A few years ago, the Husker softball coaching staff made a commitment to each other and to the program that they were going to build a strong, dynamic, sustainable culture.
Most importantly, it's player-led.
"I feel like player-led teams are the best teams," said head coach Rhonda Revelle during her preseason press conference at the Hawks Championship Center on Saturday morning. "We have a responsibility as coaches to then invest in their leadership training.
When the Nebraska Huskers softball team announced its team captains for the 2024 season on Jan. 31, the feedback on social media was curious.
Seniors Abbie Squier, Billie Andrews, and Kaylin Kinney, and junior Mckinley Malecha were tabbed with the responsibility of leading the team throughout its highly-anticipated season.
Squier was a captain last season but will miss this year due to off-season surgeries, Kinney missed last season with a broken hand and Malecha has only seen action in eight games in her career. Finally, there is Andrews who is chasing down Husker history with every at-bat this season.
So how does NU choose its captains?
Revelle was asked to explain the process by All Huskers.
As soon as year-end meetings take place, the coaching staff asks each player if she would like to continue developing her leadership and grow as a leader.
"We do leadership training," Revelle said. "It's informal but it's very intentional. Do we lead ourselves well? That's the first question. Then we spend a lot of time in the summer discussing the risks, the rewards, and challenges at a very nitty-gritty level of leadership because it's not just about the "C," on the jersey.
With that said, we also have a leadership council and we have other people with naturally born leadership ability and that's the beauty of this group. We are trying to lift up every single leader and it doesn't matter the title. We try to live that in our program... I want to lift people's strengths up."
Revelle added that she isn't a huge fan of titles. She believes that she is one of the coaches but knows that titles are important because there are some roles that only the head coach and captains can do.
With a smile grinning from almost ear-to-ear, Revelle closed out her explanation with this.
"I'm really proud of the group of women that went through that training but I'm equally as proud of all of the others that are lifting up their voice and giving their heart and soul to this team in a leadership fashion."
