Each year in almost every sport, a JV captain is chosen. This year’s sophomore JV volleyball captain was Shayla Halilbasic.
Halilbasic said she felt great on the court, but she knew she had to motivate her team this year.
“I felt like I definitely had a role I needed to fill, especially because as a captain, you’re supposed to be a motivator,” Halilbasic said (10), “so being captain made me more conscious of my body language and taught me how to deal with frustration on the court.”
Halilbasic’s teammates did not get upset when they weren’t chosen for captain and seemed to support her.
“Everyone told me I deserved it and were being nice,” Halilbasic said.
After being chosen for captain, however, she was surprised.
“I felt really good because I didn’t know the girls on the team felt that way about me and that I could lead them,” Halilbasic said.
One might think that being chosen for captain would be easy, but Halilbasic said that it did have some stress added to it.
“I just had a lot of pressure from my coach, not in a bad way necessarily, I just had to step up when the time was right,” Halilbasic said.
As a leader, Halilbasic had to keep a lot in mind, especially for the team.
“The end goal in mind was to win games, and I kept that in mind that I had to come across in a way that wasn’t making everyone have a negative image of me,” Halilbasic said. “I had to be respectful of everyone’s feelings.”
Halilbasic said her main challenge was she had to speak up, but even with this challenge, she said that she would like to be a captain again next year.
“Yes, I would like to be captain again,” Halilbasic said, “because being captain three years in a row would be crazy good, and I know I would be able to handle the responsibility.”
