Behind the Line - Community

Following up on our conversation about practice formats - I’ve been thinking a lot about team leadership and how other programs use their captains throughout the season.

This year, each of our teams (Crivitz, Coleman, and Wausaukee) now has a coach-selected Team Captain. All of them are solid shooters, great examples on the line, and natural leaders. Beyond the basic expectations (sportsmanship, squad management, setting the tone), I want to start bringing them deeper into the planning side of the program.

Here’s why:

We’ve got a core group of athletes with real potential — the kind of potential that could put us in the running for a National Championship next summer.But I’m careful not to project that ambition onto them. I want that fire to come from them, not from me. When the athletes decide what they want, that’s when you can build a plan they’ll actually buy into.

So I’m curious how other coaches approach this:

• Do your captains help shape team goals for the year?

Are they part of the preseason vision setting? Or do you keep that coach-driven?

• How much responsibility do you give captains during practices?

Calling squads? Running warmups? Teaching fundamentals? Managing stations?

• Do captains help track progress or talk to athletes about improvement?

Or do you keep all development conversations strictly coach-led?

• Are captains involved in any kind of leadership meetings, planning sessions, or after-action reviews?

If so - how often, and what does that structure look like?

• How do you prevent captains from feeling like “mini-coaches” while still empowering them?

Ultimately, I want to build a system where the athletes themselves set their goals, take ownership of them, and use the captain structure to reinforce accountability and culture.

If your program has cracked the code on leadership, culture, or captain roles - I’d love to hear how you do it. What’s worked? What hasn’t? What surprised you?

Looking forward to learning from the community on this one.

- Randall