YOUR SPORTS
In this week’s Your Sports, Sudeep Mathew, captain of the ECA Hounds of the Concordia Ice Hockey League tells us what it’s like to be a captain of a recreational sports team.
According to Mathew, it is a lot of hard work, but in the end, it’s all worth
it.
The semester has started, as with every new school year, we have the start of the ice hockey season.
Concordia has a great league run by the athletics department.
The teams are spread over five divisions and each is managed by a captain.
Well, as one of those captains, I can tell you a little about having a team to take care of.
Now being the team captain can be an amazing experience when you have a great team, but it can be very trying when you have problems.
Aside from being the only person who deals with the league for everything from the money aspect to the one who receives the schedule, the captain has to ensure his team runs smoothly.
This incorporates many aspects, like making sure you have enough guys at a game, to dealing with player conflicts that can arise from playing such an action filled sport.
Every season starts with a simple captains meeting with league co-ordinator, Mike Rinaldi, where the team names and rosters are submitted along with the deposit that covers incidentals over the course of the season (this includes fines for suspensions and defaults or spare fees).
After that, the captain needs to get his team together for that first game and make sure that all the players have paid their $85 registration fee.
Once the off-ice details are taken care of, you get to the on-ice aspect.
Every captain has their own style.
Some guys are very vocal on the ice, some very quiet, and some, they just lead by example.
The captain manages the team, but for the most part, once the season is on its way, the team generally takes care of itself at the rink.
After playing ice hockey for years, most players know when to jump in and out of the plays, when to take time on the bench, and the little things that come from knowing the game.
This of course is when you have good bunch of players on your team.
But there is the occasional pain in the, um… posterior.
You know the guy, the one who thinks he knows everything. The key is making sure that he and everyone else on the team get along and that no conflict arises.
Sometimes it’s manageable and easily fixed, but sometimes it isn’t and a more permanent solution is required.
I think that this is the hardest part, to ask someone to change or leave for the good of the team, but I think it’s required of a good captain.
But it usually doesn’t come to that, since the objective is to smooth things out before it gets to that point.
For the most part the captain’s life is pretty decent: Get on the ice and play your best.
It can be a lot of work at times, especially when it comes to getting your
players to show up for every game, but even with the work involved, I think most captains in the league enjoy their job.
The little headaches are nothing compared to the satisfaction of icing a good, committed team of guys who love the game as much as you do.
