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Youth Sport Leadership Development:Leveraging the Sports CaptaincyExperienceDaniel Gould a & Dana K. Voelker aa Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, Michigan State University,East Lansing, Michigan, USA

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Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 1:1–14, 2010Copyright © Association for Applied Sport PsychologyISSN: 2152-0704 print / 2152-0712 onlineDOI: 10.1080/21520704.2010.497695

Youth Sport Leadership Development:Leveraging the Sports Captaincy Experience

DANIEL GOULD and DANA K. VOELKERInstitute for the Study of Youth Sports, Michigan State University,

East Lansing, Michigan, USA

Leadership has been identified as an important but underdevelopedlife skill among youth athletes. This article discusses a recent effortto develop leadership by taking a formal educational approach tothe sport captaincy experience. More specifically, the Institute forthe Study of Youth Sports has partnered with the Michigan HighSchool Athletic Association to create the MHSAA Captain’s Lead-ership Training Program. The program’s design, structure, andcontent are discussed as well as our biggest successes, challenges,and future directions. Implications for sport consultants, coaches,and other practitioners are provided.

KEYWORDS youth sports, motivation, coaching, youth develop-ment, captainship, sport, leadership

When children and youth are enrolled in sports, it is believed that they willbenefit from their experience. Parents, coaches, and school administratorsoften assume that in addition to physical fitness, children and youth willacquire important life skills just by being there (Gould, Carson, Fifer, Lauer,& Benham, 2009). However, initial research indicates that mere sport par-ticipation does not guarantee life skill development, particularly leadership.In a recent interview study examining the high school captaincy experi-ence, all 13 former high school captains reported that they were not trainedor prepared by their coaches for their leadership role (Voelker, Gould, &

The authors would like to acknowledge the many contributions of Andy Frushour andAndy Osters of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, not only in terms of theprogram’s overall development, but relative to the tremendous effort they have currently putinto scheduling and organizing the captains’ clinics.

Address correspondence to Daniel Gould, Michigan State University, Institute for theStudy of Youth Sports, 210 IM Circle, East Lansing, MI 48824. E-mail: drgould@msu.edu

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2 D. Gould and D. K. Voelker

Crawford, 2010). Moreover, captains most often reported that their leader-ship duty was organizational in nature, like calling the coin toss and choosingthe team’s attire. Conclusions from this study indicated that captains werenot given opportunities to exercise advanced leadership skills like helpingcoaches plan practice or lead team meetings (Voelker, Gould, & Crawford,2010). Given the simplified nature of their roles and responsibilities, as wellas the lack of purposeful adult mentorship and teaching, the degree to whichthese athletes really learned about leadership is questionable.

Still, other research suggests a tremendous need for leadership de-velopment in young people (Gould, Smith, White, & Chung, 2006; vanLinden & Fertman, 1998). In particular, Gould and colleagues examinedthe perceptions of high school coaches on player life skill and social issuesand found that poor leadership was the sixth most frequently cited prob-lem among adolescent athletes today. The lack of purposeful initiative toteach young people how to lead, despite the apparent need to do so, par-allels the general youth development literature (e.g., van Linden & Fertman,1998).

This article discusses a recent effort to reverse the deficit in youth lead-ership development through sport and hopefully will advance our under-standing of youth leadership in general. More specifically, the Institute forthe Study of Youth Sports (ISYS) partnered with the Michigan High SchoolAthletic Association (MHSAA) to develop the MHSAA Captain’s LeadershipTraining Program (CLTP). This program was designed to teach high schoolstudent-athletes leadership skills and to thereby enhance the high schoolsports experience. The philosophy, design, content, implications, and futuredirections of CLTP will be discussed.

YOUTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PHILOSOPHY

Leadership is a highly valued construct, but it is not always easily definedor understood. Over time, we at ISYS have developed a leadership philos-ophy that serves as a foundation for all of our outreach work in this area.This philosophy is based on the latest leadership research conducted withadults (Anderson, 2007), youth leadership research and theory (Martinek &Hellison, 2009; van Linden & Fertman, 1998), our own research on youthsport leadership (Voelker, Gould, & Crawford, 2010; Voelker, Gould, &Griffes, 2010; Voelker et al., 2010), and our staff’s five years of experiencein conducting CLTP. The fundamental principles of this youth leadershipdevelopment philosophy follow:

1. Leadership is a complex process that involves the effort of an individual(i.e., a leader) to help groups identify and achieve personal and groupgoals.

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Youth Sport Leadership 3

2. Effective leadership results from the reciprocal interaction of leader charac-teristics (e.g., traits, orientations, behavioral skills), follower characteristics(e.g., traits, orientations, behavioral skills), and situational influences (e.g.,resource availability, such as program funding).

3. All young people can and need to learn leadership skills. However, certainyouth will have characteristics and previous experiences that will increasetheir capacity to lead and enhance their leadership effectiveness.

4. Youth leadership development occurs in stages beginning with awarenessof one’s leadership capacity and the development of basic skills (e.g., mak-ing eye contact when communicating, focusing on positive reinforcement)and moving to more abstract interpretations of and interventions into one’senvironment (e.g., understanding the complexity of leader-follower dy-namics, developing and sharing a team vision, eliciting positive behaviorsfrom followers).

5. Learning how to lead is multi-faceted. Much of the literature suggests thatleadership may be developed through experience (observational and ex-periential learning), trial and error, mentorship, and formal education—thefocus of our initiative (e.g., Doh, 2003; Kempster, 2006; Kouzes & Posner,1987; Martinek & Hellison, 2009).

6. Effective youth leadership development requires experiential learning.Young people in a leadership role need supervising adults to allow themto make “meaningful” decisions and to become active agents in their owndevelopment. Cultivating leadership in young people is difficult whenadults dominate their sport environment.

7. Of all the venues that may be used to develop leadership in young peo-ple, sport appears to be one of the most underutilized. Highly valued inmany societies, sport is an activity that young people are highly motivatedto pursue and where youth believe their actions have important conse-quences. However, based on our research and personal and professionalexperiences, we have found that captainship is increasingly treated as aright and a status symbol that is granted when an athlete demonstrates out-standing athletic ability or reaches their senior year. Efforts to give highschool captains real leadership opportunities are not occurring enoughand when they do occur, captains are often ill prepared to handle them.When captainship is treated in this way, selfish entitlement is promotedand life skill development is undermined. Captainship, in our view, istherefore an underrecognized opportunity to teach young people aboutreal leadership.

THE MHSAA CAPTAIN’S LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM

CLTP has been developed over the last five years through a partnershipbetween the MHSAA and ISYS. Its purpose is to teach current and future

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captains how to be effective leaders in sport and to thereby improve thequality of high school athletics. By providing leadership training opportuni-ties in sport, it is our hope that youth will learn lessons that will equip themfor other leadership opportunities later in their lives. In its present form, theprogram is comprised of two parts: (a) a one-day in-person clinic; and (b) aself-study captain’s guide (available upon request from the first author).

Clinic Phase

The MHSAA offers several one-day captains’ leadership training clinics eachfall and spring semester. Typically, 4 to 8 clinics are held per academicyear throughout the state with between 100 and 200 athletes attending eachtime. Attendees include male and female, sophomore and junior high schoolathletes who have been purposefully selected to attend by their high schoolathletic departments. Some attendees are already captains. Others have notyet served in a formal captaincy role but have been identified as possessingthe leadership potential to become one in the future. The athletes are bussedfrom school with chaperones, including coaches and athletic directors.

Table 1 contains a typical clinic schedule. In the introductory session,each participant is provided with a six-chapter guidebook (i.e., Becoming anEffective Team Captain: Student-Athlete Guide) to complement the materialpresented in each session. A MHSAA presenter conducts an ice breaker activ-ity with the goal of alleviating anxiety about the day (e.g., Shoe activity—allyouth take off one shoe and place in a massive pile, athletes pick up theshoe of another person, find its owner, and get to know that person; Line-up activity—all youth line up in order according to their birthday with-out talking). The program’s purposes and expectations are outlined, withthe bulk of the time spent emphasizing the importance of leadership andthat leadership skills can be learned. These messages are conveyed throughPowerPoint slides and DVD interviews with high school captains who dis-cuss their captaincy experiences, including the challenges they have faced.

The focal point of the clinic is comprised of three breakout sessions.These typically consist of 20–25 clinic attendees randomly selected from dif-ferent schools. Breakout sessions are led by graduate students, faculty, andan occasional undergraduate intern involved in ISYS research and outreach.

TABLE 1 Typical Clinic Schedule

9:00 AM–9:55 AM: Introduction10:00 AM–10:50 AM: Breakout Session 1: What You Need to Know as a Leader10:55 AM–11:45 AM: Breakout Session 2: Handling Common Team Problems11:50 AM–12:20 PM: Lunch12:25 PM–12:50 PM: Breakout Session 3: Getting Your Questions Answered12:55 PM–1:30 PM: Closing: Where to Go From Here

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Youth Sport Leadership 5

In the first breakout session, the major components of leadership are intro-duced (e.g. positive peer modeling, communication, motivation, and teamcohesion). The athletes then take part in various exercises and discussionsthat help them derive how they may assess and improve their skills as a cap-tain in key leadership areas (e.g., how to approach and talk to their coachwith player issues, how to motivate teammates).

In the second breakout session, the athletes have an opportunity toidentify common team problems and collaborate with peers on how theymight handle each difficult situation as a leader. In the last breakout, athletesare encouraged to ask questions, receive feedback from adults in the room,and participate in goal-setting exercises specifically pertaining to their lead-ership development. All of these sessions are primarily athlete-discussiondriven with minimal, if any, emphasis on PowerPoint lectures. More de-tail on the purpose and content of each breakout session is provided inTable 2.

In the closing session, a MHSAA presenter recaps the day, reviews themajor take-home messages, and emphasizes the importance of applyingwhat they learned to their scholastic sport experiences. Unlike the previoussessions, the closing session is organized to allow coaches and athletesfrom the same school to sit together, collaborate, and develop an actionplan for putting their newly acquired knowledge into practice. The athletesand administrators are also encouraged to use the clinic as a starting pointto engage in a regular dialogue about the captaincy experience at theirrespective schools. Each participant is encouraged to continue using thesix-chapter guidebook they received at the beginning of the day.

The Self-Study Team Captain’s Guide

While we have found the clinics to be a good way to teach young peopleabout leadership, we did not believe that the clinics alone would be enough.For this reason we have written a six-chapter guidebook titled, Becoming anEffective Team Captain: Student-Athlete Guide. Each chapter of this self-studyguide discusses a specific leadership area (e.g., motivation, communication,team building). Content includes basic information on the topic, examplesof athletes, coaches and statespersons who are effective in implementingthe leadership skill, and practical guidelines for using the information as acaptain (see Table 3). All chapters contain a number of exercises for theathletes to complete in the clinic and on their own. For example, they maycreate a profile of their captain capabilities, identify the characteristics ofthe most and least effective communicators they have observed in sport andotherwise, work through specific case examples, or list their motivationalstrengths and areas for improvement. While the guide is designed to paralleland complement the information contained in the clinic, it can also be used

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Youth Sport Leadership 7

TABLE 3 Becoming an Effective Team Captain: Student-Athlete Guide Content

1. Introduction—About the Captain’s Guide– Why you are here– What to expect– How to use the guide

2. My Role as a Team Captain– Captain roles and responsibilities– Assessment of leadership abilities (strengths and areas for improvement)– Complexity of leadership and its components (leader, followers, situation)– Key leadership principles– Case examples of effective leaders and captains

3. Effective Communication– Characteristics of most and least effective communicators– Keys to effective communication (verbal, nonverbal, listening)– Communicating with coaches

4. Team Motivation—The Captain’s Central Role– Motivational duties as a captain– Characteristics of motivated teams– Guidelines for understanding and improving team motivation

5. Team Building & Cohesion– Characteristics of effective teams– Development of team unity, identity and pride, respect, trust, and responsibility– Assessment of team cohesion– Strategies for improving team cohesion

6. Handling Tough Team Situations– Assessment of common team problems experienced and the effectiveness of your

response– Strategies for making tough decisions, resolving conflict, and handling tough team

situations (e.g., losing streaks, tough losses, poor performance, poor off-the-fielddecisions)

– Development of a plan for handling common team problems7. Recommendations from Captains and Coaches

– E.g., Don’t put yourself above others and get too caught up in being a captain8. Using What You Learned

– Assessment of leadership lessons learned and how they will be used– Development of a leadership plan for your school/team

if one did not attend the program (e.g., if a captain wanted to share it witha co-captain who was not in attendance).

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

What Has Gone Well

At the end of each clinic, the MHSAA staff asks participants to evaluatethe content of each session as well as the effectiveness of the instructorsthrough brief informal written surveys. Thus far, the athletes have consis-tently reported that they have found the workshops to be both helpful andenjoyable and that the instructional staff is knowledgeable of the topics they

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introduce. One of the program components that coaches and athletic direc-tors particularly enjoy is that their athletes have an opportunity to meet theiropponents, develop relationships with identified leaders in other schools,and foster peer collaboration.

In addition to the attendees, the MHSAA staff has also been very pleasedwith the program and its development. More specifically, they believe thatCLTP not only exposes athletes to key principles of leadership, but thatit also provides them with practical strategies for exercising more effectiveleadership skills both in and out of their sport environment.

While not its primary intent, CLTP has served as an excellent trainingtool for sport psychology graduate students in developing their understand-ing of the high school athlete and coaching population. Novice presentershave also been provided with a valuable mentorship experience by pairingwith experienced facilitators. All presenters have been able to enhance theirpresentation, teaching, and rapport-building skills through the experience.

Finally, we have learned a great deal about developing leadership skillsfrom conducting this program. It has also raised several questions that haveled ISYS researchers to initiate a series of studies on youth sport leader-ship, including an examination of the high school captaincy experience andthe perspective of coaches on developing leadership skills in high schoolathletes.

What We Have Changed

THE MOVE FROM LECTURE TO FACILITATION

When we first began CLTP five years ago, we designed and delivered lec-ture sessions organized by topic, such as motivating teammates, effectivecommunication, and team building. While these were well received by clinicattendees, we as presenters felt that we did not connect enough with the ath-letes. At the same time, we were becoming better informed about the youthdevelopment literature which suggests that giving young people a sense ofempowerment is far more effective than following a more adult-dominatedmodel (e.g., Martinek & Hellison, 2009; van Linden & Fertman, 1998; Walker& Larson, 2006). Because of these experiences, we modified the programto give athletes a greater sense of control and responsibility in their ownleadership development.

More specifically, athletes are no longer given information and told touse it. Lecture is therefore minimal. Rather than “spoon-feeding” the ath-letes information from expert authority figures, the program follows a farmore egalitarian model where the athletes are challenged to come up withanswers to big leadership questions themselves and encouraged to ask forhelp along the way. Through small and large group discussions and activ-ities, the athletes have an opportunity to collaborate with their same-age

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peers on various topics (e.g., how is leadership defined, what are the com-ponents of leadership, how do you develop these components in yourselfand others, how do you handle tough leadership situations). The programfacilitators guide, assist, and mentor the athletes by introducing them to ba-sic leadership content, outlining the structure of each session, and providingexamples, including those from their own sport-leadership experiences. In arecent qualitative study examining the best coaching practices for develop-ing leaders, half of the coaches interviewed reported that one of the biggestmistakes of coaches is not giving their captains enough responsibility or anopportunity to lead (Gould, Voelker, & Griffes, 2010). With the abovemen-tioned teaching methodology, athletes actually have a voice.

INCREASED EMPHASIS ON LEARNING LEADERSHIP

A major change has also taken place in the introductory session of the clinic.Formerly, this opening session provided a standard overview of leadershipwith large group icebreakers. Based on the results of our own line of re-search on youth captainship and other recent studies in the area, we haveidentified a need to additionally emphasize leadership as a skill that canbe learned. For example, in a recent qualitative study examining the highschool captaincy experience of 13 former high school captains, a surpris-ing number of participants reported that they believe that leaders are onlyborn (Voelker et al., 2010). What may be gleaned from this finding is thatnot every CLTP participant believes there is something they can changeabout their leadership potential, ability, skills, or effectiveness. This attitudedefeats the purpose of attending a clinic to improve leadership. The introduc-tory session to the program now therefore emphasizes leadership as a skillthat can be developed and refined with time, experience, mentorship, andeducation.

Current Challenges

STIMULATING DISCUSSIONS

One of the difficulties of our new program design is that there is a significantamount of reliance on the instructor to stimulate and maintain discussion.Giving the athletes more responsibility for their own leadership developmentin each session also means that the athletes must be active and involvedparticipants. Challenging and assisting athletes in their learning rather thandirecting and telling athletes what to do often takes a more skilled instructor,teacher, and mentor. This task is made especially difficult because instructorshave no prior experience with the specific athletes attending and because theparticipants are often hesitant to speak up in a new social situation. To help inthis regard, ISYS provides training for all facilitators and presenters. Table 4

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TABLE 4 Presenter Recommendations to Trainees

Include time for questions at the end if possible.Make sure you plan how you will introduce yourself. Be confident but don’t brag. Talk

about your experiences and training briefly (less than 30 seconds) (e.g., “My name isDarlene Smith. I am a third-year PhD student in sport psychology at Michigan StateUniversity. I was the captain of the women’s soccer team at Penn State, as well as theassistant captain of the girls’ field hockey team in high school”).

Plan out the priorities to cover in each session. Then know what you will cut out if youdon’t have enough time.

By all means keep it active. Lectures don’t work well with this group.Be enthusiastic. Bring positive energy. Ask questions. Get them engaged. If you bring

energy to them, they will give energy back.Don’t be afraid to challenge them subtly and slightly if they are not participating. Do this in

a jovial manner, not a frustrated one (e.g., “Don’t raise your hands all at once!” ☺).Have fun. Remember that you are helping the state’s youth and if one person gets it, then

you have done our youth a great service.Be sure to mention/refer to the student-athlete guide at least once during your presentation.

We have created this guidebook and want them to use it (e.g., “On page 8 of yourguidebook, you can find more information on effective communication skills”; or “Thematerial we will be covering in this session is discussed in chapter 3 of your guidebook”).

Don’t wait until the night before to prepare even if you have done the presentation before!A professional prepares completely even when he or she feels they have the presentationmastered. We promise you this—you can be sharper, even if you are a veteran.

The captains are most receptive when the presentations are conversational, when you makethe information relevant to them (e.g., by using illustrative examples), and when youconnect with the group (vs. reading off the screen). These objectives are easier to achieveif you know the presentation information inside and out.

Remember, these presentations are not lectures! Try to get the group involved in some wayfor every PowerPoint slide you have (e.g., through questions, activities, etc.)—the morethe captains participate, the more they will get out of the sessions.

Don’t be afraid to adjust during and/or between sessions. Understand that you are not goingto reach, please, or entertain everyone, but it is a good idea to pay attention to what isworking, what isn’t working, and make changes when necessary.

Be enthusiastic and model interest in the material.Try chatting with the captains before and between sessions. The more they get to know

you, the more likely they are to be involved once your presentation starts.

provides several best practice recommendations that our own presentershave offered to those in training.

GETTING THE RIGHT STUDENT ATHLETES INVOLVED

We quickly discovered that some athletes viewed the program as a dayoff of school rather than an opportunity to develop athletic and leadershippotential. These athletes were simply not paying attention, and instructorshad to work even harder to engage them. In a few cases, athletes were askedto leave the session. One way we are trying to resolve this issue is by havingthe MHSAA implement a more rigorous and standardized selection processthat increases the likelihood of inviting athletes who really want to be there.Some could argue that the athletes who are not as interested in leadership

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development are also those who need it the most and who might benefit ifonly they were exposed to leadership training. The best method for selectingparticipants is still under consideration.

DETERMINING THE LEADERSHIP CAPACITY OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Developmental research tells us that while high school students may looklike adults, they differ developmentally in many ways. For example, whilethey have the ability to be empathic and focus on the needs of others, theyare still more egocentric, or self-focused, than adults (Kegan, 1982). Thisdevelopmental consideration certainly affects their leadership capacity sincemuch of leadership requires self-sacrifice and a focus on the welfare of oth-ers. We constantly find ourselves asking questions like, what is the capacityfor youth leaders to develop transformational leadership skills, like playinga role in developing the team’s vision? Or, given the emphasis on peer ap-proval, how likely is it that youth leaders will feel comfortable calling outteammates who are not giving maximum effort or conforming to team rules?We are hoping to provide answers to questions like these by continuing toacquire information through research and professional practice.

LACK OF SUPERVISING TEACHER/COACH INVOLVEMENT

Another notable challenge is that coaches and athletic directors attendingthe program have served primarily as chaperones but not participated insessions despite an invitation. In turn, the athletes attending the programhave not generally had the support or accountability for implementing whatthey have learned on their teams and in their schools. Possible solutions tothis and other issues described above are discussed next.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Develop a Concurrent Program for Supervising Coaches

Our current design and structure is far more consistent with “what works”based on the youth development literature and continues to be well receivedby our audience. Still, we are looking at future developments. One of ourbiggest goals is to develop a concurrent program for coaches and athleticdirectors on how to develop youth leadership through sport, while incorpo-rating the content that the athletes are learning in their own sessions. Thesame leadership philosophy would be emphasized (e.g., sport participationalone does not breed leadership—it must be proactively developed). Ses-sion topics would include leadership training methods they can use with

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their own athletes and how to develop a sport leadership development ini-tiative in their own schools. The biggest mistakes and recommendations forworking with team captains informed from the results of a series of recentstudies (e.g., Gould, Voelker, & Griffes, 2010) would also be discussed. Likethe guide for student-athletes, a manual designed specifically for coachesand athletic directors would also be created.

Hold Participants More Accountable

Another important goal is to develop an accountability piece to the program.Athletes are not developing real leadership if they use nothing they learnedin their everyday lives. In turn, we would like to better encourage coachesand athletic directors to follow-up with their athletes and reinforce the imple-mentation of leadership skills learned in the program. For example, feedbackmight be provided to captains via a leadership report card. We have alsopondered the idea of developing a protected online group for current andfuture captains to collaborate on leadership issues.

Develop a Complete Program

With more research and professional practice in this area, we ultimately hopeto produce a Youth Sport Leadership Development Package. This packagewould include tested program materials designed to allow athletes, coaches,and athletic directors to implement their own leadership groups, programs,and mentorship experiences in the schools. In this way, a youth sport lead-ership initiative could be more easily implemented statewide and beyond.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

To this point, we have provided an abundance of information on how wehave approached leadership development through sport. In sharing our phi-losophy as well as our biggest successes and challenges, our hope is tobring attention to this very important but under-acknowledged life skill. Assport consultants, it appears commonplace to address issues of confidence,focus, motivation, team building, and communication with our athletes andteams. Fewer have addressed performance enhancement from a leadership-building perspective. After all, we are only beginning to develop models,research initiatives, and guidelines for doing so, as previously illustrated.In addition to addressing leadership development with athletes and teams,conducting statewide programs for high school athletics is another possiblesource of consulting revenue.

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For coaches, leadership also appears to be under-recognized. That is,many coaches appear to be frustrated with the leadership on their teams,but few appear to proactively develop leadership skills in their athletes.Coaches can play numerous roles in the leadership development process.For example, coaches can be cultivators of leadership themselves by serv-ing as positive role models, providing a mentorship experience to captains,teaching their captains about leadership principles, and providing feedbackon their captain’s leadership skills throughout the season. Coaches can usethe same principles of empowerment and autonomy by giving their captainsan opportunity to lead and providing a legitimate leadership role with clearexpectations and reasonably challenging responsibilities. Coaches can alsopromote and support other venues by encouraging their athletes to attendsport leadership development initiatives and by holding their own athletesaccountable for what they have learned.

For everyone involved in facilitating leadership development throughsport, we recommend consulting the relevant literature, collaborating withothers on the topic, and doing your own leadership exploration. What isleadership to you, why is it important, and how can you best develop itin the young people you work with? Numerous initiatives have involvedyoung people in volunteer work and service learning projects and thencalled it a leadership development program. We are questioning how muchleadership development is occurring if leadership skills are not proactivelytaught. Similarly in sport, we encourage you to ask yourselves how muchour athletes are learning about leadership just by being there and to whatdegree we need to do something more to develop leaders for our future.

REFERENCES

Anderson, N. B. (Ed.). (2007). Leadership [Special issue]. American Psychologist,62(1), 1–47.

Doh, J. P. (2003). Can leadership be taught? Perspectives from management Educa-tors. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2, 54–67.

Gould, D., Carson, S., Fifer, A., Lauer, L., & Benham, R. (2009). Social-emotional andlife skill development issues characterizing today’s high school sport experience.Journal of Coaching Education, 2, 1–25.

Gould, D., Voelker, D. K., & Griffes, K. (2010). Best coaching practices for developingteam captains. Manuscript in preparation.

Gould, D., Smith, P., White, J., & Chung, Y. (2006). Future directions in coaching lifeskills: Understanding high school coaches’ views and needs. Athletic Insight:The Online Journal of Sport Psychology, 8, 1–11.

Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self: Problem and process in human development.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kempster, S. (2006). Leadership learning through lived experience: A process ofapprenticeship? Journal of Management and Organization, 12, 4–22.

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Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. P. (1987). The leadership challenge: How to get extraor-dinary things done in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Martinek, T., & Hellison, D. (2009). Youth leadership in sport and physical education.New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.

van Linden, J. A., & Fertman, C. I. (1998). Youth leadership. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass.

Voelker, D. K., Gould, D., & Crawford, M. J. (2010). The experience of high schoolsport captains. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Walker, K., & Larson, R. (2006). Adult-driven youth programs: An oxymoron? ThePrevention Researcher, 13, 17–20.

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