While it's a somewhat honorary title, being designated a team captain indicates respect from one's teammates and coaches. This week, we found out what five T-Bird leaders do to inspire their teams, the worst advice they've given and received and which of their teammates would be most likely to win an Oscar.
The panel[/ub_subhead
Abbey Keeping (AK): women's volleyball [Author's note: Keeping shared the captaincy this season with fellow fifth-years Lisa Barclay and Rosie Schlagintweit.]
Coleman Allen (CA): men's swimming
Sarah Hillsdon (SH): women's softball [Author's note: Hillsdon shared the captaincy this season with Yasmin Bains and Kelly Rumley.]
Ben Schmidt (BS): men's hockey
Sarah Casorso (SC): women's hockey
1) When you need to inspire your team, what do you do and/or say?
AK: When I want to inspire my team I just crush a 51 and say “LETS GOOO … to Bims!”
CA: I tell them team to reach down, grab their privates and count to two. If they can't count to two then we got a big problem, or a small one, depending on your anatomy.
SH: I don't need to do or say much at all. We resort to Pitch Perfect inspired riff-offs to get us fired up.
BS: It's playoff time and we've had many injuries so "Doc Rob only treats winners" seems fitting.
SC: The loser gets a 45 second drill.
2) What's the worst piece of advice you've ever received?
AK: The worst piece of advice was when someone told me to be a middle blocker instead of an outside hitter …
CA: "Life is like a box of chocolates." Screw you Forest Gump, I hate chocolates.
SH: “Don’t guzzle Jack Daniels like water” -- Mom.
BS: After games Joe Antilla often yells "everybody drinks, everybody drives!"
SC: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.”
3) What's the worst piece of advice you've ever given?
AK: The worst piece of advice I've ever given was to not listen to my advice.
CA: "Dude, don't worry, you'll be fine." Then they do it and get in trouble, and I run away laughing.
SH: "We can just take it easy tonight" … which is always the exact opposite of what ends up happening.
BS: "If it is a grizzly play dead, if it is a black bear fight back."
SC: "Winning isn't everything.”
4) If you could wake up tomorrow in the body of someone else, who would you pick and what would you do?
AK: I'd have to choose to be Blake Lively. First of all because she wakes up as a 10, and secondly because she wakes up next to a 10, aka Ryan Reynolds. If I woke up as her, I'd probably start up a celebrity version of Gossip Girl. They don’t have enough drama in their lives. Oh and probably take a glance at the 10 beside me.
CA: My girlfriend, so I could wake up and look at myself and be like "Damn, that's a nice piece of butter sitting on some hot flap jacks."
SH: I would be a character in Mean Girls so I could be the fifth member of the plastics and make fetch happen.
BS: Since we're fantasizing I might as well time travel. I would wake up February 1 as Pete Carroll and I would put the ball in the hands of Marshawn [Lynch] and win another Super Bowl.
SC: I would wake up as Air Bud. Shoot the movie Puck Buddy and make my millions.
5) Who on your team would have won the Oscar for Best Actor/Actress?
AK: I would give the Oscar for Best Actress to Laura MacTaggart for her outstanding performance of the line “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?” from the movie Gladiator while walking into the gymnasium at U of A.
CA: Yuri Kisil, hands down. He would have won both. His Shakira “Hips Don't Lie” dance is hilarious, and he looks good doing it.
SH: Zoe Gillis aka “Zigapocalypse”. She rocked her T-Bird Idol performance, complete with a unique interpretive dance style.
BS: Probably Jessi Hilton. This lovestruck, 6'3" heartthrob could put together a tear-jerking romantic performance in a movie with a plot line rich with forlorn love for the disinterested and mercurial woman of his dreams.
SC: Jenna Carpenter-Boesch. She would easily win best actress for her role in Mouth-Breathers.
Check out the previous editions of the T-Birds 5-on-5 series: Single Sportsmen and Single Sportswomen.