My D is a rising senior and the top distance runner on her team. Unfortunately she was not selected as a captain in any of the three seasons. In her school captains are elected by the team and not appointed by the coach and have become popularity contests. Because the number of distance runners pales in comparison to the rest of the team, she was not selected. Does this hurt her recruiting chances or does it truly matter to admissions/coaches?
I believe being or not being elected captain is meaningless.
It will not hurt her at all. Only her times will matter to coaches. As far as admissions is concerned it would be a very minor thing.
Thanks for the feedback!
Demonstrated leadership ability is certainly not meaningless. Coaches love to see it but it doesn’t count against you if you don’t have it.
She has 3 years as class secretary and just lost the same for sr yr, again kids trying to boost their activities for college.
I think it is a plus to be chosen captain, but not an issue if you are not chosen. My daughter is in a spring sport, so even though she was chosen captain, it wasn’t announced until Jan so didn’t do much for applications, and she’d already signed her NLI. However, being captain really did give her leadership experience. The coach was young and I think put too much responsibility for team drama, girl drama, to the captains. She was the only one of the 4 captains that tried to organize ‘captains’ practices’ and get the varsity and jv teams to work together. It also showed her that being a captain isn’t that easy and that helped her go a little easier on the captain of her college team.
Was it a popularity contest? Somewhat, but my daughter was one of the best players, and she absolutely worked the hardest on her team so I feel she earned it. The team voted on the captains, but I think the coaches had veto power and manipulated the choices a little. It was a very big deal to my daughter to be chosen.
For a D1 recruit being a HS team captain does not mean much. It would be proper to leave this “leadership” position to regular teammates who will not have athletic support in admissions. This is how we saw it.
Our read on it was that college coaches were interested in filling their teams with athletes who understood something about leadership, motivation and teamwork. They were clearly as interested in students who demonstrated these abilities as they were with the particulars of their performance.
While track is scored as a team sport, it is the individual performance and stats that matter most. Admissions may want to have her be the team captain or display leadership in extracurricular activities, the coach will be more concerned with her times and performance.
Coaches tend to use OVs and personal conversations to get a feel for if her personality is a good fit and will be less concerned about if she was voted captain or not by the HS squad. Some of the best distance runners I know are extremely bright but true introvert personalities and were definitely not popular with the “in” group in school, but that didn’t mean coaches weren’t falling all over them come senior year.
First question is what is it about leadership that is important to a college coach? Well, in my opinion, those qualities are first that you are a good teammate, disciplined and coachable. Very rarely do you see problem athletes become captains. Also, that you are motivated, a key part of the team, and someone who generally will keep their head when the chips are down. There are different ways to show the qualities that coaches look for under the shorthand leadership. You can be a captain. You can show it through practice habits, which your high school coach can relay to the college coaches when they come to recruit. You can show it in your performance, how you prepare in your off season, lots of different ways.