Captains

"With great power comes great responsibility" - Uncle Ben Parker to nephew Peter, a.k.a. Spiderman

Okay, so now we've elected captains, the captains have picked teams and the soccer tournament has started. All the captains have to do now is Ro Sham Bo at the beginning of each game, right?

No. In some ways, the captains responsibilities are just beginning. The position of tournament team captain is a great chance for those who earn it to explore and test leadership abilities.

The two biggest challenges captains face are: 1) Keep the games competitive, but friendly, and most importantly, 2) Keep everyone on your team happy.

Through the years, I've seen some great captains. Examples:

Julia R.

Julia was a hockey captain. After her team tied its first playoff game, they chose a shootout as the tiebreaker. One of the team's players, Emily, was very nervous about it and told me so: "Mr Tong," she said, "I'm so scared I think I'm going to pee in my pants."

Julia heard this. She walked to Emily and said, "It will be okay. Just do your best. I'll still be your friend no matter what."

Emily missed. Julia ran over to her and gave her a huge hug.

Max K

Another hockey team captain, Max decided early in the tournament that his team was too slow to score many goals, so he convinced his whole team to concentrate on playing defense. The entire team purposely spent most of its games on the defensive end of the field.

They tried to score by slapping miss opponents shot way down the field and chasing them, hoping for a breakaway. This approach lead to many ties and no wins during the round robin. In the playoffs, they recorded their first win, 1-0 scoring their only goal on a breakaway. They made the finals.

In the championship game, they stuck to their game plan and held a high scoring opponent scoreless for most of the game. The game was decided in the last 30 seconds, when Max's opponent scored on a desperate 70 foot slap shot that bounced over several defender's sticks, including the goalie's.

A truly valiant effort by a physically over-matched team whose captain found a way for them to be successful.

Phebe M

Phebe did a remarkable job of rotating players in such a way as to insure that everybody got to play every position they wanted to play. The players were happy and it showed on the field, where the team finished the round robin in 1st place.

In the first round of the playoffs, Phebe stuck to her plan, rotating her players as usual, even though by now it was clear that some lineups were stronger than others. Phebe kept her players focused and enthused by offering words of encouragement like "good shot", and "it's okay" to her players. The players worked hard for each other, but the game ended in a tie. This meant a shootout.

During the shootout, Phebe, instead of putting her team's best goalie in goal, continued to rotate players at that position. One player allowed two goals, but the shootout ended in a 2-2 tie. This meant a sudden death shootout.

When it was time for the player who allowed the goals in the first shootout to take his turn, he hesitated. "I think maybe someone else should take my turn," he said.

"We can do that if you want," Phebe replied, "but I think you're one of our best goalies. I know you can this. We trust you."

The boy stepped into the goal and stopped the shot. Phebe's team went on to win the championship.

Afterward, one of Phebe's teammates, Sareesha, told me, "Mr. T., Phebe's a really good coach. I wish I could always be on her team."

Pat C

Pat C was a natural leader. He would organize whatever team he was on whether or not he was the captain. He came up with cheers for all of his teams. The team would use the cheer before each game. Any team he was on was always motivated and fired up through the sheer force of Pat's personality.

In the spring of 2002, Pat was officially the captain of a baseball team. We were having a mock World Series between the "Yankees" and the "Twins" (yes, I know that these are both AL teams, but these are the names the kids chose).

Before the first game, Pat walked out to address the whole class.

"Okay," he said, "I want the Twins to line up on the 3rd base line, and the Yankees to line up on the 1st base line."

Both teams did as they were told.

"Now," continued Pat, "Everybody take off their hats."

Everyone did.

"Okay. Now let's have a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11."

Once play started, Pat had plans for both offense and defense.

When his Yankees were in the field, he positioned his defenders according to where he thought the hitter was going to hit the ball.

When his team was batting, Pat always stood in the 3rd base coaches box. From there, using signals that he made up, he would tell his batters where to hit the ball. He would also give base runners instructions.

The result was almost unbelievable. His team played like it had been together for years; crisp, precise, machine-like.

On top of all this, he was very supportive of his players.

One girl, Lila, was a very good hitter, but not very confident and very shy. Pat knew this.

During one game, Lila came up with the bases loaded. The Yankees were behind. The Twins needed one out. Lila grounded weakly to the pitcher. Inning over. The Yankees groaned.

"Shut up!" shouted Pat, "she's a good hitter."

Turning to Lila, he said, "Nice try. You'll get 'em next time."

Later, Lila came to bat with runners on 2nd and 3rd. This time, Lila singled sharply to right, driving in both runners. Pat, from his spot on the 3rd base line, glanced at his team, nodded as if to say "see?", then shouted to Lila: "Good Job, Lila! Nice Poke!"

For the remainder of the tournament, the Yankees cheered for Lila every time she came up and she became a very valuable hitter for the team.

So you see, a captaincy is what one makes of it. Will I be writing about one of you someday?