UTILIZING SENIOR LEADERSHIP
A desired goal of many coaches should be to establish a rapport with all of his/her athletes so that the team and coach are working together to successfully defeat their opponents. This is easier said than done. Only to often, some “leaders” on the team are working against the common good. To help prevent this type of negative team attitude from developing, a coach must cultivate and use the leadership from within the team.
After getting to know your team, and the individuals on the team, a coach should kn ow how to utilize his senior team members. For explanation, we are breaking these seniors into four catagories.
The first catagory is the seniors with a bad attitude. As always, a coach spends a disproportianal amount of time dealing with these individuals, and taking away from the real goals and success of the team. Hopefully, you do not have this type of athlete on your team, however, we often do have one or two in this catagory and we must deal with them. Our first approach may be to have the coaching staff try to change their attitude by having a very honest and direct conversation with these individuals. Having the positive senior leaders talk to them, may also be a very positive option – much of this, may be on the strength of your positive senior leaders. The last resort would be to cut these4 members from your team. We realize this may be looked at as a failure of the head coach being able to positively influence a team member, however, the whole must be valued more than the parts. Cancer spreads, therefore, it is best to remove these negatives to save the entire team. Most coaches would rather rely on and use younger kids who are enthusiastic and have a good attitude. It certainly allows you to get on about the business of developing a successful team without a consistent distraction.
The next catagory is the team captains. Generally seniors, however, I have certainly had some very positive leaders that were not seniors. I emphasize from the first day of practice what I expect out of our team and the members of that team. I encourage the election of good citizens that have demonstrated the work ethic and attitude that best exemplifies our team goals. The captains can do many things to help the coach of some responsibilities. They can order team shirts, help with team activities, and help some of the younger team members feel comfortable with their team. They can also help the team enthusiasm, help bench discipline, and keep the team focused on their team goals.
Many times there is an overlapping of the leadership responsibilities of the coach, captains, and the rest of the seniors on the team. In talking about the non-captain seniors, they need to know they are still very influential with the younger athletes on the team. Along with the captains, these are the people that will have the biggest noticable effect on team attitude. The upper classmen set the tone of your work-outs. They should be pushing each other verbally and physically when practicing, working out, and even during events. Seniors can have a very positive effect on boosting the confidence of the underclassmen that make your varsity. I also use my seniors as our main recruiters for our team prior to the season.
lThe final category of senior leaders is the second string team members. They are extremely important to the depth of your team, the quality of your practices, and maintaining a real team attitude. They can help you in coaching some of the new kids that simply don’t get it. It is extremely important these people understand how valuable they are and buy into the program. Often this is simply explaining to them their role on the team. Once they understand their role, they will either buy in, or they may leave the team. In either case, they do not become one of our first catagory – bad attitude – seniors.
In an organization it is not always easy to find good leaders. It is the coaches responsibility to foster senior leadership to help team morale, assist in communication, keep the group on track towards the team goals, and ultimately – win.
