“Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical,” said late baseball hall of famer, Yogi Berra.

Though his math may be a little off, Berra has the right idea.

Everyone knows how important mental preparation is before competing in a sporting event. Before stepping on the basketball court, the baseball diamond, or any other sporting venue, it is critical for an athlete to get their mind right before they can compete at their best.

One Hershey High School athlete knows just how critical the mental game is every time he steps into the rink.

HHS senior Aaron Dobrolsky has been playing ice hockey since he was three years old. Dobrolsky is the starting varsity goalie for the Trojans, and he also plays for his travel team, the Hershey Junior Bears, in the off season.

An hour and 15 minutes before the puck drops, Dobrolsky start his pregame rituals: these consist of listening to the same type of music, doing the same stretches, and even putting his goalie equipment on the same way.

“Every single time I get dressed for hockey, I put my left skate on first, my left pad on first, my left arm into my chest protector first, everything is left first.” Dobrolsky said, “It’s a habit of mine since I was really little and it just stuck ever since.”

Perhaps that pre-performance routine helped earn him the bragging rights of saving 801 goals for his first three seasons as a Trojan and having 0.903 save percentage, according to PennLive.

“All goalies are weird and they all have their own niche.” said Dobrolsky, “Mine’s just doing the same thing.”

But once the music stops and the National Anthem plays, Dobrolsky said it’s game time and time to get “dialed in.”

Dobrolsky said that to get ready to play, he visualizes himself in previous games when he played well and thinks about what he can do to help his teammates out during the game.

“I don’t wanna look like an idiot in front of everyone I see five days a week,” said Dobrolsky when describing how his best games are on Friday nights in front of the student section.

But for the times the puck gets past him, Dobrolsky says he just has to “shake it off. ”

If a goal is scored on him that in his mind he should have saved, he says, “I smack myself, like, ‘get your head in the game!’”

Dobrolsky uses the mental training he’s learned through sports and advises all the athletes at HHS to focus on doing what you know how to do best.  

“Be confident in your abilities…go into a game knowing you can change the outcome,” said Dobrolsky.

One of Dobrolsky’s fellow seniors at HHS knows that same amount of focus and preparation it takes to be a champion athlete, but rather than on the ice, he takes it to the water.

Senior Jake Hedrick caught the diving bug in eighth grade and hasn’t stopped since. Hedrick dives for the Hershey Boys Swimming and Diving team and the Soaring Eagles Dive Club located in the Harrisburg area.  

Last year alone, Hedrick was the Mid Penn Conference champion, the District III champion, second in the state of Pennsylvania, and ranked 18th nationally for Boy’s High School Diving.

But all of these titles didn’t come easily; Hedrick has a method to all of his winning madness. He says he tries to mentally envision his dives before he steps on the board.

“You wanna see yourself doing the perfect dive,” he said.

In his case, his perfect dive is a front two and a half with a full twist.

But for the days that he does get a low score from the judges or doesn’t perfect his dive list, Hedrick tries to move past it and look at the next dive.

“It happens a lot actually,” said Hedrick. “It’s hard to do a meet without messing up one dive.”

He said that when he does mess up a dive he tries to forget about it because sometimes it doesn’t affect his score.

“I try to take each dive one by one,” said Hedrick.

But before diving season starts, fall sports are in action and one underclassmen is making her mark on the field hockey field.

Only two and a half months into her freshman field hockey season, Maddie Zimmer has had seven goals and eight assists to her name, making her tied for the third leading scorer on the varsity team,according to Pennlive. Zimmer is a forward and midfielder for the field hockey team. She has been playing field hockey since first grade and plays travel in the off-season for the Alley Cats Field Hockey Club.

But before Zimmer takes the field, there’s a lot of game prep that goes into her being her best. Zimmer’s pre-game warmup includes eating pasta the night before, drinking plenty of water and getting a good night’s sleep. When game day rolls around, Zimmer adds stretching and getting her back cracked by a teammate to her pre-game routine.

But her mental preparation is a different story.

“Sometimes before a big game, my dad and I will watch the movie Miracle and we’ll quote it together,” said Zimmer. 

Her favorite quote is by Herb Brooks, “The legs feed the wolves, gentlemen.”

She also describes how her parents are a big part of her athletic success. Her parents really help get her focused and ready to play. But the days when Zimmer doesn’t perform well, she said she talks to her parents and tries to work to improve what she messed up. She also finds inspiration from her club coaches when they come to watch her play for the Trojans.

Along with Zimmer, another lady Trojan is making her mark on HHS being the first ever HHS female athlete of the month.

Since 7th grade, HHS junior Andie Demko has been running circles around her opponents both on the track and on the cross country course.

Demko is the top runner for the Hershey girls cross country team, finishing with a personal record of 18:29 for the 5k event and 10:59 for the two mile.

In addition to cross country, Demko runs track for both the high school and for her club team, the Hershey Blaze. However, she prefers cross country, which she hopes to pursue in college.

“It’s definitely a humbling experience,” said Demko. “It’s so painful!”

Being ranked 23rd in the state, she has found a way to move past the pain to achieve her goals. Demko has a multitude of tricks up her sleeve to help her get mentally focused before every meet. The morning of her races, she starts with the most important meal of a the day; her competition day breakfast which includes an omelet, toast and a cup of coffee.

But once two o’clock rolls around, the race is about to begin and it’s time for Demko to lose the nerves and get focused.

“I try not to psych myself out,” said Demko. “I have to tell myself ‘run your own race.’”

She said  nerves are natural in a race, though she does try to get all of the nerves out of her head before she’s at the starting line.

Demko knows what she’s capable of and goes into the race with confidence, even if sometimes the outcome isn’t what she was hoping for.

“Even if I have a bad day, it’ll make make me a stronger runner,” she said when describing how she refocuses herself when she doesn’t get her best times. “I try to tell myself that ‘that one race doesn’t define me: use the negative energy and work hard for the next race.”

She admits that it’s hard to pick yourself back up in the moment, but fortunately Demko has several influential coaches and teammates that help her when she doesn’t feel motivated.

Her coaches and teammates are who inspire her to reach her goals.

“We always say ‘run for each other,’” said Demko.

A goal the team had for this season was to make it to States together, unfortunately their goal fell short after their 8-0 record was broken during districts. But Demko, along with four other teammates will be representing the Trojan runners in the state competition

With these four superstar athletes, sports are bigger than just a game. It’s bigger than a few simple stretches or a warm-up lap before the athletes take the field. It’s about going into a competition with confidence and focus. It’s about taking pride in what they do and the steps they took to get there.