Former Viper Pierce Comments On Former Viper Steve Tresierra Being Named Cents Captain:

This is posted on Brian Wiebe's Merritt Centennials Blog:

COACH’S COMMENTS

Published: July 27, 2010 6:00 PM

By Luke Pierce, Head Coach

Merritt Centennials Hockey Club

As the weather continues to heat up outside, things are cooling down over here at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena. With the ice now installed for the upcoming hockey year, it gives me not only a much cooler office, but a serious reminder that the 2010-11 BCHL hockey season is fast approaching. There’s just four weeks remaining until the opening of training camp, and things are really starting to take shape.

We have made numerous changes and announcements over the past three months that I hope you as fans have read about and listened to. This week, I would like to discuss our most recent one - the announcement of the return of Steve Tresierra for the coming season, and his appointment as our team captain.

Leadership is perhaps one of the most crucial concepts in any setting that involves a team, or any group of people that are working towards a common task. There is a reason why such emphasis is placed on these positions; they come with grave amounts of responsibility. The entire premise of leadership is to inspire people to do things that they likely wouldn’t do on their own. Not a simple task, regardless of the situation.

Now, being a captain of a hockey team is much less demanding than leading a country, or commanding troops in a battle, but, nonetheless, there are responsibilities here. So, why have we chosen Steve Tresierra to take this on?

Steve is a natural leader. He is confident, hard-working, respectful and extremely determined to succeed. Although it is not a necessary requirement for successful leadership, he is well-liked by his teammates and generally anyone he comes into contact with. But what I believe will make Steve a great leader is something that I don’t think most people look at. He is a personal leader. By that, I mean he leads himself in a very efficient manner, which is something many people struggle with. I’ve seen leaders in the past who are great at inspiring others, but struggle to control themselves.

At the end of the day, if every player in our room can take on personal leadership, there really is no need for an external source of inspiration and direction. Now, I’m not saying that Steve won’t be able to provide inspiration to his teammates, because with his work ethic, it’s hard not to be inspiring. However, I’m hoping that each player will be able to observe the way he conducts himself and emulate that behaviour to become their own personal leaders.

Steve will have success in helping to create personal leaders because he is not a big talker. He leads by example, by conduct. That is what I’m hoping will become contagious. I’m also confident that Steve is here to win, and that he knows he may have to make some unpopular recommendations at times in an effort to ensure the best interests of the group are being met.

The hardest part about being a leader is telling your peers, and usually friends, that they aren’t working hard enough, or that they shouldn’t be staying out late tonight. But I’m confident that Steve knows why he is here, and that sometimes those decisions have to be made to preserve not only his interests, but the interest of our hockey club.

Steve is set to lead our team at a crucial time in the history of the organization, and I don’t think we could have asked for a better person to take on this responsibility. Congratulations Steve!