Week Three: When Leaders Emerge

Real leaders are not appointed. They emerge.

That’s true in a lot of places, and it’s absolutely true on a flag football team. This week, I started to see it happen with my 5th/6th grade team. They’ve only been together for about six weeks, so most of that time has been spent learning how to play with one another. They’re learning each other’s personalities, strengths, habits, and tendencies. But they’re coming together quickly.

And as that has happened, two players have started to stand out.

One on offense. One on defense. Both have started directing, encouraging, and helping organize their teammates on the field—without me asking them to do it.

That matters.

If Leadership Emerges, Embrace It

As coaches, we are the default leaders. We were appointed by the league, the organization, or the parents. The players didn’t choose us.

A leader among the players is different.

That player becomes influential because the rest of the team responds to them. Maybe nobody consciously decided, “That’s our leader.” It just happened. And when that starts to happen on your team, embrace it.

Because player leadership can give you something every successful team needs.

Team Cohesion

At some point, a good team begins to become an entity that exists a little bit separately from the coach.

That’s a good thing.

The players begin playing for each other. A defender runs harder to the football not simply because the coach told him to, but because the other five players are counting on him. A receiver running a clear-out route commits fully to it, even though he knows he probably isn’t getting the ball. Why? Because he understands that his route is helping a teammate get open.

That’s when you know the team is becoming something more than a collection of individual players.

A cohesive team usually has one or more players who serve as the glue. You can encourage that. You can help develop it.

But you can’t manufacture it. It has to happen naturally.

Develop the Leader, Not Just the Player

One of our jobs as youth coaches is to develop players as more than athletes. We’re helping develop young men and women.

When a natural leader starts to emerge, that gives you an opportunity to help that player grow in an entirely different way.

Give them some responsibility. If you need to communicate something to the team, sometimes talk to the leader first and let them help deliver the message.

Let them call plays during practice. Give them a goal and see how they handle it. Maybe the challenge is to get every player involved. Maybe it’s to call a certain concept based on the defense. Maybe it’s simply to keep the offense organized without the coach stepping in.

If that leader is your quarterback, make sure they understand that leadership isn’t about getting all the attention. It’s about making the players around them better. Encourage them to spread the ball around. Help them understand when a teammate needs a confidence-building completion. Teach them that leadership sometimes means doing what is best for the team rather than what is best for their own stats.

Those lessons can carry far beyond football.

Sometimes Leadership Shows Up After Adversity

I don’t think it was a coincidence that these leaders started becoming more visible this week. Last week, this team suffered a humbling loss.

That creates a choice. A team can start pointing fingers. Or it can respond.

This week, we played a team that entered the game 2-0. Our response?

A 60-13 win.

But the score wasn’t the most encouraging part. Every player on the team showed up on the stats page. Everyone contributed. Everyone was involved.

And for me, the biggest takeaway wasn’t that we bounced back with a big win. It was that I could see the team beginning to take ownership of itself. The coach should always lead.

But eventually, the strongest teams start producing leaders of their own.