Under 12's choose their Captain!

There was great excitement and anticipation last week in the U12 camp with the pending announcement of a team captain for the season. This group of players is very diverse, with up to 22 months difference in age and every player bringing valuable attributes and skills to the team, both socially and on-field.

At this age the players are learning the ideals of leadership and also the responsibility involved in working with team leaders in ways that benefits themselves as well as their team. In the several weeks that the team has been together, a number of the players have shown natural leadership qualities.

It wasn't surprising that the team vote came down to a two horse race between Travis and Alex. Each player was given the opportunity to nominate two names for the captaincy and not surprisingly every player in the team voted for either Alex or Trav, while many players voted for both. Both boys display tremendous leadership among the team and are both well respected for their football ability and socially and also have good communication skills and demonstrate fine sportsmanship, playing hard and fair.

In the end, it was a very popular decision that the captaincy should be shared, so while Alex and Travis will alternate wearing the captains arm band each week, they will both act as dual captains on the field with Alex mostly playing upfront as a striker and Travis usually playing at the other end of the field as sweeper.

It was wonderful to see both captains showing their qualities in the game against Grange Thistle on the weekend and there was one particular incident that clearly demonstrated this. At one point Grange were on the attack when one of their players went down injured. Travis was first to the opposition player and with his hand on the other players shoulder quickly attracted the attention of the ref who stopped play. The restart, with a drop ball, is usually a 50/50 kick-and-hope situation, however as Grange had been on the attack Alex stepped up to the ref and indicated that he would just return the ball to one of the Grange backs on the restart - a perfect example of sportsmanship by both players.

The other player to feature predominantly in the vote was Matt, who is a very important member of the social fabric of the team while quietly getting on with business. It was to a great cheer from the group that Matt was named as Vice-Captain, a position which we know Matt will rise to this year.

Congratulations to Alex, Trav and Matt, we know you will all lead the team well and give it your best.