The last time runners voted for their captain, Cross Country (XC) Head Coach Charlie O’Rourke went with the result and stuck with it. Now, the coaches make the call.

    “That particular person just wasn’t a very good captain,” he said. “They were thinking more in ‘I’ rather than the team. So sometimes it doesn’t work.”

    How much say Upper School (US) players get in choosing their captains depends on what sport they play and whose team they’re on. Coach O’Rourke and the other XC coaches decide among themselves, with runners’ opinions considered on the side. Varsity Volleyball (VVB) Head Coach Jeff Emenaker goes by a feel and holds a vote only when the choice isn’t clear. Incoming Boys’ Varsity Soccer (BVS) Head Coach Grayson Holland said players should have a significant role. None of the three operate from a single formula.

    Coach O’Rourke did not strip the title from the captain voted in by players, he said.

    “I didn’t want to take the captaincy away from him because you always hope that maybe they’ll grow into it,” he said.

    He does not hold a player vote anymore. The XC coaches talk it over at the end of the season and the choice is usually unanimous, he said. This year the boys will open the season with one captain, Amo Forman ’27, and Coach O’Rourke plans to watch the first two weeks of practice before adding one or two more. The girls’ team has four, he said, because the team splits into groups by pace on a run and each group needs a captain with it.

    “I’ll have five captains. I don’t care,” Coach O’Rourke said. “This is high school. This is not the Olympics yet.”

   Tenure is a deciding factor, he said. A runner who transferred in as a junior or senior would not be named, no matter their speed.

   “That would be one in a million because it’s not fair to the kids that have been there for four years or three years,” he said. “If someone just comes in and just smokes everyone in all the races and everything, no, the team wouldn’t like that.”

    The previous season’s captains weigh in too, informally. Regardless of the selection process, the team usually arrives at the same conclusion, Amo said.

    “There are other sports that do a Google Form, pick-your-captain type of thing,” he said. “Either way, it’s usually a pretty obvious decision.”

    For VVB, Coach Emenaker makes the decision himself and uses a vote only as a tiebreaker.

    “I kind of do it by feel. I try to have a pulse of the team, try to observe what I see and combine all that, and use that to pick the right captains,” he said. “I have had years where we’ve done a vote as well, if it’s not clear-cut. Ultimately, I have the final say.”

    Coach Emenaker said he avoids a rigid selection process because the qualities that make an effective captain can vary from team to team.

    “I try not to have any set rules to it because … in my experience, I’ve seen too many times where the choice of a captain has set a team off on the wrong foot,” he said.

    Coach Emenaker chooses once the season starts. By then, a few players have usually stepped up on their own, Gwen Watson ’28 said. That leaves the VVB team without a captain in the summer.

    “We’re not really captains. We don’t know, but people who might be captains have been planning captain’s practices,” she said.

    Gwen said she can see why some may support a vote, though Coach Emenaker’s picks have made sense to her.

    “A lot of public schools and a lot of my friends vote for captains, which I think is pretty typical,” she said. “I think that would be beneficial, because I guess it’s who the team feels most comfortable with representing them. But it’s good that a coach has a perspective on it.”

    Coach Holland, who takes over BVS this fall, said players should carry a significant part of the decision.

    “While coaches will have a pulse of the team, often the players know even more,” he said. “Ultimately, the players are the ones that should earn trust and the respect of their teammates through their time with the team.”

    Coach Holland sees captain selection as part of a larger effort to build leadership within the team. “When times are tough the players are going to rely on each other,” he said. “The coach will always be there to encourage and support, but learning how and when to rely on your teammates is such an important experience.”