what it means to be a great team captain, by EA and LA

 

As fall sports ramp up, one of the most anticipated, and sometimes dreaded, events is the announcement about team captains.

 

Having looked up to other leaders the past three years as the under-classmen, we both knew that being a senior meant more responsibility, whether or not we were named captains.

 

Playing field hockey not only introduced us to what it meant to be great captains having had such great leaders freshmen year, but it now gives us the opportunity to exercise all we have learned about leadership, selflessness, and confidence as we were fortunate enough to be named alongside one of our fellow seniors as varsity field hockey captains. 

 

It is important that we bring you back to our freshmen year because that is where we learned what it means to be great captains.

 

We will start by saying that it is intimidating to be young and new on a varsity team, especially when some upperclassmen feel threatened in their positions.

 

We had three captains that year, each of whom embodied the best values and characters of a great captain. They were encouraging, but they also knew the right times to give constructive feedback.

 

For us, we ate this advice up and always looked forward to learning from the seasoned players.

 

Their attitudes were the most significant part of who they were and we never saw them frown or get upset with refs, rather they maintained positive mindsets and would bring up the energy if our team happened to be down. Even as the three star players, each of them were still incredibly humble and respectful to the new players and oftentimes got more excited when other people scored or had a great play than when they did themselves.

 

Though we could go on for pages about how great these three were, we want to talk about our experience now as we go on to fill in their shoes at a new school.

 

We are both field hockey captains this year with another great player on our team.

 

Wanting to be the best captains for our team and for ourselves is a difficult task and has made us very self aware on and off the field.

 

For us, being captains doesn’t just mean running drills and sending team updates; it means saying hi to every teammate whenever you see them, varsity or jv, good friend or not.

 

We know how it feels to have upperclassmen give meaningful attention to you and so we try to do that every day by asking teammates how their day was, giving advice, but also leading an enthusiastic and focused practice.

 

Embodying these things has made our team closer, but it has been extremely rewarding to us as well.

 

Even on the days where we have hard practices, little focus, or maybe a bit of drama, being a captain has taught us how to navigate and guide our team through these circumstances which is not only good for us and our team, but overall a great life skill to have.

 

Through being captains we have learned the importance of humility, strong leadership, and letting that underclassmen score the goal when you could have.