By Jennifer Johnson, B.Ed., M.A., CEO, Captains & Poets Coaching youth sport lives in the tension between development and results, care and accountability, patience and urgency. As a coach, you are entrusted not only with preparing athletes to compete, but with shaping how young people experience challenge, effort, failure, and growth. Coaches are, by nature,...Read More

By Jennifer Johnson, B.Ed., M.A., CEO, Captains & Poets Leaders are, by nature, lifelong learners. And when a new year invites a fresh start – one where we grow not through external expectations and demands, but through inner expansion – we want to ensure we hit those personal learning outcomes. It’s not just about what...Read More

November 3, 2025 Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities supports Captains & Poets to Empower 50 Youth Sport Teams Across Canada Initiative integrates emotional intelligence and leadership into sport, with a focus on keeping girls in the game. [Toronto, Ontario] — Today, Captains & Poets, with the support of Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities (Jumpstart), announces a groundbreaking...Read More

Where Captain Meets Poet: How Sport Shaped Our Inner Leaders By Ella Hupka and Nicole Bucur Over the summer, the Girls Forward Youth Advisory Council (YAC) participated in a powerful workshop led by Jennifer Johnson, founder of Captains & Poets. Through exploring the “how” and “why” behind our actions, we came to better understand our...Read More

What’s in Your Backpack? By Jennifer Johnson, B.Ed., M.A. As the new school year approaches, most of us picture the backpack filled with books and supplies. But there’s another backpack we carry every day (often unconsciously) filled with our strengths and weakness, thoughts, emotions, habits, and stories. Together, they define our learning edge for the...Read More

By Jill McPherson From an early age, I knew I wanted to work with children. I was the child who loved holding babies, the teenager who relished babysitting that parents sought out because their children requested me. I engaged with them, played with them—I was the babysitter my younger self would have wanted. I pursued...Read More

By Jennifer Johnson You run a high-energy drill. You repeat an instruction, again. You urge the team to reset and refocus but nothing’s clicking. You’re left wondering: Why aren’t they getting it? These moments are invitations to pause and reflect on how you’re connecting. Beneath the surface of performance lies a deeper influence on sport...Read More

By Jennifer Johnson  We all remember showing up to Phys. Ed. class with a mix of trepidation and excitement. It was a place to stretch ourselves, both literally and figuratively, share sides of ourself that may not show up in the classroom, interact with others, and have fun. Health and Physical Education (HPE) is a...Read More

by Ola ElKhatib   Understanding Team Dynamics in Schools While completing my Oxford Executive Leadership Programme at Said Business School, University of Oxford, I discovered fascinating insights about team dynamics that are particularly relevant to our educational contexts. It struck me that while corporate environments tend to invest in and organize around teams to achieve...Read More

by Jennifer Johnson   Resilience is a topic we hear a lot about these days, and we all have a general understanding of what it is – but how do we teach it to young people? We intuitively know how significant resilience is when it comes to overall well-being and success in life – but...Read More