Most athletes have superstitions. Some have to wear the same socks or eat the same food during a winning streak.

There’s a different type of superstition involved with East Valley high school soccer teams.

It’s called, “the curse of the Fiesta Bowl Tournament.”

And normal, rational coaches say it is a living, breathing thing. They believe in the curse as much as they believe a soccer ball is round.

“Oh it’s real all right,” said Jason Green, boys coach at Chandler High School. “The proof is right there.”

The curse stems from the fact that teams that won the Fiesta Bowl Tournament failed to win a state championship. Year after year teams would win the December tourney, take a top ranking into February and fall short in the state playoffs.

The Scottsdale Horizon girls teams won three of four state titles from 2001-04, but did not win the Fiesta tournament in any of those seasons. The year it did not win the state championship is the year it won the Fiesta Tournament.

The Phoenix Mountain Pointe girls team won the 2006 Fiesta tournament, went 22-1, but lost in the state finals.

Gilbert Highland’s boys team lost last year’s Fiesta tournament, but went on to win the 5A-I state title.

Then there is the Tempe Corona del Sol girls team. It won the Fiesta title three consecutive years from 2002-04. But the Aztecs never won a state title in that span.

And then in 2005, Corona lost in pool play and did not make the semifinals of the tournament.

“You could see the girls hang their heads,” coach Matt Smith said. “We reminded them about the curse. The smiles started to come out then.”

A few months later, the Aztecs won the 5A-I state title. Then last season, Corona decided to reverse the curse. It did. Sort of.

Corona won last year’s tournament and then went on to win its second consecutive state title. Only problem is the tournament changed names last year and is now called the Tempe Diablos Classic Tournament.

Smith said his girls were freaking out after winning last year’s early-season title. He had to remind them the curse was no longer alive since the tournament’s name had changed.

“They asked, ‘Is that true?,’ ” Smith recalled with a laugh. “They didn’t think changing the name made a difference. We had to wait to find out. I don’t know if the curse is dead, but I do know it was definitely alive for a while.”

Curse notwithstanding, Green said this tournament is a tremendous barometer of where teams stand early in the season.

“With the competition that is there, you get a great feel of how prepared your team is for region play,” he said. “Forgetting about the curse, of course you want to win every game.”