I was selected to be the co-captain of the tennis team during my sophomore season, initially I felt ill prepared to lead my teammates many of which were upperclassmen. Despite trying my best, I struggled focussing on my responsibilities as a captain while also working to develop my game.

During my Junior year season I noticed my captainship skills progressing, but I still felt I was lacking a certain element in my leadership skills and the team felt disjointed.

Then during my senior year, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in a leadership training program implemented by the athletic program at Park that met weekly on Thursday mornings specifically to instill leadership values in its sports’ captains.

The class which met for an hour at 7:30 a.m. was instructed by Kevin King who shared his knowledge about the principles of steward leadership and gave us opportunities to practice public speaking, a skill I learned was vital for a captain.

While being taught this new information, King insisted that we look for ways to implement the material within our respective teams to strengthen the unity of our respected teams preaching that content without application is purely useless.

From these trainings, I was able to apply new communicative skills with the tennis team in order to establish a team culture that had been missing in my prior years as a captain. Despite the program being targeted specifically to improve the skills of captains the material taught in the course is also widely applicable for students as they transfer from high school and into the workforce and corporate america.

Personally, I feel that this class is essential for sports captains and is an invaluable experience if students take the information seriously and attempt to implement their new knowledge. By providing this resource for captains, St. Louis Park is investing in both their high school sports teams by fostering strong team cultures and also their student athletes.