"I like to say something along the lines of "Captains, congratulations. You are the leaders of your teams. You will set the tone for sportsmanship, quality of play, and communication with us, the other team, and your own team. Use your position wisely - be leaders."
No offence, but I think if I scripted out a captain's meeting like that one,i'd either get laughed out of the circle, or get my *** kicked by them. Just my own opinion.
What I do is as follows:
1. make sure they introduce themselves, I don't care if they are best friends off the court. Someone in the stands sees these kids shaking hands and i think it makes it a more positive enviroment.
2. I warm them about all of our little local "points of emphasis" i.e. making sure all subs report, shirts, jewelery etc. We've been having some troubles with those problems in my area.
And finally I'll usually end with something along the lines like "Remember guys, you guys can deal with problems before I get a chance too, and the only way I can deal with bad stuff is to penalize it."
I try not to get to complicated and technical with my rules jargon, after all these are only highschool students. Needless to say, I don't use a word with any more than 4 letters when i talk to the coaches(Stop, Now,"T",BYE BYE!!..heeh)
That brings me to another point, in Ontario it has been my experience that the coaches brief/decloration has all but fallin' by the wayside...how many people goto the coach to have them verify the equipment/sportsmanship?
TR
[Edited by moose69 on Jan 21st, 2003 at 03:48 PM]
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