Dealing with antagonistic teammates

High School Running

7 years ago 10/20/2016 6:00pm EDT

For background, I'm a high school senior guy, XC captain, and state contender. Our team has been more cohesive than ever this year, aside from one outlier: our #8 guy (19:22 5k) has been getting uppity at practice. He races everything, including warmups, tempos, long runs, and everything in between. He's also incredibly condescending: The girls captain had to miss one day of practice to go to a funeral last week, and the day after she got back she accidentally called out the wrong drill during our warmup. She immediately corrected herself, but not before good ol' #8 could say 'Maybe you'd remeber if you were at practice more often. Real captains never miss practice.' I'm pretty sure I would've killed him if our coach hadn't been nearby.

That's just one example, but he does stuff like that every day and everyone on the team is getting fed up with it. What should I do about him?

7 years ago 10/20/2016 6:06pm EDT

re: SWAZ

You are the captain, you talk to him.

Next.

7 years ago 10/20/2016 6:10pm EDT

re: SWAZ

You go to lets runs and post something specific about him so that if he reads it he'll know it's about him and that you posted it.

Kind of passive aggressive, and probably not really effective, but still the best gutless way to deal with it.

7 years ago 10/20/2016 9:57pm EDT

re: SWAZ

You talk to him.

If that doesn't work, you humiliate him.

If that doesn't work, you try to intimidate him.

If that doesn't work, you kick his ass.

If you can't kick his ass, at least get in the fight.

Most people don't like to fight. They are truly afraid they might get hurt.

A couple of stories. I'm 5'0 105 lb freshman. Makes me prime bait for hazing. The boys took me out and threw me in the snow in shorts and a t-shirt. I taunted the biggest upper classman and challenged him to fight. He backed down. Was never hazed again.

Junior year. Captain hazed a freshman. I didn't like it. I told him so. I asked him (maybe I told him) to stop. He didn't stop. So I fought him. I lost the fight; but not by much. He stopped the hazing.

As a 5'6 125lb Sr. captain, I didn't tolerate any hazing and any bullying bullshit.

Who knows; if you would've stuck up for the gal captain you might've gotten a date. If not from her, than maybe an admirer.

7 years ago 10/20/2016 10:16pm EDT

re: SWAZ

Why would a funeral be held during practice of all times?

7 years ago 10/20/2016 10:40pm EDT

re: My take on the issue

My take on the issue wrote:
Why would a funeral be held during practice of all times?

Never had a Saturday practice?

7 years ago 10/21/2016 12:37am EDT

re: SWAZ

put him to run with a slower group and get #9 to run with you

help #9 get better

nothing fixes problems better than competition

that's what this country is about

7 years ago 10/21/2016 9:29am EDT

re: dudeDude

dudeDude wrote:
You talk to him.
If that doesn't work, you humiliate him.
If that doesn't work, you try to intimidate him.
If that doesn't work, you kick his ass.
If you can't kick his ass, at least get in the fight.
Most people don't like to fight. They are truly afraid they might get hurt.
A couple of stories. I'm 5'0 105 lb freshman. Makes me prime bait for hazing. The boys took me out and threw me in the snow in shorts and a t-shirt. I taunted the biggest upper classman and challenged him to fight. He backed down. Was never hazed again.
Junior year. Captain hazed a freshman. I didn't like it. I told him so. I asked him (maybe I told him) to stop. He didn't stop. So I fought him. I lost the fight; but not by much. He stopped the hazing.
As a 5'6 125lb Sr. captain, I didn't tolerate any hazing and any bullying bullshit.
Who knows; if you would've stuck up for the gal captain you might've gotten a date. If not from her, than maybe an admirer.

Captain my captain....You are destined for a great career as a police officer if you can gain another, say, twenty pounds.

Beat on!

7 years ago 10/22/2016 2:36pm EDT

re: SWAZ

Had a not all that similar situation in college but here's what happened.

Senior yells at kid that they're running together today. Everything he falls back a step he screams at him to get the F back up here. Tortures him for 12 miles, probably sub 5 for almost all of it (senior has an engine, could have ran a marathon at that pace).

Kid didn't race practices anymore.

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