At 3.75 inches tall, the $14 miniature Funko Pop of Lakers basketball legend LeBron James sits on girls basketball player junior Ayah Maaytah’s dresser. To this day, it’s one of her favorite gifts she has received from a teammate.
“He’s one of my favorite players on my favorite team, so it showed how much my teammate knew me,” Maaytah said.
As a part of her final sister gift exchange during her sophomore year girls basketball banquet, she obtained this prized possession from then-freshman Rihanna Jones.
“It helped us grow closer, and it made me more excited to give my gift to my person,” Maaytah said.
The junior is one of many girls on Lady Lancer sports teams who have established such connections through their traditions of gift-giving.
In fact, of the 13 sports comprising girls teams at Sunny Hills, seven participate in such activities.
Although each sport has its own way of doing this, each typically assigns two teammates to prepare gifts for each other on game days; the way the players decide to do the exchange varies for each team.
Some teams do the tradition a little differently and have secret sister gifts — girls tennis, girls water polo and girls basketball follow this format — in which the athletes are unaware of who they’re receiving their gifts from.
The price for each sister gift depends on how the team sets it, but it usually varies from $5-15.
In girls volleyball, for example, junior opposite hitter Rielynn Brimmer said all three divisions — frosh/soph, junior varsity [JV] and varsity — in the program are assigned to each other. Players only bring each other gifts — usually consisting of snacks and one or two drinks — when they have away matches.
“We first get randomly assigned a sister by our coaches, and our sister must be in a different grade and team,” Brimmer said. “Every away game that we have, we always bring a small gift for them.”
Girls volleyball head coach Amanda Donaldson, who started this tradition when she was hired to guide the Lady Lancers in 2015, said she has seen its effectiveness over the years.
“It’s a fun way to make sure people are really bonding in a different sense than just playing volleyball,” Donaldson said. “It’s cool to have a senior wave at someone in the quad, and it makes people feel really involved.”
Cheer organizes the exchanges in its own way.
Cheer team president Aly Chow said cheerleaders are assigned one or more “littles” from the JV or frosh team and the bonding moment occurs only on the day of a big football game, such as this season’s first non-league game against rival Troy High School and the upcoming homecoming game next month.
“We do this so the ‘littles’ have a support system and someone who can guide them, and the ‘bigs’ have a mentoring opportunity,” Chow said. “The three levels do not work together often, so it is a way to get to know others on the team that the girls normally don’t practice with.”
Given that teams such as girls volleyball and girls basketball buy around 10 gifts each season, the practice can prove to be a pricey one.
Girls cheer sets its price limit at from $5-$10, Chow said. Cheer leadership usually recommends small items, such as a bag of chips and a drink.
“It is a good price limit because it does not pressure the girls to spend too much money,” she said.
Girls basketball player Sydney Kim said she thinks the price of snacks should be lower.
“I would like to lower the price and make it $5-10,” Kim said. “The cost of snacks and other things genuinely can’t satisfy a $5-$10 budget because it’s usually multiple snacks in one gift.”
CROSSOVER SISTER GIFTS WITHIN EACH SPORT
Though junior girls soccer player Elly Sweeney said she loves what this tradition does for her team, she hopes that it could be run like girls volleyball.
“I wish that the selection was with other teams [like JV and frosh/soph] as well,” Sweeney said. “I know volleyball does that and mixes up a varsity player with a frosh because it would make the entire program closer.”
And what about sharing some love among girls from different sports?
“I feel that it would be a fun idea to bond with the school athletes, but I feel like it’s more beneficial to exchange with your own team,” Sweeney said.
Kim agrees.
“I feel like secret sister is usually seen as team bonding because the gifts you receive can say a lot about the person, so I wouldn’t personally want my team to collaborate with any other sports team,” she said. “It’s important to me that my team alone bonds because it affects our chemistry in games and practices in general.”
TEAM BONDING
The main reason for sister gifts is to allow teammates a chance to bond with each other, which is something Dance Production teacher Leiana Volen fosters among her girls.
“This is a great way for students to feel connected to the group and have someone they can ask questions to,” Volen said. “Lots of bonding happens between these pairings and the entire group through DP sisters.”
Athletic director Paul Jones has also seen the value of what many of those in girls sports are doing.
“Sister gifts are great; it builds connections, provides mentors and team building,” Jones said. “It is regular for female sports to implement sister gifts so that incoming young ladies on the teams feel a sense of belonging and team unity.”
Despite being the athletic director, he said he does not need to approve this practice and that it is up to the coaches of each team to decide.
LOOKING IN FROM THE OUTSIDE
Some Lady Lancers in other sports that don’t do this are beginning to consider adding it.
“I don’t like the fact that we don’t have sister gifts,” said junior June Nguyen, a swimmer on the SH girls swim team. “I feel like we have less of an opportunity to get to know more people on the team and experience a sense of community.”
No boys sports teams use gifts as a form of bonding.
Sophomore football player Nathan Chang said boys participating in gift giving can prove to female sports teams that guys care about working together as one unit.
“I think it is really beneficial for team bonding because a lot of the teams are just in their own world or hang out with different groups,” Chang said.
Track and field senior Dante Rosete agrees.
“I definitely think it would benefit the bonding experience of the team,” Rosete said. “When I see girls getting random gifts, I wish I could also get one, too, because it’s like getting Christmas early.”
Inspired by the gifts she sees her classmates carrying around at school, cross country runner junior Mia Gonzales said her squad plans to implement it this season.
Gonzales said as a part of her new role as girls team captain this season, she is in charge of team bonding.
“In past years, our team bonding has been organized by the parents [Booster Club], but our new head coach this year wanted captains to be more involved,” she said. “So my co-captain and I thought the sister gifts would be a good way to allow people on the team to get to know people they normally wouldn’t interact with.”
Maaytah said she is excited to continue the tradition this school year when girls basketball season starts and hopes to get to know more people through it.
“By the end of the season, I felt super close with everyone,” she said. “Overall, secret sister is what started the sisterhood with me and my teammates that will continue throughout high school and on.”
