Our Story

Welcome to "The Captain." As a first time coach, I was looking for a way to encourage and inspire my Squirt house hockey players. I certainly considered the use of permanently bonded hockey captain letters to designate Captains and Alternates, but I didn't like the fit with this age group, my education in social work and my intent in coaching. I needed to find a more appropriate way to designate team Captains and Alternates. These young players were just starting to grasp broad concepts of the game...let alone leadership skills. I also didn't want to single out any players with permanently bonded hockey captain letters, nor did I know my players well enough to have the confidence in permanent selections.
 

So I spent many hours hand-cutting, sewing and ironing the little hockey captain letters into a patch that I have developed into "The Captain". Even as I coached the Bantam division, the removable jersey letters known as "The Captain" was still a fitting reward for my teenagers and they looked forward to the honor of being the "C". Take a look at our How It Works page, where there is a brief guide on these removable jersey letters, that is intended to explain the purpose, procedures, processes and general philosophy for utilizing "The Captain". 

Using "The Captain" removable team captain patch letters has been a beneficial tool and helped me be a successful coach as every player embraced the system on my teams. The look on the faces of some was nearly enough to bring a tear as an A or C was placed on their jersey. Clearly, that was honor, not pride. I encourage you to give every player, even your goalies, an opportunity to wear hockey captain letters. It may seem a challenge at times, but if you look hard enough, and outside your normal 'vision' of your players and your sport, you will find something you can promote within each player... and that player will greatly benefit from the acknowledgement of an reward. At season end, I made it a custom to let the players vote on who most represented the Captains and Alternates on the team, as we defined them. As a final send off, I awarded the Letters to the 6 players who receive the most votes.

Good luck on your season,

Chris Bardy,
Creator of "The Captain"