Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) women’s soccer coach Deb Raber will go down as one of the greatest female athletes to ever play at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt.

Inducted into her alma mater’s athletics hall of fame in 2003, Raber starred collegiately in soccer, softball and basketball. She holds many records in all three sports. Yet, she was never a captain.

“You don’t need an arm band to lead,” said Raber, who has been an NSCAA Academy staff coach since 2006. “Jeff Janssen (founder and president of the Janssen Sports Leadership Center) once said, ‘Just because a person has the best athletic skills on your team does not also guarantee they have the best leadership skills.’

“Sometimes you need to break tradition and really look at what team leadership is all about.”

That’s exactly what Raber has done at MCLA.

With a master's of education in counseling and psychological services, Raber has done massive amounts of research and studying about leadership. Back in 2008, the three-time Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Coach of the Year decided to look at the role of the captain on her team.

“Up until that point, we would be like most teams,” Raber said. “The players would vote and the coaches would make the final decision. In 2009, we believed we had the perfect captain, a player who had a nice balance of talent and leadership. Ironically, it was this young woman who would solidify our thoughts of organizing a leadership team. When I met with Jade Prickett over the summer of 2012, she was very honest in saying she was only successful as a loan captain due to the support of the other seniors chipping in with a variety of responsibilities.”

However, in 2010, it was clear to Raber and her staff that while there was no true captain emerging, her squad did have five quality senior leaders.

“They were a dedicated group who knew how to lead as a group,” Raber said. “We have all heard the ‘you know it, when you see it’ brand on a player. We could see that as a group of seniors we would be better served to have a leadership team. It worked great!”

Raber pointed out that as coaches, you need to continue to foster leadership, no matter how many captains you have.

“Yes, it worked in 2010, spreading the leadership role throughout the senior class,” she said. “But it 2011 it didn’t work. Someone needed to step up to take over that role and I take responsibility for that.  I needed to do a better job of seeking and developing that leadership and not assuming it was just going to happen.”

So in 2012, Raber went back to work to find the right way to look at team leadership.

“I really wanted to apply all that I have learned and even some of what I teach at MCLA. I teach a class called 'Team Facilitation.' It’s all about teaching students how to coach in the business world. It looks at leadership in corporate America. So many of our top companies are run by leadership groups. So, why couldn’t we do that in soccer?”

Raber collaborated with many of her colleagues and developed a leadership team.

“You don’t have to be a captain to be a leader,” Raber continued. “It’s a title, but you need to walk the talk. (Author) John C. Maxwell says that a title is only the beginning, but it doesn’t mean people will follow. People follow action and passion to get to a greater cause.”

Raber says sometimes it is good to break up responsibilities with your leaders.

“When you really dissect all that is involved in leading a team, you are looking at an entertainment and social leader, someone who takes the thermometer of the team, someone who is a field general, someone who is the locker room glue, someone who can communicate on and off the field, someone who makes sure we respect the traditions of our team … all of that is key.

“And, for all of that responsibility to fall on one or two captains, it can be difficult.”

That’s why Raber started looking at all of the strengths of her team members.

“It became obvious to me that we needed to create a structure for these young women to develop the skills to become strong leaders on and off the field,” Raber said. “To put them in an environment where they make decisions as a group. They all don’t have to see eye to eye, but if they reach a consensus to continue to push our agenda, it will work in soccer and it will work in life.

“The premise of what we are doing with the MCLA Women’s Soccer Leadership Program is to start the leadership education process early. We need to recognize that everyone has the ability to lead in (his/her) own style. And, it’s our goal to help prepare these young women for leadership positions after college.”

Raber decided it was important to share her views on team leadership at the 2013 NSCAA Convention in Indianapolis.

“I love how open NSCAA members are to sharing things,” Raber said. “It’s always upbeat and positive…it makes us all better coaches. I thought it was a natural to share this concept at the Convention. Plus, (editor) Jay Miller is always talking about leadership in the Soccer Journal and I wanted to contribute to that message, too.”

Raber points out that coaches need to always be seeking leaders for their team.

“Again, Jeff Janssen said it best when he said, ‘Just as you must analyze, recruit, develop, and replace your team’s physical talent, so too must you continually analyze, recruit, develop and replace your team’s leadership talent.”

To learn more about Raber’s approach to leadership, you can email her at wsoccer@mcla.edu.

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