The captain of a local high school sports team here walked into the locker room on the first day of tryouts at the crack of dawn and made a disturbing announcement.
Had someone died? Was a teammate injured in a car accident or sports-related incident?
No. His important announcement? "I don't want to be here. I'm hung over."
Hung over. One of the captains of the team.
A senior...in high school!
Now, I'm not going to preach about the dangers of teenage drinking, or the long term effects of alcohol on health and sports performance.
What matters here is that this clown threw his pre-tryout night drinking binge and resultant hangover out there like a badge of honor.
Something of which to be proud.
Something, perhaps, that other team members, underclassmen and future captains should aspire to achieve.
A tryout hangover!
Here's what I think.
Strip him of his captaincy. Now. Yesterday. Publicly.
Then cut him. Turn him loose...ban him from the locker room and the arena.
Make it known that any team member associating with him will be benched. Maybe even cut.
Set an example for the rest of the team and the school community that this kind of crap is intolerable.
Set the tone for the future. A future without that kind of idiotic behavior.
Otherwise, your team gets to try and play in a present tainted by the small-minded bufoonery this "captain" represents!
What kind of culture will that create? Certainly not a "Culture of Victory With Integrity!"
Every captain, every senior leader and every underclass leader has a massive responsibility to everyone who looks to them for leadership and every underclassman who will come after them.
Leadership. Creating a team culture where victorious habits, speech and actions are the only acceptable ones.
In other words, recognizing and living the phrase every team we work with hears from us repeatedly:
What you leave behind is infinitely more important than what you accomplish here and now!
Do you agree? Then you belong here, and we'll see YOU at All-Star Sports Academy!
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1 comment:
I received this in email this morning
Leadership is difficult under any circumstance but when you are asked to lead in a place where excellence is demanded because of it's short but storied past, you can not and MUST NOT taint that legacy with behavior that would bring shame upon your name, your family and this great hockey franchise.
One must be awed when tasked to lead this great team.
Mon Don hockey has had some prolific leaders in its short history and we can not afford to allow that reputation of excellence get besmirched by one who is unworthy of this mantle of honor.
The underclassmen receive their tone and behavior levels from their leadership.
If the senior leadership leads by an example that says mediocrity is acceptable then we have the beginnings of a great franchise in decline. We can not let that happen.
While I feel bad for this athlete, I feel better about the future of this team I so love to follow.
Well said...keep the faith
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