Using an Application to Select Team Captains

Having your athletes complete an application isn’t always a specific way of selecting captains but it can be utilized in conjunction with other selection methods, which we previously outlined in our article “8 Ways to Select Team Captains.”

Application Benefits

• MORE INVESTMENT – Completing an application demonstrates more investment than just saying they want to be a captain. It forces them to invest actual time and effort when it comes to communicating their thoughts on certain issues. More often than not, you get a better gauge on which athletes are truly committed enough to the responsibility of being a captain. All of this serves to narrow down your candidate pool or weed out potentially detrimental prospects.
• CONVERSATION STARTER – It can become a conversation starter, either before issues arise or in the midst of a situation. You can use their answer on the application to talk about something that’s currently happening. Maybe they didn’t help a teammate or respond properly to a coach, but there was a question on the application that dealt with that kind of situation. You can ask them if their perspective has changed or if they just made a mistake. Essentially, you can use their answer to help create an opportunity for behavior modification and remind them of what they previously said.
• INFORMATION FOR COACH – As a coach, you will learn new information and insights about your athletes when they complete an application. Good coaches know the X’s and O’s but great coaches know their athletes. The more information you have on them, the more likely you’ll know what motivates them, what’s important to them, and how best to reach them.
• INFORMATION FOR TEAMMATES – Not only does an application provide you with valuable information but it gives the other team members insights into their teammate. Maybe you distribute the application results to your team to read and consider before selecting captains. This can help them make a more informed decision, but also potentially lead to increased accountability later on.

Factors to Consider

• Having an application process doesn’t guarantee results, nor is there anything magical about it. An application process can be very beneficial, but there are several factors you’ll want to consider when implementing an application process.
• Is the application only for your captain selection process or could you utilize it for all team members? There’s some merit to having all your team members complete the application. You could even call it a “leadership application” or “teammate application”. Everyone fills it out as part of the tryout process. You could also include a question or two about being a captain (which would be used specifically for the captain selection process).
• Your captain application can be whatever you want it to be, but make sure you put some thought into it. Have a purpose for each question that you ask. Have questions that find out what you want to know about your potential captains.
• Realize that athletes can write anything and may not be completely honest. Their answers might be cliché and in line with what they think you want, rather than what they really think. You may not always want to take the application at face value. If this is the case, a follow up conversation or interview could be beneficial.
• Don’t make it too short. This could limit the amount of useful or actionable information you receive. It could also make it too easy for “just anyone” to fill out, if you’re using it only for the captain selection process.
• Conversely, don’t make it too long. Your athletes don’t have very long attention spans. You want to be careful that you don’t eliminate a good candidate just because they don’t like writing or typing. Admittedly, it’s a delicate balance because you want your captains to be committed to the process, but you also must understand the reality of the athletes you coach.
• Will it be a paper application or an online application, such as a Google form?
• How will you use the applications once they’re completed? Will you make them available to all the team members? Will you have follow up conversations or interviews with the applicants?
• Don’t just file the applications away in a draw or put them in a folder once you’ve selected your captains. Whether or not an individual ends up as a team captain, the information in those applications is extremely useful throughout the season. Develop a plan and be intentional about how you might use that information to get the most out of each individual (and subsequently, the team).

Overall team leadership

How you do anything is how you do everything, and vice versa. You want to select great captains, but the best programs, coaches, and athletes see it as a process. A team’s overall leadership is a never-ending journey. Selecting captains is not the destination, but rather another step in strengthening the team’s leadership and culture. Great captains can only do so much if the team is full of bad teammates or poor followers. The best programs have good captains and good non-captains. They have a program in which everyone takes ownership in the culture.

Doing what’s right, holding others accountable, and making teammates better falls on the shoulders of every team member, rather than only the captains. Be careful not to be great at selecting captains but below average when it comes to developing better teammates and more positive leaders among the rest of your athletes. Eventually if you only focus on selecting captains, you may find yourself with a pool of candidates that aren’t up to your expectations. Developing your overall team leadership and enhancing the leadership potential of all your athletes will naturally increase the quality of your captains.