Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way!

"You can elect captains but not leaders."

When I first started coaching, I decided to elect next year's captain(s) at the end of the previous season. My hope was the new captain(s) would motivate next year's team to spend time in the gym during the summer

and develop relationships that would bring the team closer together. I changed my mind on this method after a negative experience took place.

One of the captains we had elected, got himself into trouble and ended up

being ruled ineligible for the next season.

Because of that experience, I changed my approach. From that point on, we had game captains only. I would select one starter and one nonstarter to represent our team in each game. We rotated so we had different captains at each game. We also turned the team over to the seniors. We wanted the seniors to lead in practice and set the tone off the floor. In my opinion, if the seniors did not lead, we would not reach our potential as a team. It has been

my experience, far too often, electing captains becomes nothing more than a popularity contest. Giving someone a title does not make them a leader. We asked our seniors to be first in lines for drills and we encouraged them to coach younger players during practice. If the team is giving a poor effort in practice, we (the coaches) might stop practice and ask the seniors if the effort level at that practice was acceptable to them? We wanted them (the seniors) to establish a standard of effort and achievement.

Don't kid yourself these guys are not watching the game. They are waiting for the cheerleaders to come on the floor!

We (the coaches) asked the seniors when they wanted to practice over holidays. When traveling on the road, we sometimes asked the seniors where we might stop to eat. Several years ago we were playing a game and

one of our younger players did a poor job of taking care of the ball during the first half of the game. After the game, one of the seniors told me that another senior "got in the face" of the younger player during halftime and told him in no uncertain terms that he expected him to TAKE CARE OF THE BALL! As a coach, if players are willing to confront other players, your heading in the right direction!