Why wait until their senior year to develop your captains? ?? Captains Part 4 of 4

Do you train your captains on how to lead?

Then when those captains move on, do you feel like you are starting all over again?

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Here is a way to take your leadership development to the next level:

Don’t wait until they are a junior or senior, when they become captain, to start training them. Instead – develop an emerging leader group.

Identify some leaders at each age level, and establish a big bother/big sister mentoring relationship. Work closely with your captains and more elder players to challenge them to teach leadership skills to their younger mentees.

One tip in doing this – eliminate the words ‘freshmen,’ ‘sophomore,’ etc. from your team’s vocabulary. These are divisive words. These players are your teammates. Nothing more, nothing less.

The most important way your captains and elder leaders will teach them, just like you as a coach, is through their actions, not their words. Carry the water. Pick up the trash. Encourage someone struggling.

Not only will setting up these mentor relationships help the young leaders grow, the elder mentors will typically develop a sense of pride and take on more responsibility as they sense the importance of their role.

As we wrap up our series on captains, do this:

1 – Train your captains on how to lead

2 – Train your future captains on how to lead from Day 1 entering your program