A letter.

One simple letter sewn into a jersey.

But having  a “C” patched onto a piece of silk, fabric or cotton means so much more than just a letter to athletic teams.

That “C” stands for captain, a person who is the unheralded leader of a team. Younger teammates look up to them, older ones trust them and coaches rely on them.

Being a captain is being the glue that makes a team stick together. Whether it is keeping the team humble in victory, motivated after defeat or inspiring the particular represented institution,  these leaders are asked to do a lot of things, and they are depended on greatly.

It’s no different for athletic teams at UW-Eau Claire. All of the 22 teams on campus have at least one captain, and at an institution where coaches are only allowed a certain amount of time with their players due to NCAA regulations, these captains become a vital part of any team’s success.

“We always expect a lot out of our captains,” head football coach Todd Glaser said.  “The leadership aspect is vital.  We want to have kids that younger players can go talk to if they have questions, so I think it’s really important to have good captains.”

What qualifies someone for captain status?  Well, as head softball coach Leslie Huntington said, they must buy into the program and hold themselves to the highest standard possible on the team.

She said accountability is the name of the game for these select few individuals, and that’s what makes other players look up to them.

“You have to find out the level of respect the rest of the team has for them,” Huntington said.  “If the team doesn’t respect them in a leadership role, you’re setting yourself up for failure.”

But as is the case in sports, what the public sees on the playing field is the tiniest glimpse of what surrounds a team and its dynamics.

Off the field preparations and interactions become a crucial part of a team’s success on the field.  At schools affiliated with the NCAA such as Eau Claire, coaches are only allowed to take 20 hours per week of their athletes’ time and they are not allowed to conduct offseason practices, according to NCAA rules.

This is where player leadership gets its ultimate test.  Huntington said the coaches can write the workouts, but it is up to the captains to rally the troops and make sure the proper preparation is getting done.

Blugold All-American running back Joel Sweeney said he and the three other captains on the football team helped conduct preseason workouts in the weightroom to get the team ready for the season.  He also said it is the captain’s job to bump up the enthusiasm level in the offseason so players have a hunger to get going.

“The coaches are depending on us,” Sweeney said.  “Getting everybody in here and ready to go and psyched for the year is also a good thing.”

The women’s cross country team depends on its captains to set up team bonding experiences to get the younger members acclimated to college and college running. Team captain Jami Riley said the team does a lot of movie nights and spaghetti dinners and said it is important to spend time with one another so they feel comfortable on the course, as well.

“Once you get comfortable, just being around that setting helps you get to know people,” Riley said.

Offseason preparation is the thing that gets a team ready for the season.  But of course, the season determines, at least in the public’s eyes, whether or not a team is successful.

A captain’s job extends into the season, as well.  It’s one thing to rally the troops in the offseason and talk the talk.  But a captain isn’t effective if they don’t walk the walk.  Huntington said the captains need to be the ones to set the tone for how a team competes, and she said work ethic must be extremely high in order to be a captain on one of her squads.

“Without a doubt, they’ve got to be the hardest workers on the team,” Huntington said.  “In today’s society, a lot of younger people think they deserve things.  They don’t realize they have to earn things. Effective team leaders send that message, and that’s where that work ethic comes into play so much.”

Riley said everything a captain does is under a microscope and must be willing to do everything right.

“You can’t let your guard down ever,” Riley said. “Our coach (Dan Schwamberger) always talks about doing the little things, and that’s kind of on your shoulders. Leadership by example is probably your biggest part of being a captain.”

As the fictional Albus Dumbledore in J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” once said, “it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.”

Captains have to live with that line.  Part of leading by example means doing things like confronting a teammate or holding them out of a social outing where potentially harmful things can happen.

Huntington, who is no stranger to success as a coach with the 2008 NCAA Division III National Softball Championship to prove it, said her best teams have had leaders willing to do this.

“It’s that ability to make an unpopular decision,” Huntington said.  “When we’ve had that kind of leadership, we’ve had our best years.”

Leadership never graduates. It is a skill that can be applied anywhere in life, and while the ability to strap on a helmet or lace up spikes may not always be there, leadership is.  All-American linebacker and co-captain of the football team Sean Graham knows this and said what he has learned being the leader with three other men  has taught him attributes he will take with him after graduating.

“There’s a lot of things sports has taught me that will help me grow as a person,” Graham said.  “The different ways we learn how to deal with other people and cooperate and learn to work as a unit is a really good we’ve learned as captains.”

The letter “C.”  It is indeed just a letter.  But as far as the people wearing them, it is a key to success to not only themselves, but everyone else around them.