One free app has changed the dynamics of the Women’s Track and Cross Country teams.
This past semester, 12 members of Women’s Track and Cross Country have found themselves devoted to the mobile farming simulation game ‘Hay Day.’ Multiple athletes said they named their neighborhood ‘The Luckiest Girls’ because they are lucky to be able to play Hay Day together and have noticed a stronger team bond because of it.
“We really love this game, and we do put our heart and soul into it,” senior Caroline Graham said. “I wouldn’t say that it’s a distraction, but it’s definitely a good way outside of running to work together and have fun on a day-to-day basis.”
The 12 runners on ‘The Luckiest Girls’ neighborhood are: Graham, freshmen Riley Burgess, Sarina Patel and Kennedy Duralde, sophomores Lacey Reedy, Hannah Bruner, Lizzy Crawford and Graphic Senior Reporter Emma Martinez and juniors Hannah Renager and Ashley Eagan.
Creating the Farm
In Hay Day, the player inherits a farm from their uncle and then has the duty of running the farm, multiple athletes said. This is accomplished by growing different crops, taking care of animals, crafting items and selling products, among other goals.
The official trailer for Hay Day. Senior Caroline Graham said she was the first on the team to start playing it before other teammates started to join her.
The Hay Day craze originally started with Graham, as she said she would often play it on roadtrips, but starting in January, her teammates started to play as well.
“We started playing Hay Day when everything with the Palisades Fire began happening in the middle of January just because we were all really stressed out,” Reedy said. “And Hay Day was a really great way to just relax.”
Eventually, Graham said enough members of the team reached level 18 so they could start a neighborhood together — thus, creating ‘The Luckiest Girls’ neighborhood. Once a week, these neighborhoods will compete against each other in what’s called a ‘Derby.’
The goal of a Derby, multiple athletes said, is to complete the most tasks and earn the most points compared to the other neighborhoods you’re competing with. As neighborhoods compete in Derby’s, if they perform well enough, they can earn their way into more competitive Derby Leagues. Women’s Track and Cross Country are in the highest league — the Champions League.
“It’s almost like we have another sport on the team,” Eagan said. “We’re all encouraging each other to farm and work on our Derby tasks and stuff like that, and it has genuinely created a sport-like mindset [and] atmosphere.”
In order to incentivize each other to put their all into the game, Graham said Martinez bought a shirt with each of the farmers’ faces on it that said the words ‘Luckiest Girls’ at the top of it. Each week, each farmer votes through a Google form who they think has contributed the most to their farm.
Whoever earns the most votes is named ‘Farmer of the Week’ and gets to keep the shirt until next week.
“It’s based on a lot of factors,” Reedy said. “Have you been actively participating in the Derby? Have you been encouraging other people to participate? Have you been helping your other fellow farmers and attitude — even though you’ve had classes and exams, you’ve still been making time to farm.”
Uniting Over Hay Day
The biggest positive the members of ‘The Luckiest Girls’ neighborhood said they’ve noticed from Hay Day is there is a stronger camaraderie with the team than from the previous semester. Their Hay Day farms have created a way for the team to come together outside of their sport and help form friendships that didn’t exist previously.
One area specifically Reedy said Hay Day has helped the chemistry of the team is with helping freshmen feel more comfortable.
“It’s very easy for the freshmen on the team to get a little bit quiet because they’re nervous around the upperclassmen,” Reedy said. “But we’ve really had our freshmen step up and become more outspoken and joke around with us more because we have the common ground of Hay Day and joking about our farm.”
For Track and Cross Country, Graham said they both require a lot of self-discipline because they can feel lonely and individual.
It is here where multiple athletes said Hay Day has contributed to the team because despite the difficulties that come with their sport, they know their teammates have their back and want them to succeed.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning and be excited to go to practice because it can feel really redundant and like you’re just going through the motions,” Graham said. “So having a strong team culture is really important because it gives you something to look forward to every day.”
Another positive from Hay Day is Graham said when her and her teammates have a moment to themselves: rather than checking social media, they find themselves checking Hay Day instead, which is beneficial.
Additionally, Eagan said she’s noticed her team focusing more on the little things in their sport since they’ve started playing Hay Day — such as rolling their muscles out, recovery and better sleep.
“There’s always something more you could be doing in Hay Day,” Eagan said. “And there likely is someone doing more than you, and I feel like I’ve noticed my team [is] kind of more active in the athletic training center — it has made us more focused on those little things.”
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Contact Tony Gleason on Twitter (@tony__gleason) or via email: anthony.gleason@pepperdine.edu
