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August 10, 2005
STATE OF THE GAMEAs They Mature, Captain will Take
the Wheel Naturally
By Lyle Phair | From 
Mark Messier, Steve Yzerman, John Bucyk, Bobby
Clarke, Joe Sakic, Wayne Gretzky.
All great players. All great leaders. All great
captains.
Were they all great players first, then great
captains? Or were they great captains first, maybe even before they
were great players?
Really, how do you determine what makes a great
captain? Is it just the won-loss record of the team? If that was
the sole criteria, you could make a pretty strong argument against
that it takes greater leadership skills to be the captain on a losing
or .500 team than it does to be the captain on a team with a high
winning percentage.
What is the role of the captain? What exactly
does the captain do? Really, it varies, from team to team and captain
to captain. The first thing a captain needs to do is act nature
and not fake it. If you do, your teammates will see right through
you and you won’t have their respect. If you don’t have
respect, you won’t be able to lead.
Strong leaders lead by example. They get to practices
and games on time, they’re dressed and ready to go on time,
and they set the mood in the locker room, on the ice and on the
bench. Everything they do is done with the team in mind. They set
the standard everybody else needs to strive to attain. If the captain
lowers or compromises that standard, you can be guaranteed that
other players on the team will as well.
Sounds like a lot of responsibility. So how do
you know when a player is ready to accept that responsibility? What’s
the right time to make a player a captain? In youth hockey, is there
even a need to select captains? And if there’s a need, what
time is the right time? And who should pick them – the coaches,
the players? And what effect will it have on the players who are
not chosen as captains?
Being a captain is a special honor, but you have
to earn it and you have to be worthy of it. On many youth teams,
the best players are automatically awarded the ‘C’ and
named as assistants. And this is right in many cases. A strong argument
could be made that the better players are probably the most focused,
the most competitive, the most confident – and in turn set
the best examples. But there are also many cases where the best
players are not the best role models. They might be the most skilled,
but not necessarily the hardest workers or the most coachable. And
they’re probably not the best candidates to be in a leadership
position.
Below the Bantam level, I really don’t think
there’s a need for captains. The kids aren’t ready for
it and the game is not ready for it. Coaches can communicate directly
with officials. We seem to have enough problems with being able
to communicate between adults already without having the messages
muddled further by a 10-year-old messenger. Everybody already knows
who the best players are on the team and they don’t need to
be singled out any further by having a letter on their left chest.
However, I think that it’s important at
the younger age groups for everybody to experience the captaincy
at some point throughout the season. And by that I mean being the
“team leader” for a certain time period – maybe
a week, maybe a couple of practices and a game. They don’t
have to wear a letter; they just need to know that they are the
leader for that time period.
There’s something special about being in
a leadership role. And you never know how each player will react.
Some will relish the responsibility and take their game up a level
or two. Some will wilt under the pressure. But you never know how
they will react until they have the chance and a trial basis, where
they know they don’t have the burden to bear the entire year,
is a solid place to gauge such leadership abilities.
What would the duties be? Nothing too dramatic.
Maybe leading a team stretch, or a team warm-up in the in the locker
room. Maybe making a short inspirational speech prior to the team
taking the ice. Maybe starting at center and playing that position
for the game.
Once players hit their teens, they begin to mature
and really begin to develop mentally and socially, as well as physically.
In the Disney movie “The Lion King,” the old monkey,
Rafiki, didn’t proclaim “It is time” for Simba
to assume his role as leader until he had actually matured to the
point where he could handle it.
At 13, you could make a strong case that some
leaders would emerge on the team – players with confidence,
engaging personality, strong work ethic, and a solid sense of team.
And at that point you could realistically and honestly award the
captaincy to players, for the right reasons because at that point,
they will have had a chance to earn it.
Lyle Phair can be reached at feedback@hockeyjournal.com.
This article appears in the August issue of
New England Hockey Journal. Click here
to subscribe to the magazine.
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