Superstition in sports is not out of the ordinary. And no matter how hard you try not to be superstitious, when it comes to sports, you are.

Last Thursday, I sat in the top row of the Pelham Civic Complex as Pelham took the first volleyball set against Bob Jones. While I was shooting down on the action for video highlights, Pelham began to lose the second set. I decided, since Kingwood began to slip up when I was shooting the previous week in the AISA final, that I’d stop shooting. Pelham rallied back, but lost the set 32-30 and eventually the match.

As soon as the match was over, I decided it was time for lunch. In addition to a meal, the identical meal I had before the Kingwood title, I decided to add a cookies and creme milkshake. It worked for one title why not put it all on the waistline for the Briarwood title match.

That didn’t help things either. Maybe it was because I was the curse for Briarwood head coach Justin Dee, who I watched struggle match after match against Martin Methodist College when I was there as athletics communications director and he was head coach at Lyon College.

But no matter how many times we think our actions or thoughts have an outside impact on the outcome of the game, they don’t. There are no curses that we can place on a team, player or coach as an outside spectator. As pointed out in recent conversations, such thoughts are arrogant. But they are also part of who we are.

For me, maybe I blame it on being a life-long Cubs fan. But when it comes down to it, the thought of a billy goat curse is silly.

Please, someone sneak the smelly thing into the back gate next year! It’s been long enough.

But a lesson can be learned from the 2003 Cubs, or the 1986 Red Sox. A play that happens in Game 6 doesn’t lose Game 7.

Simply put, the thoughts of outside sources, whether it be pressure or curses, has no room in the locker room, sideline or field these next five Friday nights. Focus on every play. It takes the next one to win a title.

Outside the lines is a weekly opinion column.