Here, I am
going to discuss my reputation as the captain of my travel baseball team and how
I built the reputation that earned me that position. Upon making the team
through a series of three days of try-outs, the coaches announced that they
would be looking for three captains to serve as a closer tie between coach and
team. These captains would also serve the purpose of running warm ups and other
basic components of practice that didn’t require a coach at the ability level
we were competing at. These captains needed to be well respected by the coaches
as well as their teammates, and although I wasn’t the most athletic member of
the team, I worked my way into this position. It began with coming to practice
earlier than the mandatory time and staying later practicing small aspects of my
swing and fielding. I initially did this just because I enjoyed the sport of
baseball and practice acted as a nice get away from school and work. Quickly,
my teammates and coaches noticed the extra work I was putting in and it
influenced other members to stay longer. Not only was I the first one in and
last one out but I also prided myself to keeping a high level of intensity
while practicing. I was not one to take a rep off or have a lazy practice.
Although I don’t
believe I ever “shirked” on my responsibilities in order to benefit myself,
there were definitely moments where I wasn’t ecstatic to be a captain. Whenever
the team had a poor performance the coaches came down on the captains much
harder than they did the rest of the team. This additional accountability was
stressful and sometimes felt unfair. In hindsight, it was definitely just a way
for the coaches to make sure that they got their point across. Teammates
generally listen more to each other so if the captains were sharing the views
of the coach it made things a lot easier on the coaches. This did have an
upside, however. When our team performed especially well it felt as if being
captain entitled me to the victory.
In economics
and organizations, I think shirking is a more prevalent topic. It seems that a
lot of business is done just to maximize profits and not necessarily to stay
true to moral codes or reputations. In business, giving up a reputation may
earn you a hefty profit. For example, a company that has a great reputation for
quality may decide to lower quality standards to save on production costs. If
they can do this without substantially upsetting buyers, they can leave their reputation
of quality for a higher revenue.
What is a travel baseball team? I'm going to give a guess here. Please correct me if I'm wrong. First, you are talking about high school, right? Second, there are more players on the team who practice than there are who play. It is the one who play who are the travel team. Third, if somebody gets injured on the travel team then one of those alternates gets promoted.
ReplyDeleteIf this is right, I assume the captains also are for the non-traveling members of the team.
I liked your second paragraph, as it speaks to what happens when you have increased responsibility, in general. There are times when that is painful. There are other times when it is quite rewarding. You must have wanted the increased responsibility overall. I assume you don't have to be a captain, even if it was offered to you.
One other thing you didn't say, I assume the coaches were teachers at your school. If so, they have to balance their teaching responsibilities with their coaching. Using captains in this way is sensible under the circumstances, because of limited funding. I suspect that at the college level while the teams may have captains, their roles are quite different.
You said the key to being a captain is to have the respect of both the coaches and the players. And in describing how that respect was earned you mainly talked about the amount of time put into practice. I wonder if there is more to it than that and whether you'd elaborate on the following. Is their a right way to practice? Does it matter from one player to another? Can high school players actually over practice? Does the way the team practices change over the season?
I don't know the answer to these questions, but it would help to explain the real question, that brings this example back to our course. Does the captain simply carry out the instructions of the coach? Or does the captain also make observations about the players which might encourage some tinkering with practice based on what seems to be happening? This latter thing would indicate a good deal of trust by the coaches in the captain.
In my town, the travel team was a separate organization from the high school. The coaches were volunteers that had been in the program awhile or had a son on the team. These teams were meant to be extra practice during the summer for players.
DeleteI would agree that there was more to earning respect than just hard work. I think that every coach has their own idea on the right way to practice and that the correct way is entirely an opinion. I've never been apart of the two teams where the practices were run entirely the same. Obviously warming up is relatively similar but after that is up to the coach. Coaches differ on what they think needs most practice and different teams have different weaknesses. As these weaknesses become clearer throughout the season, practices will change to fix these problems. During the season we would be given days off specifically not to over practice us (this was with my high school team and not my travel team).
With regards to your last paragraph, the captains had meetings with the coaches and the coaches were open to suggestions on how to improve practice and lineups. So there was a great deal of trust between captain and coach.