Accountability teams back in swing with West Virginia football
The off-season is here and that means the accountability teams are back on at West Virginia.
Those teams are designed to force competition between the players on the roster by dividing them into ten teams with ten different captains. Those captains then pick the rest of their team and then the real fun begins as everything within the semester is scored and evaluated.
From the start of winter conditioning until fall camp, the team is split apart and competes in all phases.
The ten captains for the teams this off-season are redshirt junior quarterback Jarret Doege, redshirt senior safety Alonzo Addae, junior running back Leddie Brown, redshirt freshman offensive lineman Zach Frazier, junior defensive end Dante Stills, sophomore cornerback Nicktroy Fortune, redshirt sophomore tight end Mike O’Laughlin, redshirt senior safety Sean Mahone, freshman quarterback Garrett Greene and junior linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo.
The players are selected as the leaders of the teams because they are identified as members of the team that will hold the rest of their group accountable throughout the course of the competition.
The teams are listed in the current order of the standings, although that is subject to change as the competition will go until the projected start of fall camp. The standings are released once per week on social media platforms for the football program.
Points are assigned to essentially every aspect of the off-season from what goes on in the weight room with strength and conditioning to academics, community service and nutrition. Each task has a numerical value and teams can both gain and lose points throughout the course of the year.
“So, when drafting teams, you have to draft intelligently,” Brown said. “You've got to think, 'Okay, who are my community service guys? Who are my academic guys? Who is going to make the biggest gains in the weight room?' Teams can gain points and lose points throughout the year.”
Those point totals make up the standings and once fall camp begins the winning squads receive a small prize package which consists of gear. Overall, it is just a way to promote competition and team bonding among the members during a period which isn’t as fast-paced as during the season.
It also provides a sneak peek into which players are the most dependable on the roster and which ones can be counted on to do their best at all times. And by the players holding themselves accountable it is a good glimpse into what is happening on the team without the guesswork.
Who are the leaders on this football team? It won’t be answered completely, but this activity is a good gauge of which players garner the most respect from their teammates and which ones are ready to assume that role when it truly matters once the ball is kicked off this fall.
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