Does Your Team Need a Captain or a Leader?

Year after year coaches of athletic teams select one or two players to act as "team captain". This process is done in several ways. Some coaches make the selections themselves while others let the team vote and a few coaches rotate through their rosters each week. Personally I have tried all three of these tactics and have never been happy with the results. This past season I tried a different approach and was very pleased with the outcome.

Every coach has their own personal definition of what a "team captain" should be and what duties they are responsible for. Some coaches want their captains to do a great deal while others only want them to shake hands with the officials and their opponents' captains before the game. Any more, a team captain has no real duties during a contest. In fact, in my experience the role of the captain during a contest has become unnecessary. However, most league and association rules require that each coach designate at least one captain for the contest.

This past season my staff and I decided to go a different direction. We allowed our three seniors to act as team captains during the pre-game, but we encouraged every member of the team to act as leaders. Throughout the season team meetings were lead by different members of the team. When players had issues they needed to discuss they would confide in another teammate and call a player meeting or a coaches meeting if necessary. Yes, at first it was a little rough, but as time went on it worked better than past seasons.

Players quickly began to take ownership in the team. Players who in the past had trouble communicating with each other began to feel more comfortable. In fact, problems that we faced in the past began to leave our program. The "drama" that ate away at our program in the past seasons was quickly erased. Sure, we still had issues from time to time, but those issues became smaller and smaller as we went on. The focus turned to winning.

How were we able to accomplish this? To be honest, the coaching staff can not take all the credit. We had a great group of young players who bought into the idea and made it work. The philosophy that the coaching staff had been preaching over the past three seasons was simple. "We are not a team, we are family". However, when we took a closer look, we all agreed that we had not set up our communication that way. In the past we selected two captains and did most of our communication through them. This was not working and we had to make a change.

Before the start of the last season the coaching staff set down and agreed on a new approach. We threw away our captains hand book we created years ago and drew out a new plan. Every player regardless of age, grade or experience would have equal opportunities to voice their opinions and share concerns. Every player would have opportunities to run team meetings and share in the organizing of team functions. Then we developed a grading system.

After each practice we had every player fill out a report card. The card was simple and only took a few seconds to fill out. Every player would give their selves a grade on that day's performance. If they gave them selves a "C" or lower they would explain why. Then each player would select a player they felt was the best teammate that day. This player could have been the player that worked the hardest that day, or just simply was the most encouraging or helpful that day. The report cards would be completely anonymous. Only the coaching staff would know what was written.

The next day the coaching staff would review the players' report cards. The coaches would tally up the votes for teammate of the day and post them on the locker room door. When the players would come in for practice each day they would see their ranking. At the end of the season one player would receive the teammate of the year award. This became a very valuable tool for our program. Each day our players would work hard to be better teammates.

This simple little idea changed the attitude of our team tremendously. Instead of one or two players acting as our "leaders", the entire team took on the role. The biggest effect came when players would have a bad day. In the past, their teammates would just avoid them or make things worse. This season those same players would act as cheerleaders and encourage the player to get their head on straight and pick their practice up. Don't get me wrong, we still had situations, but they became fewer and a lot easier to deal with.

Obviously, it took some players a little longer to buy into this philosophy. The coaching staff knew this would be a concern and attacked it right off the get go. From the very first practice the coaching staff made sure to make a big deal out of each player that stepped up as a leader. We did our best to make it "the cool thing" to do. Players love to have their positives praised. Within the first week of practice those players who in the past would never put themselves in a vocal or leadership position began doing just that.

When the season concluded our team finished with a second place finish at state. Yes, a lot of other ingredients went into our recipe for success, but the coaching staff knows that the most important part was our "Team Leadership". Captains are great and I am sure they will always have a role. But leaders, and if your lucky a team of leaders is a must have, if you want to enjoy a successful season. I strongly encourage all coaches to spend lest time on building a captain and use your time developing leaders.