Captains: Yes or No?

[gdc03120]

Buenos dias, amigos. I'm curious as to the opinions of other coaches here: Do any of you use captains for your teams/programs? Is there any value to having team captains, or would doing so lead to disgruntlement among players (and parents) if one player is picked over another, etc?

For those coaches who DO use team captains:

- How are they selected? All by the coach? One coach/one player vote? All player vote, etc?
- Are your captains season-long or individually picked per game/tournament?
- What do you require specifically of your captains during practices/games/the season? (What are their responsibilities?)

I have found an idea on another forum I like but I'm curious if it could be implemented successfully (I could explain further if there was interest). I'd rather just ask first about the pros/cons and others' thoughts/ideas on the topic in general!

 

[quincy]

School Ball was the only time DD had captains. DD was one because she was 1 of the better players and played all the years. Nice kid too. Coach selected.

She would not have done things different captain or not. I'm lean towards no.

 

[Lance Steckler]

no captains.

 

[radness]

imo
Cannot assign who the captain is. The leader will emerge because others will follow them.

Hopefully the leader is going the same direction you want the team to go!

 

[Hawk_]

No Captains, it can build resentment and "better than thou" attitudes. There are clear leaders, but those happen naturally.

 

[Butch18507]

I agree with the no captain designation, we have a few girls that are the leaders if he team but that happened organically by them setting good examples and being vocal with the other players when situations arose and weren't prompted by a coach to take charge, they just did....

 

[radness]

Remember years ago on 16u age travel ball team.
We were playing in San Diego and the team was staying in Camp land. On Mission Bay lots of different things to do when not playing games.
Players no games, out doing fun whatever...
One night as I was returning to the campspot to grab something,
parent (moms) approached me and said where is XYZ and ABC?
I said, dont know. they are not hanging out with us.
And the parents said well you're the captain they're going to follow what you're doing.
I said
no I'm not their captain, but you're their mom shouldn't you know where they are?

 

[quincy]

The reason I said I lean towards no captains opposed to absolute no is DD got involved in some things as a coach I would not want to get involved in. Some she told me, some not.

My opinion is not as firm as others here.

(I do not care about boy friend problems or how good the guy looks in the stands. May give a player an out.)

 

[murphdog]

DD never had captains in club teams but there have always been captains on HS and college.
In HS the girls voted and then the coach did whatever he wanted so the vote was useless.
Her first 3 years of college were similar.
They have a new coach this year and she had the girls self nominate and then had the team vote for up to 3 people each. There was a clear top 2 so they’re captains. Thry meet with the coach frequently to discuss any issues especially ones the coach might not be aware of, practice plans, what they should focus on in open gyms etc.

 

[quincy]

So is that a yes or a no?