In the fall of 2024, the Federal League captains of the fall sports teams were invited to the Football Hall of Fame for a federally organized ‘Captains Day’. The event was put on by Federal League Commissioner Terry Peterson and Assistant Federal League Commissioner Carl Davidson. Students listened to guest speakers, took a tour of the Hall of Fame and developed teamwork skills.

“We were talking a lot about leadership and communication skills and how you can help your team individually,” basketball captain Katelyn Salmons said.

This event sparked a series of conducted and planned meetings for the team captains of all sports at GlenOak. Noah Dockus, the new assistant athletic director, believes that consistent cross-team meetings will help inspire the community.

“We kind of piggy backed off of that and then had our own captain’s meeting with all the fall sports team captains,” Dockus said.

This sort of meet up, across sports and even seasons, is new to the teams of GlenOak. They are meant to serve as a way to build connections between sports, and to choose common goals to address. 

“We can come together and talk about things that are different across sports teams.” cross country captain Sophia Ngetich said. “I think it will bring us together.”

Featured in these meetings was a worksheet called a S.W.O.T. analysis, standing for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threats. Students were instructed to brainstorm items for each of these categories to encourage conversion and unity.

In the strength category, common themes were a high GPA among student athletes, upkept facilities and effort level. In weaknesses, attendance at games and connections to youth teams. The opportunity category saw things like community building and increased social media posting. Lastly, the threats were busy student schedules, the cost of games and sports participation. 

“The captains met in a group and we went over what we can do better in school. How to get better attendance, what we need, that kind of thing,” Salmons said.

Dockus plans to continue these meetings and to make them a more regular part of the sports programming. There are even plans to expand the meetings beyond team captains. 

“We want a better mix in the room,” Dockus said. “We want to bring some underclassmen that will benefit from the discussion and bring it into the next few years.”