While sufferers of triskaidekaphobia fear the number 13, these five athletes have embraced it.
The panel[/ub_subhead
Nick Spillman (NS): men's baseball
Margarita Sison (MS): women's softball
Liam Fannin (LF): men's field hockey
Laura MacTaggart (LM): women's volleyball
Carson Williams (CW): football
1) Why did you choose jersey number 13?
NS: I wanted to wear number 10 after two of my favourite players, Chipper Jones and Michael Young, but that had already been taken. I don't really know how I landed on 13, definitely not because of A-Rod. I just saw it and thought to myself "hmm, that's not bad,” so I took it.
MS: I ate 13 chicken nuggets and hit a walk off home run in the 13th inning when I was 13 years old. It was a sign.
LF: Brian O'Driscoll, one of the greatest Irish rugby players of all time, wore 13 and he was one of my heros as a kid. That's why I chose the number.
LM: I chose jersey number 13 because it is seemingly unlucky for most people, but I thought I could make it lucky for me. That number got me from small town Alberta to UBC so I guess it worked just fine.
CW: I lost a bet that I could stand in the cattle pen for 30 seconds when I was 10, and I stuck with it.
2) Do you have any lucky charms or superstitions?
NS: Show me one baseball player who isn't superstitious and I'll show you a liar. Come to think of it, I probably should've gone with a different number. Anyways, I have so many superstitions I wouldn't even know where to start. My main lucky charm is this necklace that I got for my second grade communion. I can't remember the last time I took it off.
MS: Clearly I gotta eat 13 nugs before a game so I can pop the chain on my home run trot.
LF: I don't have any charms or superstitions. I just make sure I have a good warm up and feel good before a game.
LM: My superstition is that if you have a bad warm-up, you are for sure gonna have a bad game. My good luck charm is a stuffed dragonberry (the fruit) dressed in a lion costume. My team has seen that one out many times.
CW: I always get dressed in the same order before a game, left side goes on first. But no lucky charms.
3) What's the most unlucky thing that's happened to you?
NS: I had tickets to got see Team Canada versus Team USA at the World Baseball Classic in Toronto in 2009. I had a hockey game on the same day and had it been like any other game, I would have had time to play it and make it to Toronto. I ended up breaking my wrist during my hockey game, which forced me to miss the majority of the Team Canada game.
MS: This one time where I don't get a senior year ‘cause my team got cut ...
LF: I don't really consider myself unlucky. Everything has a cause and an effect.
LM: I would say that it was pretty unlucky when my "mild ankle sprain" turned into three ruptured ligaments and a dislocated tendon. Also when the scar from that surgery got infected twice. Really my left ankle is rather unlucky.
CW: Having a DB actually catch a pass I threw.
4) What is something you are embarrassingly bad at?
NS: Let's just put it this way, I love to sing, but people don't love when I'm singing around them.
MS: Riding my bike through Main Mall. There have been 13 casualties.
LF: I'm pretty tone deaf so my singing is pretty terrible.
LM: I can't twerk. No matter how hard I wish, how it looks in my mind just doesn't translate into results. I'd be so much cooler if I could twerk.
CW: Driving with my eyes closed.
5) What would you like to have 13 of?
NS: I'm pretty broke, so I wouldn't mind having 13 dollars.
MS: I would like to have (at least) 13 more softball seasons at UBC.
LF: I would like to have 13 pounds of chocolate digestive cookies. I love those things.
LM: I want 13 trips to Disneyland. 'Nuff said.
CW: Logs.
Check out the last week's edition of the T-Birds 5-on-5 series: Charismatic Captains.
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