfield coach Mike Moser is guaranteed to be at a local Burger King, where he'll purchase a cheeseburger for a 12th consecutive week. It's not that Moser is a cheeseburger fanatic. It's just that he isn't about to test fate. Not with a trip to the regional championship game on the line, and especially not on Friday the 13th. Some coaches call them habits. Others will suggest they are simply a part of their routine. Then there are those who willingly acknowledge they are the superstitious type. Whatever they might be, quirky game-day rituals are commonplace among the coaching ranks. For Moser, it has become "routine" to eat a Burger King cheeseburger on game day. He did it back on Aug. 20 when Garfield defeated Warren JFK to open the season. He has had a cheeseburger every Friday since. "It's something different every year, last year it was a burrito," Moser said. "If I eat something on the day of our first game and we win, I'm going to stick with it as long as we keep winning. "I wish it would have been something a little healthier this year. I just happened to grab a cheeseburger the day of our first game and as I'm not about to change things at this point." Moser's superstitious nature doesn't end there. He always has to have a Powerade drink on the sidelines. That Sharpie marker that he had clipped to his shirt on opening night? It was carefully placed on his desk after the game, and he has been mindful to use the same marker for the past 11 weeks. "This goes back to when I was a player and I had to always wear a Hulk Hogan shirt under my pads," Moser said. "It's always weird little things. As if I don't have enough to worry about, but I probably have more superstitious habits than anyone out there." McDonald coach Dan Williams begs to differ. Williams says he might be "the craziest of all area coaches" when it comes to superstitions. From how he dresses throughout the week to what he and his staff orders at area restaurants, decisions are based on the outcome of previous games. "I have a ton, everything I do revolves around superstitions," Williams said. "If we're winning, I'm wearing the same outfit to school every Monday, every Thursday, every Friday as I did the previous week." Williams said that it has become a custom for him and a friend to go out to lunch on Thursdays during the football season. On Fridays, the McDonald coaching staff enjoys a pregame meal at Margherita's Grille in Girard. When the Blue Devils' staff shows up at the restaurant today, there is no need to bring out the menus. Like it or not, every coach is going to order the exact same meal that they ordered a week ago. Williams wouldn't have it any other way. Tonight when the Devils take the field for their game against Springfield, McDonald fans will notice a familiar look to the team's attire. They haven't changed up their color combination in over two years. "I'm the worst with this sort of stuff, and my older staff members want nothing to do with it," Williams said. "They just laugh it off. I try to make them buy into it to amuse me. "Sometimes they'll catch me slipping and call me out during practice or a game just for a laugh, 'Hey coach, we can't do that, we didn't do it last week.'" Girard coach Pat Pearson said that some of his Friday habits are sensible routines, while admitting that others are based purely on superstition. Every Friday morning during football season, Pearson and his sons stop for a breakfast sandwich and coffee. The team's pregame routine "is scripted to a tee," something Pearson says is likely the case for many area coaches. "We have a procedure, a way of doing things, and if it produces positive results, we're not going to change things around," Pearson said. "It's just part of the football operation." Then there are the straight up superstitious habits. Pearson admitted that everything from the meal that he eats to the clothes that he wears are going to remain the same each Friday during a winning streak. "Even as a player, I was the same way," Pearson said. "I had a pregame routine. What I ate, what I listened to, where I sat in the locker room all had to be the same from week to week. "Our players are like that today. They always need to know how long they have before we take the field. They have a routine. They have to listen to the same three or four songs right before they go out on the field." West Branch coach Tim Cooper has perhaps the most unique of all coaching superstitions - he is superstitious about having superstitions. "When I was a player I was so fixated on every little thing having to be perfect," Cooper said. "The right shirt, the right gloves, I had to put on fresh underwear at exactly 6 O'clock sharp. If everything wasn't perfect I was frantic." "So now I change my entire routine every week. This way if something doesn't go right I don't freak out. I don't want to fall into that trap where I start buying into any of it, so I actually purposely make changes from week to week." Cooper acknowledged that at least some members of his staff are a bit more cautious. For instance, Cooper knows that defensive coordinator Shawn Alazaus is going to McDonald's today for lunch, where he'll purchase a Big Mac Meal. It's what he does every Friday, and why break routine when the Warriors have won 67 games since the beginning of the 2021 season? Cooper said that even he may have unknowingly fallen into the trap just once this year. West Branch (10-1) plays tonight at Rocky River (11-0). The Warriors lone defeat this year was a Week 6 24-14 setback to Canfield. "Honestly, I don't know if I have since worn any of the clothes I wore that night," Cooper said. Not all coaches buy into the superstition lore. Springfield coach Adam Slopek said that members of his staff are superstitious when it comes to football, but he simply believes in "God, blocking and tackling." Any gameday routine he follows is no different than his daily habits beyond the football season. "I get up early every Friday to exercise, but I like to do that every day," Slopek said. "One thing I will say is that the early-season games when we're not yet in school are tough for me. I like the routine of going to school and teaching classes, it gives me a chance to get my mind off of football. "I have enough problems trying to figure out how to stop McDonald tonight. I don't need any additional distractions, so I'll leave the superstitions for my staff to worry about." Winners of tonight's games statewide will have the good fortune of advancing to their respective regional title games a week from tonight.