How to Be a Cheerleading Captain

Each year, team members of a cheerleading squad and their coaches gather together to vote on a cheerleading captain. The captain is usually the best and most experienced cheerleader. She must respect her teammates and treat them with fairness and loyalty. Many upperclassmen vie to become the cheer captain because of the popularity and respect the position holds, but it's not an easy job and comes with much responsibility.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Votes from coaches and team members
• Job description of responsibilities
• Time to perform your extra responsibilities

Responsibilities and Duties of a Cheerleading Captain

1. Make goals for your team. Captains must decide what direction to head the team in: spirit or competition. Then they must decide what goal level the team should aim to meet.
2. Choreograph or assist with the choreography of cheerleading routines. Creatively coming up with good routines will place you above your peers in running for team captain.
3. Direct fundraising events. The team captain is responsible for organizing and delegating responsibilities of other squad members for raising money for the team.
4. Keep order and enforce disciplined behavior and adherence to rules. You also have the unpopular task of benching cheerleaders or handing out demerits to those who disobey the rules.
5. Become a role model for your squad. Uphold a high reputation for the squad and be a good example yourself. Read more about team captains in the book "All About Cheerleading" (see Resources below).
6. Act as a liaison between the coaching staff and the squad members. You must be able to effectively deliver communications back and forth with accurate information.
7. Warm up the team at the start of practice. You will direct the team through a series of stretches and warm up exercises that will prepare them for a practice or performance.
8. Treat everyone fairly and with respect. You are to be an impartial intermediary.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember not to play favorites. All team members will be voting, not just your friends.
• Practice your skills to the best of your abilities. The captain is usually the best on the team.
• Captains must have an air of confidence without seeming conceited, so be sure to include all members in squad activities.
• If you do not win this coveted position, show support for the person who does.
• It is very unlikely that you'll be voted team captain in your first few years of being a squad member. Captains must be experienced cheerleaders.