Captains Feature - Maverick hockey - An net sports feature

♪ MUSIC ♪ NARRATOR: In college hockey, the team captains play a bigger role and have more responsibilities than any other sport. JOHNNIE SEARFOSS: The captain's responsibility like I said is leading by example, being vocal, maybe when practice isn't going as great, you make sure to get on guys and push em further. MICHAEL YOUNG: We do a lot more leading, like I'll either stretch or Johnny or Zombo will lead the stretch and stuff like that, but there's nothing that changes too much otherwise. DOMINIC ZOMBO: During the game anytime there's any sort of communication between the players and the officiating, that's a Captain's job, whether it's Young who's the captain or me or Johnny. Whenever there's a penalty, obviously they want one representative over there to sort of discuss whatever the penalty is. You go over and sort of relay it to the coach. That way, everybody on the teams not talking to the refs or what not. DEAN BLAIS: The captain's your direct line to the team. They're the inbetween where as a coach, you've got to have a good relationship with your captains. They've got to be able to come in and talk to you when there's a problem or a potential problem or heading off of a problem. Usually, it's problem-related. Their job and their responsibility is mainly in between periods, started the games, making sure that everything's straight in that locker room. It means more if there are certain things coming from the captain versus the coach to the rest of the team. ANNOUNCER: Taking it in stride is Zombo with Archibald 2 on 1, SCORE! and Zombo picks the top corner and the Mavericks, just like that, tie the game at 1 NARRATOR: There can be some pressure with the added responsibilities of wearing a letter on your jersey. ZOMBO: There can be, but you just have to look at it as, you know, hockey's something that you've been doing your whole life and just show up and do the right things and you can't really mess that up. You are representing the team, but it's just, I mean just show up every day and do your job and you'll be fine. YOUNG: I don't think there was too much added pressure for being a captain. I mean nothing's really changed. I still act the same. I'm just-there's more interviews. There's more talking to people. There's more explaining things I guess. Obviously, it falls for a lot of things when you're trying to talk to people all the time. Especially after a tough loss or something, you've got to deal with all that, so that's probably the only added pressure that I've noticed. SEARFOSS: I don't put any extra pressure on myself just because I'm a captain, but I do want to make sure that I'm leading by example, especially for the younger guys that like I said, don't know what to expect and they really look up to the older guys just to see like work ethic and stuff like that. NARRATOR: To these players, the role of captain means much more than just a letter on their jersey. SEARFOSS: It's an honor to be a captain. The guys on the team vote so it kind of gave me confidence knowing that they think I should be a captain as well as the coaches seem happy with us so it's definitely a big honor. ZOMBO: I mean to be voted as a captain was a pretty big honor this year. And for me, I just, you know, I just try to do my best every single day. I try to, you know, for whether it's a freshman, sophomore, or just try to lead by example and you know, help wherever I can from experience. YOUNG: To me, it's a huge honor obviously. We've had a lot of captains that we like I have a lot of respect for my three years before obviously being captain. The guys were unbelievable guys. They were hard-working guys and there's no bigger calling for a hockey player to be a captain, to be chosen by your peers to lead them and through everything and especially a great organization like UNO has. It's just a huge honor. ♪ MUSIC ♪