At Jesuit High School, team sizes can vary, but only a select few become leaders.

According to our Jesuit coaches and players, being on varsity requires structure and leadership. One essential quality coaches talked about was hard work.

“Leaders will be the ones who are the hardest workers on the team, and everybody looks at them and says that’s how it should be done,” Ken Potter, who is the head coach of the varsity football program, said

Potter values a positive, vocal player who leads by example and gets the team fired up for practices and games.

“[Quarterback] Trey Cleeland is a tremendously hard worker,” Coach Potter said.

Another quality that Coach Skipper, men’s varsity soccer head coach, mentioned was accountability.

“You need to be able to trust your players, and your players need to be able to trust you,” Coach Skipper said.

Caden Hoppes, Grant Sasaki, and Diego Nieves are all examples of leaders their team can depend on, according to Skipper.

While coaches set expectations for their leaders, it is truly the players that bring the leadership to life.

Senior on the women’s varsity soccer team, Zoe Anderson, talks about how being a calm and dependent leader is key.

“I need to be a voice of reason, I need to be calm, ” Anderson said. “How can I keep the team calm and how can we move forward?”

“I think consistency is really important as well,” Anderson said. Consistency is a standard Zoe sets as a leader for the team to be successful in practices and games.

Moreover, leaders are role models for young and inexperienced players to look up to. Sophomore, Luke Hanifan, reflects on how his older teammates demonstrate their leadership.

When asked about the leaders on his team and the qualities they possess, Luke said, “They’ll always have undying support, and they always want the best for me.”

Leaders that Luke looks up to are his lineman, Ben Galluzzo and Jacob Gorman.

“They’re never afraid to come up to me and help me be better,” Luke said.