"Captain, are you ready?"

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by Back In The Saddle
I'm still looking for a good reason that the notion of a captain exists, at least in HS ball. I suppose I'm technically incorrect by not asking the captains if they're ready to play before the toss, but I'm just crazy enough to believe that if they're 10 players on the floor, we're ready. If I need something fixed, I'm going to whomever looks like the most influential member of the team, captain or not. If I need a shooter for Ts, I ask the coach. If I asked the captain, he'd most likely just turn to the coach and ask. So....what's the point?

I've been in many captain's meetings where my partner will ask about the speaking captain and tell them that we'll come to them...blah blah blah and we only want to talk to you yadda yadda yadda. And I've never seen or heard a single one of them follow through with anything they've said.

I can see that it would be a kind of perk for coaches to recognize a player by making him/her a captain. But beyond that, what's the point?

BITS:

You asked why does the notion of captains still exist?

As one peruses the rules, one sees that the captain is referenced many times but the coach is only referred to with regard to the conduct of bench of personnel. The reason for is that long ago in a galaxy far, far away, the coach had absolutely no contact with the players on the court except during halftime. Players on the court were the only ones allowed to request a timeout, and when a timeout was granted the players had to stay on the court and could not communicate directly with the coach; these restrictions also applied to the intermission between the 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters, between overtime periods.

Just think how much easier and quicker the game would be if the game still had these restrictions.

MTD, Sr.