The Captains’ Council is designed to bolster Upper School sports teams in multiple ways. It strengthens bonds within sports teams, upholds accountability and creates a space to resolve any issues within sports teams, according to girls varsity basketball Head Coach Darryn Sandler ’95.
The group was redesigned in the 2023-2024 school year and now meets during the respective sports seasons at the beginning, middle and end prior to the Southwest Preparatory Conference championships.
“I think it helps individual captains and different teams because it allows us to ask other captains that are going through similar things for their advice on how to handle things,” said junior Kendall Johnson, a girls varsity volleyball captain.
Meetings
During meetings, captains are grouped randomly and are tasked with different aspects of team building to discuss.
On Oct. 9, the Captains’ Council met and spoke about accountability and how team captains should emulate these core values of being an athlete to set a good example for the rest of their members, according to senior Chris Williams, a boys varsity track and field captain
Many captains say they found the prompted discussion to be useful.
“I think accountability is one of the most important parts of playing a group sport,” said senior Lauren Harrington, a girls varsity field hockey captain. “I try and own up to my mistakes on the field and show other players that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but just a learning curve.”
Each meeting is proctored by an athletic administrator and a group of varsity coaches who are not currently in season in an attempt to ensure students don’t feel pressured to not share something in front of a current season sport, according to Sandler.
For the fall season, these meetings have been run by Assistant Head of Athletics John Rortvedt, varsity boys tennis Head Coach Scott Cotton, varsity girls softball Head Coach Monica Stephens, varsity boys golf Head Coach Will Turbyne, Director of Sports Performance Jessen Houston and Sandler.
“[The coaches] try and get the kids to talk as much as possible,” said Sandler. “Part of what [the coaches] do is send a summary to all the head coaches of what was talked about and if it’s something we feel a captain should talk to their coach about, we’ll encourage them do that.”
There will be one more meeting before the SPC championships to discuss handling pressure situations, adversity and getting ready for the season-ending tournaments, according to Sandler.
After that, the coaches overseeing the meetings will change to coaches currently not leading a team competing in the winter season: Associate Head of Athletics Teressa Thomas, varsity cross country Head Coach Jason Yaffe, varsity girls volleyball Head Coach Tatiane Deibert, Head Football Coach KJ Williams and varsity track and field Head Coach Stacey Johnson.
“I hope it becomes something that we have to do less coaching of leadership, because the younger student athletes will be able to model good leadership from the captains we get to work with,” said Sandler.
Improvements
Now that the Captains’ Council has been functioning for two years, student captains would like to see a few new things implemented.
“In the future I think it could be more community-based and have the discussions reach a bigger audience,” said Williams. “Another thing would be to have more people available to talk.”
Houston, who sits in the meetings, says there is an ongoing discussion on how to improve the council.
“The captains feel like they need some empowerment, and that’s one of the things that as a department we have to do a better job of as coaches and the overall Athletics Department,” said Houston.
Looking Ahead
As Captains’ Council meetings continue throughout the year, students say they are hopeful about creating a stronger bond between the captains as well as a more direct approach to leadership within the Athletics Department.
“I am super excited to be part of this and I think it’ll really help our teams grow and be the best they can,” said Harrington.
For the upcoming Captains’ Council meetings in the winter, Williams says he thinks it would be beneficial to discuss the topic of off-season training.
“Since it’s winter I’m actually out of sports so I would like to talk about off-season training and getting the teams together during the off season,” said Williams.
Sandler says he is hopeful that these meetings will allow the captains to learn from each other and grow into great leaders within the Greenhill community. He also sees them as strengthening bonds between athletic teams.
“How people lead in programs is typically modeled from the leaders they previously played with,” Sandler said.
For coaches like Sandler, an overarching goal is to ensure that “our student-athletes realize that many people on the campus value what they do for our athletic programs.”
