Captain's Table Gives Student Athletes a Voice

Athletic Director Ken Kazmarek and Assistant Director Clayton Culp have the daunting responsibility of overseeing Broadneck High School’s vast athletic department. One of the tools that contributes to the success of the program is their Captain’s Table.

The Captain’s Table, unique to Broadneck, creates a direct line of communication between the athletic administration and BHS athletes. 

The Bruins have over 36 sports teams, and every season two athletes are chosen from each sport to represent their team to the administration. The coaches usually choose the team captains, but any player the coach believes will represent their team well and be a proactive member of the Captain’s Table can be chosen.

The Captain’s Table meets twice each season and the players are encouraged to speak freely about a variety of talking points that relate to athletes and their programs. The discussions are not centered on specific students or coaches but rather on issues that will help the entire athletic department.

A player can relay concerns from their team regarding the condition of the sports equipment, fundraising problems, or a team’s presence on the athletic department’s web site. These concerns are looked into by Coach Culp who can then provide relevant and useful feedback.

Senior Adrienne Gebele has served on the Captain’s Table for the last four seasons. “I have found the Captain’s Table to be a great way to communicate with the athletic administration,” she said.

While on the volleyball team, she was able to voice her team’s concerns over the condition of the volleyball nets. And through that relay of communication, the team was able to acquire new nets. Another issue brought by a team representative was that the benches needed repair for the LAX teams and soon the benches were stabilized.

Sometimes the concerns from a team can be more emotionally charged, especially when the concern is regarding equity between sports.

Gebele said, “Occasionally a team can feel like their sport is not as well regarded as other sports by the administration or that the administration is favoring other sports.”

This type of misunderstanding could demoralize a team and create an unfavorable experience for the players. After listening carefully to the athlete express the team’s concerns, Gable said, Coach Culp is able to clear up their dissatisfaction by explaining the decision processes that are behind certain policy and scheduling decisions.

The Captain’s Table was briefly started years ago and was just recently revitalized by Coach Culp who believes the process has been successful.

“I think it is a work in progress,” he explained. “When the athletes come in with good talking points, it can be very productive.”