The title of captain for a team is a great honor, but like the team, they are learning how to be a good, well-respected leader. They work as hard as the team members, they are just trusted with more responsibilities throughout the season. These are a few things being a captain has taught me:
1. Responsibility
One of the most important things of being a captain is being responsible for your teams' actions and behavior. If they are late, you're late, if they slack off you slack off. Even if you are working hard, being a captain is accepting the responsibility of your team.
2. Sacrifice
When you are a captain, you sacrifice a lot of freedoms that the rest of your team may have. While your team is out eating in the cafeteria, you are inside the dressing room making sure everything is accounted for. Even though you may miss on a lot of fun times, it is all worth it.
3. Your team adores you
No matter how much you yell and how mean you are, your team knows that you want what is best for them and you are there doing your job. They also know that no matter how much you may yell at them, they never take it personally.
4. Leadership
You especially learn leadership skills, which is really good to possess in the real world. You make sure everyone is enjoying themselves but also enforcing the hard work needed for a progressive practice.
5. Decision Making
There are times where your coach/ instructors will trust you with important decisions that need to be made. There are times where the decisions will be tough, but everyone is aware that what is decided is what is best for the team, and the team also knows that it will eventually improve the performance.
6. How to be successful
There are times where your team may not be as successful, but in the beginning of the season, there are goals that each team sets. Most of the time these goals are met, which give everyone on the team a sense of accomplishment.
7. Being Humble
When your team is more successful than expected, the team learns to be humble winners. Even if they are not the top rank, the team congratulates the top teams and does not over celebrate when they are victorious.
