If there is one thing Chicago Stars forward Ally Schlegel is going to do, it’s commit to the bit.

Anyone who has seen her play soccer, starting back when she was around 10 or 11 years old, has seen The Pink Headband. It’s a flash of bright pink across her forehead announcing that Schlegel is here.

Every time Schlegel gears up to play, The Pink Headband has been as essential to getting ready as shin guards. Professional athletes have all kinds of superstitions or accessories they wear for personal reasons, so one would be forgiven to assume that is the case here.

“At this point, it’s so silly,” Schlegel said. “It’s just part of me now.”

As a kid playing in the SoCal Blues Cup, a youth soccer tournament, Schlegel’s team received the headbands as a gift. They all decided to wear them as a unifying team moment, but by the second half, almost all of her teammates had abandoned them.

But not Schlegel.

For years, this headband has endured, and she wants to set the record straight.

Yes, it has been washed. No, there isn’t just one. Yes, each headband is one she collected from those teammates that first day.

“I certainly have lost many of them throughout the years. I don't have many left. I have like four left,” she said. “This thing has lasted 14 years. You know when people have their teddy bears for their whole lives or their blankies and it just becomes a string? I can’t believe it’s not.”

With the number of actual headbands dwindling, Schlegel is confronting what could be the beginning of the end.

“Every year, I’ll play without it and see if it feels right,” she said. “You know, I'm 25. Is it time for me to do a slicked back bun and look cute during games, or am I still gonna wear this headband across my forehead?”

If the past is any indication, it doesn’t seem likely Schlegel would choose cute over an opportunity to surprise and get a laugh. Take for instance, Chicago’s home opener. Walking arm-in-arm with teammates Taylor Malham and Mackenzie Wood, Schlegel made her grand entrance in an inflatable zebra costume.

The fashion choice garnered a great reaction from her teammates and Stars fans who know to expect the unexpected when it comes No. 34.

But here is the important thing when it comes to Schlegel’s antics – they are by design.

While the zebra costume is an objectively hilarious choice to wear before a game, it had a more poignant meaning for her team, too. In the preseason, the Stars were shown a video of a safari that meant to show the power of lifting your teammates up. The wildebeests in the video were shown working together to avoid a crocodile on the hunt.

“The metaphor is that you’re only as strong as your weakest link,” she said.

Instead, the team latched on to something else.

“There was a part of the video where there was a zebra and it was just minding its own business, doing its things,” Schlegel said. “It gets attacked by the crocodile as it’s crossing the water, but it fights like hell and gets out of it.”

Watching that lone zebra fend off an attack struck home for Schlegel and her teammates. They took it and ran. They decided they were going to be the zebra, doing their own thing and putting up a fight.

“We're some zebras, man. We're not the flashiest team in the league. We're not shiny,” she said. “We're not trying to act like that, but we are going to fight like hell. I love that.”

So from the outside, something as silly as a costume actually took on a deeper meaning in the Stars’s locker room.

“You do anything to get your team together. You’ve got to bond on something, right? You’ve got to buy into something. We've been trying to find our identity,” Schlegel said. “Why not spend $30 on a blow up zebra costume that now sits at the bottom of my locker?”

Going into Week 8, the Stars are starting to find their rhythm, but it all comes down to that gritty style of play that embodies the zebra mentality. Chicago’s game against Gotham on May 4 is a good example.

On a Gotham free kick just outside the Stars box, Schlegel got a foot on the ball to try and clear it and slipped. She popped right back up as Gotham’s Ella Stevens took a shot on goal, and Schlegel threw her body in front of the ball, blocking the shot in epic fashion.

“It was one of those things in the moment where you're like, ‘I know this clip is gonna come up some way somehow and bite me.’ It was funny, but I think I felt a lot cooler in the moment than maybe it looks, but that is part of it,” Schlegel said. “I'm going to put everything on the line for this to not get in the back of the net. We're defending from top to bottom. We're gritty. I do think that that play very much emulates that energy.”

There is something to be said about having levity in difficult times, even in a competitive environment. That is something Schlegel knows well.

“I think I'm truly at my best as a goofball, and I think the person who would say that the most is my mother. I remember in college being stressed or whatnot, and she'd always be like, ‘You're taking this leadership stuff so seriously. You just need to relax a little bit,’” she said. “The start of the season has been difficult. We're still athletes. I want to freaking win, and I want to score goals and I want to be an impact to our team. That's not something I take lightly. At the same time, I know if I'm smiling, that's the best thing.”

Being able to play a game you love for a living is something Schlegel is always grateful for, and her faith helps her keep that perspective, even in tough stretches.

“I've been given these gifts to kick a ball. I don't take that for granted. Having that fun energy just brings glory to God like,” she said. “Like, what else is there than to just have fun and enjoy your teammates and your friends. I think that's me. I am a certified fun haver.”