Being a captain of a sports team is not just about wearing a C on your jersey, but about leading the team. Sitting back and relaxing is not an option. The captains use many ways to lead a sports team that can be successful. Oakton has many sports teams in the fall and they all have captain with different techniques to lead. Some of those different ways are autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire.

Autocratic is when the captain makes the decision without consulting his fellow teammates at all. This style is very useful when decisions need to be made quickly and decisively, when there is no need for team input, or when team agreement isn’t necessary for team success. The issues with this style is that it can demoralize a team and can possibly even cause players to quit. This style is most likely the least popular style used by oakton team captains. The next style is the most common among the three.

Democratic leading is the most common leading style because it is inclusive while still having the most power with the captain. This style encourages creativity and the teammates are included in the decision making process, but the captain still makes the final decision. This leading style tends to lead to higher satisfaction among players, and players have higher productivity. Some issues with this style is that decisions are not made quickly, so in a huddle are between dance routines this is not the best leading style.

The last leading style is laissez-faire which the second most common leading style. This style is where the captain gives the players a lot of freedom to do the task the way they want to. The captain is mainly there for support and advice. This style would most likely be used in a workout room or weightroom. This style can lead to high satisfaction, but also can be very bad is the players do not manage their time well.  

The captains at Oakton need to use leadership skills in order to spur their team to victory. Winning is not an easy task and a team is only as good as its leader and the captains know that. The captains work hard on having their team trust and respect them. Trust is an important aspect of the captain’s leadership because if the team doesn’t trust their captain to make the right decision they will second guess every decision. Oakton needs good captains in order to lead us to victory and so far our captains have done a good job.