King School Athletics takes a proactive and holistic approach to supporting the growth and development of our student-athlete leaders. Part of this holistic approach includes our Upper School Captain’s Council, which is composed of varsity and JV team leaders for each of the more than 30 programs we offer at the upper school level.
The Captain’s Council meets up to twice a month for one hour. Program leaders Emma Jonsson, Director of Student Athlete Health Services, and Nate Jean-Baptiste, Athletics Coordinator for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, work with the students on many different topics, including communication and active listening, commitment, accountability, and conflict resolution.
By engaging in these interactive sessions, our captains collaboratively grow together, build on a wide variety of leadership skills, and develop tools and techniques to help better support their teammates on and off the field, court, and ice.
Our Captain’s Council theme for this year is ‘Leading from Within’. Currently, the captains are working on creating a Mission Statement that will further enrich and empower our Captains to lead their respective teams.
The responsibility for the selection of our Vikings athletes of the week has also now shifted from our coaches to our captains. This additional level of accountability has provided growth opportunities for our captains, pushing them to think more deeply about the positive attributes of their teammates and to also think more broadly about what makes a good teammate and puts a student in position to be named as an athlete of the week.
Outside of the work with our captains, we also celebrate all of our student-athletes as leaders through different programming and events. Each year during fall preseason, we hold our annual Women of Will Leadership and Empowerment Day. This past August, more than 60 of our female student-athletes participated in the program, hearing from a keynote speaker on being brave and believing in the best about themselves, before hitting the beach for some yoga, ocean kayaking, and paddle boarding.
Following up on our Women of Will event, we will hold our annual Male Athlete Leadership Day on Saturday, February 4. During this program, we will welcome nationally renowned speaker Hakeem Rahim to present on breaking down the stigma around mental health and its effect on our athletes and society. Dr. Clyde Beverly, Director of Diversity Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Emma, and Coach Nate will moderate and host this extraordinary program, which will also include a wellness and movement component for all of the male-identifying student-athletes in attendance.