Interviews for Captains?

I'm going to give a bit of a contrarian answer that may not be popular with some, but here goes:

Why not have multiple captains, and just rotate them through on game days? If you are blessed with a bunch of kids who are all deserving, give them all a shot at it during some stage of the year. Does that water down the captaincy? Perhaps, but as mentioned, I am one of those blasphemous coaches who thinks the whole "captain" thing is overrated, and I was a captain myself back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The reason why I think captains aren't as important as some do is that I believe leadership is actually our job as coaches. It's great to have some help from the kids themselves, but they are taking their cues from us. I always hate hearing coaches whining about their "leadership" being weak on their team. Yo, Coach, leading and inspiring the kids is YOUR job - don't lay that on a group of 16 or 17 year old kids.

Just one alternate viewpoint...

We have gone away fro camp at a small college for the past 5 years. The night before we leave we gather outside or large area and give any kid the opportunity to be a captain. They stand up in front of the team and explain what being a captainmeans to them. The head and any assistant head coach then asks them 3-5 questions (different questions some carry over) about things related to football, school, life, etc. We then go inside to the dorms where players are given sheets to place their votes on. As they come in to the coaches room, we are able to see who they pick and ask those players specific questions regarding their selection. We then tally the votes up and coaches then vote and discuss anything related to the final results. Coaches will have the final say and inevitably this allows to see what kind of individuals your players gravitate to. It has been successful for us and we have had anywhere from 2-4 captains each year.

we will be doing our captains a little bit different this year. at the end of our summer training the coaching staff will chose 2 captains. then after our first week of practice, the team will vote on the remaining 2 captains. then after our thursday practice, we will select one kid to be our "5th" captain. this will be our scout team/jv player of the week.

I did it much like rpetrie for my first three years. I should qualify this with the fact that I'm at a TINY school. All was great for two years. In year three our best applicant was not a kid the others were willing to follow. One kid that was bitter about not being selected over him became a cancer. Eventually the whole thing backfired and 'captain' became a bad thing in the eyes of the players. Year four we had no quality applicants and in year five we didn't have any! So, we didn't have captains. I now agree with coachdennis: leadership is my job!

I come from a background in the USMC and cannot stress enough the importance of leadership. But, these are kids; they don't know how to lead themselves in most cases let alone teammates. To them being a captain is going out for the coin toss and nothing more. In the past I asked a lot of my captains and like I said it became a negative thing. One player told me he didn't want to be my lap dog; OUCH!

So, going into year six I have some very strong prospects; some young who I'm not afraid to tap. We did not ask for applications but I have had two kids ask me if we were. That's application enough for now. The first requirement of leadership is wanting to lead. We are just going to see how things go the first week and take it from there. The cream will rise to the top.

Eventually we will get back to a full blown application/interview process but right now the kids aren't ready for it. I must lead them first.

Also, for what it's worth, I was the head GBB coach for three seasons and did the whole deal. Never had a problem. Had great captains that did their job, were respected by their teammates, and actauly helped in grooming future applicants/captains through a little program they did on their own.

Girls were actually much easier to coach in many regards. To bad we don't have girls FB but that's a whole different topic.

The shirt & tie (sometimes jacket) was completely the kids doing. The first year we did the interviews...all I said was the that these would be conducted in a formal setting...kids showed up well prepared and dressed appropriately. It was great to see 12 kids giving their all with this situation.

On game days I simply ask the official if he will allow 5 (some do without a problem), and if not then we rotate the 4 captains that head to midfield and then 1 stays in endzone with team during coin flip. This is handled during pre-game and the captains have already determined who will stay between themselves so there is no problem.

The way I see captains and their role within the team is that they are the liasons. They should be ready to voice individual/team concerns that don't come out during practice time. They lead/help organize summer activities and serve as mentors to younger players (sophs or occaisionally freshmen) who might be on the varsity. One of the questions I ask is how do you feel about being put in a situation where you have to put team above a friendship if that friendship is hurting the team? "Sometimes you just gotta let a man go...Ray." (Remember the Titans)

The reasons I like more captains than less (if there are enough quality candidates), is that individuals possess certain qualities that make them leaders in their own right. Some are vocal, some are great players who lead by example, and others are do what ever is asked, might not be a great player...or even a starter on offense of defense, but do it in the classroom and on the field to their fullest potential. Had a kid one year that was a 95+ average, never missed a practice in 6 years, played any position you asked, jumped into every scout situation...without being asked. Only started maybe 8 JV games total, and 4 varsity games on O/D. But was everything you looked for in a leader (other than being an average player because of his size...a real string bean). He filled a needed void of leadership and was a great special teams contributor. He nailed the interview, application was flawless and he served us well as a captain. Kids followed although they knew he was never going to start for us...they still respected what he brought everyday in all areas.