<p>I am curious how team captains are chosen for your kids’ activities at your school. My D (junior in HS) is in a funk today. She just finished competing in her favorite activity’s state tournament today. It is an academic team competition. Her team finished high in the competition, and the school qualified a second team for Nationals, so it was an exciting day. She has actually been the top ranked player for her team all year.</p>
<p>However, apparently the coach announced next year’s captain at a sparsely attended team practice yesterday (D missed because she was ill and home from school) that one of the boys will captain the top school team next year. This boy has had many conflicts with others on the team over the past couple years. He is also not a high performer in the activity, and has poor judgement when dealing with issues that come up during matches (eg, makes formal challenges that are rarely upheld and cause friction with the judges). His only qualification for being captain seems to be that he first came out for the team in 8th grade (D and some friends joined in 9th, and they have all surpassed him in scoring and individual rankings). He is not any more familiar with the rules, strategies, etc. than any other senior on the team. He doesn’t seem to have any skills related to motivating others or organizing (both skills that seem important for a captain).</p>
<p>She does NOT want to play for him as captain. A couple of her friends on the team feel the same way. It is a pretty small team (will have something like 5 seniors and 3 juniors next year, and a handful of 9th/10th graders who are pretty new to the activity). I am worried that several of them may even quit the team. The coach is out of town (one of the other teams had an out of town tournament, so he took them to that, figuring his high school teams could compete at state without him there). D and friends are planning to put together emails to the coach with other suggestions for who might be better captains and why; however, since the coach has already announced his choice, this may or may not work for them. He may appoint a 2nd captain (they had two this year)… but has not said so yet. Even if he does, I think several of the kids feel that the boy he has chosen would be a very poor co-captain.</p>
<p>I am curious about whether the coaches “appoint” captains at most of your schools, or whether the teams vote. Have you ever seen a situation where the team rebelled against the coach’s choice, and how did that work out? I will say that the coach in this situation is very mellow, and very conflict avoidant (I don’t think there will be a macho “my way or the highway attitude”); but he DID make this announcement and tell this kid already that he was captain. Any other experiences with this type of situation?</p>
<p>P.S. - I want to say how much I love CC, that I can come out here and post this kind of situation and vent/get feedback. :)</p>
<p>At our school, captains are chosen by the coach. There is no appeals process.</p>
<p>People obviously have different opinions about what criteria there should be for captain. There was one discussion here wherein a mother felt her son had been slighted when he was not chosen (by the team) for captain as he had been on the team the longest. These things can become contentious and emotional when there seems to be unfairness involved. But how one defines unfairness is often quite subjective.</p>
<p>At my kid’s school the coach decides on how the captains are picked … some appoint the captains, some let the team vote, and in one case I know the coach let’s the team vote but holds a veto over the kid’s vote (yikes). All could be better or worse depending on the coach and the team … team’s voting sounds good but I know of a case where a dysfunctional clique voted in one of it’s members (sort of like a survivor coop).</p>
<p>length of time is not really a factor…The captain should be one of the better players…PLUS…a team leader and someone who doesn’t get in trouble off the field.<br>
It’s not just the best player…the captain should be a player that is respected by the other players.</p>
<p>Interesting question. I can only speak for athletic team captains. At our public HS, the players vote for captains by a secret ballot. However, the only people who actually see the votes are the coaches. The captains are generally announced at the last game of the year for the following year. When D1 was a junior, she was made captain of her team, along with 1 other girl. At the time, there were a total of 5 seniors. D1 and the other girl made wonderful captains. </p>
<p>The following year, there were 3 seniors, and alll 3 were made captains. D2 is on the team and said “I don’t know 1 person who voted for X”. I believe that the coach made the decision to have all 3 seniors as captains, since she didn’t want X to be left out. It turned out that X was not a very good captain.</p>
<p>Our experience is coach chooses head captain and if there are co-captions they are chosen by the team via secret vote.</p>
<p>While you and your daughter may not see this boy as a good choice the coach obviously had his reasons and perhaps your daughter asking the coach why he chose who he did may shed some light on his decision for all of you.</p>
<p>In my experience (sports), there was a secret vote. I must add, though, that this year there was some unhappiness, as one student (a rising senior) was not chosen. She has decided not to stay with the team, although she gave “other reasons” for her leaving. IMHO, it is rather sad that so much importance is put on the “captain” status, and that it sometimes leads to team dissonance.</p>
<p>Only experience is with athletics. Best I liked: all seniors are captains. No coach selection or athlete vote. When there are more than 2 or 3, he assigns 2 at each meet. Gives everyone a chance to be a leader, keeps those who are loudest from running everything their way. Very nice to see girls who would never be elected get recognition and step up to the job. I think they often surprise themselves!</p>
<p>And the true leaders work behind the scenes without complaint.</p>
<p>The thing is, this is not just a team where the captain’s position is about “status”. This is a small team activity where the captain has a big influence on the rosters, who gets to play/not play in a match, whether the team challenges scoring decisions, and even which team members get listened to on questions where the team answers as a pool (I might add that in a couple situations in the past where this boy was captain for a match on one of the lower school teams, he would often blurt out an answer without consulting his team members even when they knew the right answer – then was not at all chagrined that he cost his team points or the match because he didn’t poll his team before answering – that is a basic function for a captain in this activity). The coach is rarely in the room, and even when he is, he does not usually interfere with those decisions. So a bad captain can really make everyone miserable. The captains also run a lot of the practices, as the coach has some other obligations (and for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here, the school pays the coach very little… and since competition happens all year long, a lot of stuff falls on the captains when the coach is not around).</p>
<p>My D does not feel that she has to be a captain, although she would like to. But she knows she will be in for a miserable year if he is… so she is going to put her credentials forward, and ask the coach to reconsider his decision. She will also tell him that she feels there are other good candidates for captains as well (besides her). She just showed me her email, and I think she is making a pretty strong case. She laid out her qualifications and leadership style, what she would want to work on as a captain next year, and some ideas to make the team better. She also asked if he would consider having elections instead of appointing the captain, as she feels that he did not give serious consideration to all the good candidates for captain this year (not just her, but also some other teammates). We will see… as I said, he is a pretty mellow guy, I don’t think he will take it badly.</p>
<p>My only experience so far is with D’s sport (XC and track). Coach picks the captains (or co-captains – never more than 2 people sharing the role). Always seniors; if there are more than 2 seniors, it’s the fastest ones or ones who have been on the team the longest.</p>
<p>When D was co-captain, she was not the fastest runner on the team, and one of the then freshmen made many comments about how it wasn’t fair that D ran the practices when she wasn’t the fastest runner. This same girl made other efforts to subvert D’s authority (ordering team jackets against both co-captains wishes, etc.)</p>
<p>It seems like such an honor, but I think the kids know who to respect and listen to, regardless of the title.</p>
<p>The team captain issue is so wrought with politics and favoritism. Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that when dealing with public schools (I think privates can do whatever they want), the road to team “captainhood” should be spelled out and determined in an objective manner, such as Seniors only, plus fastest swimmer/runner, highest stat earner, or highest point scorer for the team (something of that nature). Otherwise, it becomes either another popularity/anti-popularity contest where skills for the position are ignored (like student government), or coach’s favoritism, both of which fuel bad feelings by the team.</p>
<p>OP, I feel for your D. It should really be the most competent team member, but as in “real life,” unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way.</p>
<p>Yeah… this activity has been D’s great joy over the years. She has worked tremendously hard, and really done well. She is ranked in the top 20 in our state (vs. this boy who is somewhere in the 200s). And he does not have any of the “soft skills” that could compensate for that (certainly being a good player is not the only criteria for a captain, but he just does not have anything else going in that area either). I would be sad to see her quit. But she might… I think she feels really undervalued by the coach right now and somewhat demeaned by his process (or lack of process) in considering other seniors for the captains position. She feels like next year is going to be no fun at all with this kid holding all the power on the team. I can’t say I think she is wrong about that, either.</p>
<p>At my school, most team captains are appointed by the coach, but some are by a vote of the team. However, for cheerleading (which is my sport), the process is really involved! Anyone who wants to be captain has to do the following:</p>
<p>1) Create a notebook which must include:
— three essay questions about leadership, team cohesiveness, etc
— create a schedule for the entire year (games, practices, etc)
— create uniform schedule for all games and practices
— choose themes and plan activities for three pep rallies
— choose one community service project for each month</p>
<p>2) Choregraph a halftime performance, and create a video of yourself teaching it. Also must include a printout of the words and diagram of the formations. Then you have to teach it to the team so they and the coach can see how you teach/lead the team.</p>
<p>3) Have an interview with three outside cheer coaches (from a local gym).</p>
<p>The notebook and interview are judged by the outside cheer coaches and together are worth 60% of your score. The team votes, and that’s worth 30%. The HS coach votes, and that’s worth 10%. </p>
<p>It’s a LOT of work but I think it’s really fair. It shows who’s really willing and capable of doing all the work, plus the team gets a say, which is important.</p>
<p>Coaches pick captains here (sports, activities, etc.). It depends on the coach, but in the programs our kids are involved with, the coaches try to pick the best leaders of the team. Some teams the seniors are just picked as captains though. We have run into some issues with our DD, who was/is an underclassman captain for her sport. The most vocal mom opposing that ended up having a DD who “decided” she didn’t want to play in the section tournament leading to state–um, ok, real leadership material there??</p>
<p>Our son was named captain of his academic activity. They went to nationals and placed very high. He was not on the “varsity” last year, didn’t go to state or nationals, doesn’t lead his “jv” squad in points but he is a good leader, responsible and an all around great kid if I do say so myself. He will be the only captain next year out of about 10 seniors. In the past there have been 2 or 3 captains each year but none of the other seniors are “leadership” material according to the coach.</p>
<p>OP, there is some reason why that adviser picked him as captain. YOU and your DD may not like him but the adviser obviously does. Are your DD and her friends prepared to not participate next year should the adviser not appreciate the emails?</p>
<p>The best way to show the coach he/she made a mistake is to be the very best teammate you can be. Be a positive member of the team and be an asset to the captain.</p>
<p>The best way to show the coach they made the correct selection is to quit.</p>
<p>^I agree. I think your D has to take the high road here and show coach what a team player she is and she has to make the best of this. I realize it must be very galling, and who knows why coach did what he did, but there are times when less qualified people will be promoted over her at work, and I believe if she does the excellent job she’s been doing, her efforts will be recognized. </p>
<p>I think she should lobby for a co-captain position and try to work with this kid as best as possible. Who knows – maybe the coach knows of some reason the kid needs this boost? Problems at home? </p>
<p>Or perhaps (not sure if this applies to your sport) your D could create her own leadership position – team liasion – PR where she takes photos and submits articles on the team to the local paper – she can create her own position of control and power where she contributes without being Captain.</p>
<p>Absolutely nothing wrong with your kid having an adult conversation with the coach and letting the coach know ashe was disappointed in not being named captain. There should be no negative mention of the other guy- just calmly state her positives. Then let her actions prove her point. No yelling, no crying and no mom/dad involved.</p>
<p>Ah, the “suck it up because you will always have to deal with difficult people” mantra. Just asking, how many adults out here have been miserable in jobs or other situations when you had to do that? Here is my experience with it: after you get out of the situation one way or another (especially with a toxic boss, coach, or captain), it often feels like it WASN’T worth it to stick it out. Honestly, every time that has ever happened to me, when I analyze it afterward I realize I should have quit or moved from the situation sooner than I did. I know that is blasphemy to people who want to keep businesses and organizations running smoothly above all else. My philosophy is that I can deal with a toxic teammate pretty well. But when that type of person is in charge, it often isn’t worth it to stay.</p>
<p>I will say that the coach announced this on a day when all four of the other seniors were absent from the team. It was an optional practice on a day when there were some other things going on at the school (and D was gone). This is a pretty loosely run team, as the activity goes all year long. I suspect he knew this was not going to sit well with any of the other players who will still be around next year. D is not the only one who is unhappy (one of the other seniors flatly announced that she will NOT play for this boy as captain next year the minute she heard the news – and she is not a fly off the handle type of kid, she was just stating a fact). D is the most committed of the other seniors to this activity; I do think that a couple of the others will just walk rather than deal with this kid in a position of power on the team.</p>
<p>I think it was pretty chicken of the coach to let the rumor mill spread his decision (which I think he knows will be unpopular). I think this year’s captains kind of promoted this kid to the coach (he is friends with the boy captain, and the girl captain is super volatile and has a lot of interpersonal issues with others – so I think she sort of sees this next captain as a kindred spirit – although she is a much better captain than he would be). I will add that my D got along fine with this year’s captains in spite of some of their flaws. The coach is VERY conflict avoidant (I suspect maybe he thought this boy would give him a hard time if he wasn’t a captain because he was “there first” by joining the team as an 8th grader). I also wonder if he hasn’t thought through just how much time in charge and power the captains have given the organization structure. Because, of course, it is when he is not around that the captain has to act as a leader.</p>