How coaches of collegiate athletic teams prepare their athletes before competition is of supreme importance to the team, the school, and surrounding groups with vested interest in the success of the team. Studies show that uniform color, reputation, and success rate all play a role in how an athlete is perceived by peers. This study examined the extent to which female athletes rely on the reputation preceding an upcoming opponent to make an impression of that opponent. Athletes were randomly assigned to 3 different groups that looked at the same picture of a future opponent but had a different caption describing the athlete as skilled, unskilled, or with no caption (control group). Results show that the female athletes used the information told to them to establish their impression of upcoming opponents, regardless of whether they had actually seen physical evidence for that impression.