Building Leaders of Character, One Conversation at a Time

Leadership is often tested in public, but it is built in quieter places. 

Before a captain is asked to steady a team during competition, respond to adversity, or hold a teammate accountable, there are conversations that help prepare them for those moments. Conversations about expectations and responsibility. About what it means to lead when no one is watching. 

For Norwich University’s winter sports captains, one of those conversations recently took place around a dinner table at the Garrison House. 

Hosted by Vice President for Student Affairs and Commandant of Cadets BG Mark Denton ’97, VSM, and his wife, along with Director of Athletics Ed Hockenbury, the Captains Compass Call Dinner brought student-athlete leaders together for an open and direct discussion about standards, accountability, vision, and the challenges awaiting them during the winter season. 

It was another example of a principle deeply rooted in the Norwich experience. Leadership is not theoretical. It is practiced.

Preparing to Lead

The Captains Compass Call Dinner continues a leadership development program established several years ago to address the unique responsibilities carried by team captains. Being selected as a captain recognizes athletic ability, character, and the trust of teammates and coaches. It also brings new, heightened expectations. 

Captains are asked to lead peers, address problems before they become larger ones, hold teammates accountable while maintaining their trust, and ultimately set the standards — and sometimes, leadership means having difficult conversations. 

That was at the center of the evening at Garrison House.

The discussion challenged captains to think beyond their individual performances and consider the tremendous influence they will have on the people around them throughout the coming season. The message was direct: elevate teammates, make sure support systems empower everyone, do not shy away from meaningful but direct discussions, and lead through personal example every day. 

The expectation is not simply that Norwich captains will personally perform well; it is that they will make those around them better.

Leadership in the Quiet Moments

Athletic leadership is most visible when the stands are full. It can be seen when a captain speaks during a timeout, responds after a difficult loss, steadies a team late in a game, or steps forward when the pressure is greatest — but leadership is built long before those moments arrive. 

It happens during offseason workouts and early practices. It happens away from the eyes of the fans in classrooms, locker rooms, residence halls, and barracks. It happens when teammates are struggling, when nobody is keeping score, and when doing the right thing offers no immediate reward. Leadership is tested, and often built, in the quiet moments just as surely as it is on the ice, court, mat, in the pool, or at the range. For Norwich captains, the responsibility is to lead from the front, establish the standard, and bring out the best in those around them.

BG Denton reinforced that responsibility by connecting it directly to the values Norwich asks its students to carry throughout their lives. 

“Above all, represent your teams and this institution by living our Norwich P.R.I.D.E. in everything you do,” he told the captains. “Perseverance through every challenge; Respect for your teammates, opponents, and the standard; Integrity when no one is watching; Discipline in your daily habits; Excellence as your baseline.”

Those five words, Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, and Excellence, provide a framework for action.

More Than One Uniform

The captains gathered around the table represented different sports and different Norwich experiences. Some are members of the Corps of Cadets; some are civilian students; all are Norwich student-athletes. Those distinctions matter.

A team captain from the Corps may spend part of the day operating within a military leadership structure before transitioning to practice, where teammates include both cadets and civilian students. A civilian student-athlete may carry leadership lessons through athletics into an academic project, campus organization, internship, or future profession. 

The environments are different. The responsibilities are remarkably similar: Listen, communicate, set expectations, accept accountability, make impactful decisions, take care of people, and lead by example. 

Bringing those student-athletes together allows leadership lessons developed in different corners of the University to be shared across teams and experiences. 

It also reflects one of Norwich’s enduring strengths. Students here are rarely asked to be only one thing. They are scholars and athletes. Cadets and civilians. Teammates and leaders. They move between classrooms, practices, competitions, military responsibilities, clubs, jobs, and service opportunities, learning to apply lessons from one experience to another. 

Being a captain provides another place to put leadership into practice. 

Leadership Through Practice

Captain Alden Partridge founded Norwich University on the belief that education should prepare people to act, not simply to know. More than two centuries later, that idea remains visible in countless ways across campus.

Leadership development takes place in classrooms and laboratories. It happens through the Corps of Cadets, athletics, clubs, community service, internships, and experiences far beyond campus. 

Sometimes it happens around a dinner table. 

The impact of the evening will be measured throughout the season, both in front of cheering fans and behind the scenes. Each season will give Norwich’s captains opportunities to compete, achieve, and represent their teams. It will also give them opportunities to influence others, establish standards, and leave their programs stronger than they found them. 

This is the larger purpose of the Captains Compass Call Dinner. Norwich does not wait for leadership to emerge when pressure is the highest. It creates opportunities to develop it beforehand, deliberately and together, one conversation at a time.