Amanda Peter

Gearing up for her Lake Forest Scouts hockey game, senior Amanda Peter doesn’t step out onto the ice without fulfilling her strict pregame process.

“I always have to eat 12 pistachios. I don’t know why 12. I always keep some in my backpack just in case I have something going on. So exactly 12,” said Peter. “Also… I always put on my right skate then my left skate, then my right pad and my left pad. Always right before left.”

Favoring her right has always been a superstition Peter has had since she started playing hockey more than 10 years ago. It started as an unconscious decision to start with her right but soon turned into a priority. Pregame snacking, on the other hand, came around three years ago, when she connected eating the nuts to a strong performance.

“I don’t like to eat a lot before I work out, so I just ate a couple pistachios [one time] and thought, ‘Wow, this really helped! It made me play so well today,’” explained Peter.

Knowing that these actions don’t necessarily have an effect on her hockey performance, they do give her a feeling of confidence and comfort.

“I feel like if I don’t do it, something is just not right,” she said. “If I’m not at the top [of my game], if something can go wrong, then it will go wrong [if I don’t do them].”