Easter — the pinnacle of the spring season.

It’s the one day of the year that allows children to replace the morning bowl of cereal with three Cadbury eggs and a marshmallow bunny. A day when it’s okay to crawl around the yard in your Sunday best looking for tiny plastic eggs. But most of all, it’s a day when one can relax at home and enjoy the company of family.

Well, at least most can. Several athletic teams will hit the road over the holiday, and will be in competition when Easter Sunday rolls around.

They’ll trade in dressy attire for their away uniforms, and swap a day with their families for a weekend with their teammates.

The men’s tennis team will travel to Miami, while the women’s tennis team will be in Atlanta. The women’s golf team will head to Pinehurst, N.C. to compete in the ACC Championships.

The baseball team will also be on the road over the holiday for a three-game series at Maryland. They will play at 1 p.m. on Easter Sunday before heading back to Raleigh.

Senior center fielder Matt Camp said while it’s always better to be home for Easter, the team does take a couple of steps to help commemorate the occasion.

“There’s nothing set or mandatory that we do, but a couple of guys always try and get together in the player’s lounge and have what we call ‘chapel,'” Camp said. “I imagine a lot of the guys will be in there this Sunday.”

Although he’d like to be home during the holiday, Camp said he’s grateful his family is making the trip to College Park to watch him play – most notably, his mother.

“I’m sure my mom will have an Easter basket for me,” Camp said with a laugh. “She still brings me one every year.”

Although the baseball team had the past two Easter Sundays off, the team was in Virginia for an Easter series against the Cavilers in 2002 — Camp’s freshmen year.

While Camp has experience playing on Easter, some of the teams’ younger members have never been away from their family on the holiday. Coach Avent said while a player’s family can never be replaced, the team around him can help to “improvise” a family-like environment.

“We are their family now,” Avent said. “That’s what being on a team is all about.”

While the baseball team is heading north to Maryland, the softball team will be traveling south to Tallahassee for a weekend matchup with Florida State. Coach Lisa Navas admitted she wasn’t a fan of playing on Easter Sunday.

Navas used to coach at Barry University, a catholic school in Florida, and said the team would make a pact with the other teams in the conference to have Easter Sunday off. Now that she’s at a public university, Navas said she’s learning that religion isn’t a big factor when it comes to scheduling games.

“Unfortunately, being in a spring sport, your religion has to take a backseat on certain occasions,” Navas said.

Navas said the team has taken steps in the past to celebrate the holiday, however.

Last season, the team organized an egg-dying contest. Players’ eggs were judged on color, creativity and uniqueness by some of the coaches.

“I can’t remember who won, or if we got any prizes or anything,” senior Tess Corona said, “but I do remember putting those eggs around my apartment as decorations.”

Corona said team activities like dying eggs help to make the Easter holiday still seem like a family event. Although the Arizona native knows she won’t be seeing her family over Easter, she takes comfort in the fact that she has the equivalent of a family around her.

“It’s kind of a bummer to not be with family on a holiday like Easter,” Corona said. “But in another respect, I’m not really alone – I’ll have 19 other girls right there with me on Sunday.”

Both Corona and Camp said their families usually engaged in common Easter rituals, such as going to church and sharing a meal, prior to their arrival at State. Both athletes also admitted to having a common childhood belief — the Easter bunny.

“I definitely believed in the Easter bunny,” Camp said. “I woke up every year expecting the hopping guy to bring me some candy.”

Camp couldn’t remember exactly when he stopped believing in the Easter bunny, but thinks it was sometime recent.

“I’m thinking it was last year when coach [Avent] finally broke the news to me,” Camp said.

Unlike Camp, Corona could recall the exact day and time when her belief terminated.

While playing hide-and-go seek, Corona decided to venture under her parents’ bed. It was under that bed that she discovered the truth about the Easter bunny’s existence.

“My brother had asked Santa Clause for a Sega Genesis that year,” Corona said. “Take a guess what I found under the bed.”

“Once I found out Santa wasn’t real, the Easter bunny kind of died to me too,” Corona said. “It was pretty traumatic.”