30 Best Player but NOT Captain? (Don't Let a Label Define You)

You're the leading scorer, the hardest worker, and a straight-A student... but the coach gave the Captain spot to a freshman?

In this fiery episode, Coach Rodo tackles the politics of high school sports through the story of his cousin's daughter. Despite being a D1 prospect and the team leader, she was snubbed for the captaincy. Rodo breaks down why this happens and gives the ultimate advice on how to handle it.

His message to athletes is simple: **Don't let a label determine your consequences.** A patch on your jersey doesn't score points, and it doesn't get you recruited. Rodo challenges athletes to "work like a captain" even without the title, proving that your effort on the court speaks louder than any coach's decision.

#SportsPolitics #Captaincy #AthleteMindset #CoachRodo #WinningRegardless #HighSchoolBasketball #SydneyBlack #D1Athlete #Leadership #resilience 

(00:30) - The Captain Criteria: Who usually gets the title?
(01:30) - The Story: D1 talent, straight As, but no Captain patch.
(03:45) - The Coach's Excuse: Why a freshman and a bench warmer were picked instead.
(05:30) - The Pivot: Don't let the coach live "rent-free" in your head over a label.
(07:00) - Labels vs. Consequences: Why not being captain shouldn't change your effort.
(09:15) - The Result: Athlete drops 22 points and makes the State Journal.
(10:45) - Don't Accept It Later: Why you shouldn't accept a "pity captaincy" mid-season.
(12:30) - The Life Lesson: Dealing with job titles and salary disappointments in the real world.
(14:00) - Final Advice: Work like a captain even if you don't have the label.

Transcript

0:30

Hello everyone, I would like to welcome you to another edition of Coach Rodo's podcast, Winning Regardless. And today I want to talk about being captains and what they mean and things of that sort. So usually when you pick your captains, it's usually somebody on your team that's a leader that... The other players gravitate towards those players. They're coming in first in most of your drills. Just a hard worker, just a good teammate and maybe somebody who put in their dues and they deserve it. And you know, usually it's your best player. And that's not a bad thing because usually your best player has worked to become the best player. So you can't be mad at that person for being the captain. But ah I got a phone call from my cousin. Let me see. I think it was this weekend and he was pissed. So his daughter, her name is Sydney Black. She's tough. She's a junior. Tough. Already got D1 offers and people looking at her. Tough. mean tough. Gar. I mean he played D1 so she's got great pedigree. know, we all hoopers and you know, other athletes. So she's got great pedigree. I mean tough. oh I mean this girl works out individually, stopped playing AAU because of the way that the AAU teams are set up where she went to one of the top AAU teams, the Detroit crossover. Well, most of those girls are from Detroit and they all know each other so they was playing her left. And me and her dad talked, know, even though the coach was trying to get him and convince him, you know, hey blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Me and my cousin, my cousin called me was like, cuz this is what I'm thinking about doing. I'm thinking about pulling C8 out this bull shit, oh, sorry. I'm thinking about pulling C8 out this bull jive and we gonna work on drills and we gonna work on individual skill and we gonna work on fundamentals. I said, Cuzzle, that's a great idea. Because all AAU is, throw the ball up and let's play. It's a fricking money grab. There is no, there's no teaching going into it. You know, the practices are, we're just going over offense. So there's really any drill work that just go up and down. So I felt that the benefit was way more prevalent for her to do her individual workout with a guy back home who's great at working kids out and get them all ready. So she was the leading scorer on the team last year as a sophomore, leading rebounder last year as a sophomore and second in the CIS. I mean, and I'm talking about she is the greatest kid. Her smile is freaking delightful. Her attitude is great. She's not a bitchy little girl. She's not, you know, uppity and think that she's better than anyone else. She's her dad's pride and joy. And yet her dad makes sure she stays humble. But this destroyed her. because the coach didn't make her a captain. And it didn't destroy her in the sense of she didn't want to play basketball anymore. So when I say destroy, I mean, it destroyed her belief in what the fuck a captain is supposed to be. And my cousin called me human because that's his baby girl. That's his only child. That's his world. You know, he was a D1 basketball player, played right here at Western Michigan. And everything that he was taught coming up in sports, everything that we're taught coming up in sports. If you're the best player on the team, if you're a leader, if your teammates gravitate towards you, if your teammates listen to you when you're given instruction, when we out on the court, uh if you're leading in all of our drills, if you're my best player. Usually that's the captain or at least one of them. And this lady chose not to make her a captain and the excuses that she gave made me wonder what the hell kind of coach are you. She gave a captain spot to a freshman and to a senior who's not even gonna play. And if she does play, she rarely plays. And her excuse she gave my cousin was something to the tone of... Well, you know, we wanted to do something a little different this year. You know, we had the freshmen because, you know, we want her, she's going to be, you know, the new face of the program when Cyd leaves and, you know, this, that and the third. And, you know, with the seniors her last year and da-da-da-da-da. And, you know, Cyd sometimes in practice, she laughs and this, that and the third. But our question was, have you ever had an issue with Cyd? Has Sid ever not given you 100 %? Has Sid ever not been a leader in practice, games, drills, any of that? And her answer was, no, she's always done those things. Well, then why the hell is she not a captain? Why the hell is your best player, your hardest worker, the one who puts in Her and Andre Hudson's daughter, who Andre played for Michigan State, so D1, you know, those two daddies make sure that their daughters do the work. Not only that, shit. My cousin Cid is a straight A frickin' student. And I don't mean A, A, A, A, B plus A. I mean A, A, A, A, A, A, all the way down. And it's not even close. We talking about like 98 percents. And we ain't talking in no, we talking about in like geometry and Spanish and French and, and I mean, we talking, you know, big time classes, the AP classes. um So again, was no, what we felt was no excuse for the coach to use that could validate what a captain is supposed to be, what a captain represents for your team. And you're choosing, you're not choosing that. And we were all, you know, once he told me I was upset, but now let's pivot. So what I told him and we talked about was, does... Sid not being captain, is that gonna affect how she plays in games? No, cuz because she wasn't like affected like that. I said, right. I said now is see it not being a captain gonna make her not work as hard in practice? No, cuz it's not. And so, you know, and I told my cousin little cousin, I said, I said, I said, uh, don't Let this coach get free rent in your head over a label. Go out there, you work hard every day for this game. You don't work hard to be a captain, you work hard for this game. You have to continue to work hard for the game. You have to continue to work hard for yourself. She didn't make you a captain, that's her fault. Let everyone else wonder what the hell is she thinking? when they watch you play and they don't see you walk out there when they call captains. When they see you smiling on the court, when they see you helping your teammates when they fall, a team knock, they see you being the first one running over there, sticking your hand up to pull her up off of the court. When they see your teammate make a mistake and you're the first one to walk over there and be like, hey, that's all right. We make mistakes because we trying. Let the people see that and let them wonder what the hell is wrong with that coach. I told her, you don't let someone else's choice become your consequences. You don't let the fact that she chose to not make you a captain for that bull jive reasons be the reason your game doesn't stay getting better. You know, she averaged 16 last night. They had their first game. She had 22. Could have had 30 if she'd been a couple shots just didn't fall in and out, in and out. You know, had like six, seven rebounds. Maybe my cousin said she had eight, you know, had a few assists. So she had a great game, you know. And I'm saying all of this to let kids know, don't let labels determine your consequences. Don't let a label that you feel that you deserve or you should have and you don't understand why you don't have it. Don't let that be the reason why you don't give your all. Well, I ain't a captain, so I don't have to be in first place no more. Well, I ain't a captain, so I don't have to do the drills the way that I would if I was the captain. You know, a great saying that I heard that when I'm training the Kalamazoo Central Boys basketball team that I passed on to them is the way that you do anything is the way that you do everything. So. do the shit as if you were her captain. Okay, you didn't get that label. It's a label. But when you get out on that court, everybody in the stands ain't gonna be like, yeah, that's the captain. That's the captain. No, they're gonna be like, man, that mug is getting work. He put me in work. She put me in work. I don't think one time last night in my cousin's game did anybody that watched her play say, and she's not even a captain. Because... Like I tried to get her to understand and my cousin said she understand and he started to understand it and feel better too. Because again, you got to understand where he come up from. Me, I learned it from coaching him. Learned it from just being nothing else but being a D1 player in basketball being what you do. These are the things that you do to earn a cap and he made sure his daughter did them all. And now he doesn't understand why that reward isn't bestowed upon her. um Now he's starting to come around and understand that, you know, cuz it's a label. know, see it is built different. See it is built for this. See it is built for the controversy. Look at the smile on her face. You can beat all controversy if you just keep smiling and keep grinding. You know, the thing that I was proud of is when he told me about her stats. And the word captain didn't come up one time. And I told him, said, because when they printing and putting in stuff, they don't say Captain Sidney Black. They say Sidney Black from East Lansing, the junior. And again, kids, you're not a captain. Only a certain amount of people can be captains and you never know the reason why you may not have been picked as a captain. But you can't let that define who you are, let that become your outcome, or let that be your consequences. It's the fact that you didn't get picked for something you think you should. You still continue to work hard. You still continue to fight hard. You still continue to play the game like you was a captain. Because again, when you on that floor, nobody knows whether you were a captain or not. They don't even care if you were a captain or not. It's a label that we think that we need and it's a label that we put on ourselves. And maybe it was a blessing with her being the best player on the team to not be a captain because it may have happened to some other kids or some kids that you know, or maybe some of parents that's listening to this podcast now, now they'll know how to tell their child, hey man, that's just a label or I'm sorry, young lady, baby, that's just a label. That has nothing to do with what you're going to produce when you get on that floor. Because when you get on that floor, nobody's going to remember that you were a captain or you weren't a captain. You know, I hope this can help, you know, maybe a kid who's going through that. Maybe a parent who's, you know, was feeling like my cousin was feeling, and their kid is feeling like his daughter was feeling. You know, and especially with the first game being over with now, I know for a fact that she's not worried about it. She don't care because now it's a motivation for her. gives her, I'ma prove to you why I needed to be the captain and I don't even want it when you give it to me, when you try to give it to me in the middle of the season. Nope, you wait till next year to give it to me because you should have given it to me from the beginning. shouldn't, as your best player who's proven it to you since I was a freshman. I should not have had to go through this gauntlet to prove to you something that you know I already should have been. Then I told my cousin, I'm, hey, you know what? I agree with you 100 fricking percent. You give it to me next year in front of everybody, just like you didn't give it to me this year in front of everyone. And I don't want it halfway through the season. I don't want a reward. that I should have already had based on my past work. I don't want the reward now that you feel bad or you feel remorseful or now that you're looking at it as what the hell did I do? I'm not here to cover up your mistakes. I'm here to play basketball for you. Become the best player, become the best student athlete that I possibly can. Student athlete in which she's a straight-A student, so she has that part knocked down. Athlete, for you and representing my school. I'm not here to cover up your mistakes. So again, kids, don't look at it as I'm not a captain, so I failed, and the work that I do now suffers. Mm-mm. Again, do everything that you did while you thought you were gonna be a captain, or why you thought that you should be a captain, or why you thought this is what captains are supposed to do. No, it's not what captains are supposed to do. It's what freaking players are supposed to do. You're supposed to work hard based on your effort and you wanting to be. You wanting to be better. If you need that to be a captain to motivate you, then that's fine. But at the same time, for those who don't think about being captains, work like a captain. You don't have to be a captain to work like a captain. It don't take much. Hard work don't take much but hard work. That's all it takes. And again, don't let a label define the type of athlete you're going to be. Don't let a label determine the type of effort you're going to give when you're out on the floor because you didn't get what you thought you should have gotten. That's going to be life. You know, when you grow up and you have to pay bills. When you go for a job, you might have this salary desire, but you know, this is what they offering and nobody else is offering that high. Are you going to not work? So you're not going to pay your bills because you didn't get what you thought? Are you going to give less effort so that you possibly get fired? Nah. And it starts right here with these foundations. It starts with learning how to accept rejection, even when you're the best. Learning how to understand that sometimes being the best, you don't get what you deserve. You don't get what was always told would come to you. but you don't let that be your consequences. And I'm proud of my little cousin because last night she went out and didn't let that be her consequences. She didn't care that she wasn't a captain. was still, I'm gonna give y'all this work no matter what. And y'all gonna love it because I'm gonna be in the Lansing State Journal. And damn it, she is this morning. She's in the Lansing State Journal. Because she put in that work. They lost by eight when she put in work. And guess what? Nobody gave a damn that she wasn't a captain. And during that game, neither did she. So again, it's not about a label. If it's about the label to you, even if you don't get it, work like you do got that label. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Coach Rodo's podcast, when and regardless. Have