Poll: How do coaches choose team captains?

In November, Coach & Athletic Director asked coaches how they choose captains with their respective teams — do coaches or players pick? Here are the results along with some comments.

• Most years it’s a coaches pick. There have been a handful of years that I’ve allowed the team to vote. I think it depends on the make up of the team. Some years I feel the need to appoint someone while other years I wanted the team to have a say in the matter.

• Players pick in the spring of the year for the following year. Coaches also get a vote. That way captains are in place all summer and fall before the season starts.

• Any senior player who has demonstrated commitment to the program in both the regular season and off-season are designated captains for the year.

• We do a vote that is a democratic dictatorship under control of the coaches with a voting ballot.

• As cross country coach I used to let the runners pick and most of the time they did a good job, but a few times there have been some not so good choices. Therefore, I started to stagger the captains; that is, we’d have two seniors and one junior, then when that time approached I’d have an idea of who would be a good choice, but I’d run it by the athlete first, so they had a say, but mainly those who would be working with them. It has proved to be successful.

• Players vote for 2-3 guys. Then, coaches evaluate the results and help break “ties”. We strive to have one Senior and one Junior as well.

Players are trained through the book “The 12 Leadership Principles of Dean Smith”, then given the summer to show they are capable. After the summer, coaches meet to select the 2 who showed the most ability.