Captains’ Leadership Council: A Cutting-Edge Program at Newman

Can leadership be taught? Newman believes it can. One of the most powerful tools to teach leadership is the School’s athletic program and the relationship among team players, captains, and coaches. To strengthen this relationship and to educate team captains in leadership skills, the Athletic Department recently held its third annual Captains’ Leadership Retreat. This retreat kicks off the semester-long seminar class which is generously underwritten by a donation from the Green and White Club, and all varsity team captains are required to participate.

 

On Saturday, August 16, 2014, the captains of each varsity sport and their coaches met in the Mini Theater to engage in a day of leadership discussion, evaluation, and exercises led and facilitated by Julie Sterret of the Janssen Sports Leadership Center. Sterret is the Director of Lehigh Athletics Leadership Academy and participates in the review, evaluation, and development of the school’s 25 Division I sports teams. For the past seven years, she has conducted leadership seminars at high schools and colleges around the country. The group of captains and coaches spent the whole day exploring and discussing how to be effective leaders, skilled communicators, and role models for their teammates, the Upper School student body and the larger community.

 

By participating in the leadership retreat the student-athletes learned how to identify their own strengths and limitations as communicators and emerging leaders. They delved into their individual responsibilities and the shared responsibilities of their teams. They also worked on developing stronger relationships with their coaches to work toward common goals. An outcome of the process was to help captains work with the strengths of their team members, set high but achievable expectations, and follow through on team goals.

 

The coaches and captains huddled at tables, deep in discussions and intent on the tasks of the various exercises. Whether reflecting on leadership styles or collaborating on an exercise, the participants treated each task as a challenge, gave it their all, and had fun in the process. In one exercise, the team captains were given a number and told to find corresponding numbers and input them in a crossword puzzle. While they tried to accomplish this, another group member tried to distract them with commentary, misleading information, and taunts. Drew Drouilhet, a senior football captain, listed this “crosstalk” exercise as one of his favorites. “It really showed you the negative impact of distraction and second-guessing. It was a great exercise on sorting out irrelevant stimuli and developing focus,” he said.

 

Athletic Director Patrick Summerour ’95 said that the day’s events led to greater communication between coaches and captains, and that the exercise will help student and faculty leaders work better together. “Effective communication is at the foundation of any successful and healthy relationship. We dedicate a good bit of time in the retreat and in the course to helping our student-athletes realize how effective communication can foster healthy relationships and further increase their ability to achieve not only personal goals, but team goals. We believe this is essential to creating a championship culture here at Newman,” he said.

 

This event was just the first step in a continuing effort to promote great leadership among the varsity sports’ team captains. Throughout the first semester, the Athletic Department will hold regular weekly Captains’ Leadership Council meetings to instill in the student-athlete leaders how healthy, trusting relationships, combined with the components of teamwork, help to promote a championship culture. Through this, the Athletic Department will help establish a solid foundation of leadership and meet an ongoing goal of training leaders who consistently demonstrate good character, teamwork, and the School’s core beliefs. Ultimately, this is course is not just meant to provide our leaders the tools to effectively lead while on campus, but in future endeavors throughout their lives.