Building a Championship Culture in Sports

Captains & Poets is proud to offer Champions programming to create a positive culture in sports from athletes themselves. When we ignite self-awareness and self-leadership on a team, athletes discover their unique contribution to the game and coaches get in touch with their authentic coaching style. The result? Performance is heightened and everyone is empowered to reach their full potential.

This isn’t just a performance strategy. It is a new way to coach, play, and lead.

Download Champions Overview

Self-Awareness | Connection | Inclusion & Belonging | Leadership

 Champions isn’t just a performance strategy. It is a new way to coach, play, and lead. Champions enables coaches to have more impact on player mindsets, to optimize team dynamics, and access untapped leadership potential on the bench. 
 
The premise of the program is that we each have a unique Captain and Poet inside that, in partnership, enable us to be our best selves. By heightening self-awareness and self-leadership, Champions promotes individual and team performance.
 

Whether you are focused on elevating individual contribution, teamwork, or leadership capabilities; or enhancing well-being, inclusion & belonging, Champions is designed to ignite the potential in every player to augment overall performance.

The language of Captain and Poet gives each team member insight into their unique strengths and orientation to the game – alongside greater understanding of others. It also provides coaches and players with access to a broader repertoire of Captain and Poet traits and resources to draw on.

When the Captain and Poet come together, it creates a powerful formula for engagement. The mental, emotional, attitudinal, and behavioural attributes align to heighten performance.

Who Are Your Captain & Poet?

Key Benefits

  • Better understand individual players for optimal coaching outcomes
  • Harness diversity to drive innovation and team performance
  • Promote team cohesiveness and foster a sense of connection and belonging
  • Ignite untapped leadership potential on the bench
  • Foster well-being, resilience, self-leadership, and a growth mindset
  • Create a positive and inclusive culture from athletes themselves
"The Coaching Workshop provided invaluable tools to enhance team dynamics, foster leadership, and nurture emotional intelligence in our athletes. This unique approach resonated deeply with our coaches, offering fresh perspectives on athlete development both on and off the field. I highly recommend this workshop to anyone looking to elevate their coaching strategies and create a more empowering environment for their athletes." Director of Athletics

Sample Workshops

We offer team, coach, and parent workshops tailored to the needs of your sport, association, club, or athletes. Sample workshop topics are listed below. Custom workshops are also available.

Ignite the Champion Within

Harnessing each player’s unique abilities and leveraging the power of diversity is key to driving innovation on your team. Empower players with greater self-leadership skills and recognize untapped leadership potential on the bench.

Be the Best Team You Can Be

The key to performing in sports is understanding your natural strengths and limitations – and then using that self-awareness to collaborate effectively, deal with the ups and downs you face, and contribute to the best of your abilities.

Harness the Leader Within

Being a leader demands you rise to challenges, be a role model, and elevate your team’s performance. Uncover your authentic leadership style and learn to engage everyone on your team from a place of courage to create a championship culture.

Coach Your Child On & Off the Field

We all want our kids to bring their best on a team while experiencing a sense of well-being and belonging. Understand your child’s unique strengths to build confidence and resilience and self-leadership skills on and off the field.

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"If you are looking to supplement or bolster your athletics program, you can find value and confidence in the programming offered by Captains & Poets. Their professionalism, knowledge, and ability to connect with specific teams and students creates potential for stronger team cohesion and individual success. They help us to realize our own potential as individual athletes and coaches, as well as the dreams of those around us." Director of Athletics

Facilitators

Leigh Mitchell

Leigh is a DEI-focused trainer and facilitator dedicated to promoting equity in sport, education and business. Her certifications include Parenting Instructor, Recreation Leadership, SEL, Ethical Leadership, and Inclusive Design, along with training from the Coaching Association of Canada. A seasoned entrepreneur, she teaches at York University's School of Continuing Education and founded Women in Biz Network and the Empower Hour Podcast to support changemakers worldwide. Leigh is married with two sons and enjoys reading, trail running, yoga and mindfulness, and volunteers for several local causes.

Francesco Bazzocchi

Francesco is a distinguished coach, accomplished consultant, and former high school teacher. As a dynamic leader, he employs innovative teaching methods and activities to captivate and inspire his audience, offering invaluable expertise across educational institutions, corporate environments, and sports teams. He is President of Bazzocchi Consulting, specializing in coaching, leadership development, and training in Emotional Intelligence and Choice Theory. Additionally, Francesco is a prolific author and contributor for Glasser Canada, and he continues to deliver impactful workshops on the international stage.

Abu Hafejee

Abu is a seasoned GTHL hockey official, on the Board of Directors of Markham and Lawrence Community United, where he coordinates impactful initiatives for seniors, new mothers, and youth leadership, and VP of the Scarborough Muslim Ball Hockey Association, an organization founded by his father in 2004. Having introduced 100s of players to the Scarborough Ice Raiders, he is widely known for his ability to connect diverse groups and cultivate a sense of inclusion and belonging, demonstrating the power of sport to foster mutual understanding through community approaches. Abu is a licensed carpenter and a professor at George Brown College.

Kurt Michael-Downes

Kurt is an award-winning teacher with the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board and President of Border City Athletics Club. He is an advocate for community sport access for youth, a public speaker, and recipient of the Canadian Running Magazine Golden Shoe Award as Community Builder of the Year, the Under Armour Diversity Award, and  Athletics Canada Dr. Doug Clement Coach of the Year. He represented Canada as staff coach at the World Youth and World Junior Championships, Pan Am Games, World Championships, and Tokyo Olympic Games. Kurt is completing his PhD in Kinesiology.

Owen Brine, M.A.

Owen is a seasoned Officer with the Royal Canadian Navy and a former leadership mentor with the Canadian Forces College in Toronto. He has a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Public Administration and draws upon 32 distinguished years of service including four NATO deployments conducting operations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Owen’s vast volunteer experience with youth includes Scouts Canada, Junior Achievement, and Hockey Canada where he is currently Head Coach of a U18A team. A father of four, Owen is deeply committed to mental well-being and embracing mindfulness practices to make the most of every day.

Natasha Maloney

Natasha brings a breadth of fitness certifications and an entrepreneurial spirit to promoting wellness and youth development through community programming. She is a certified physical literacy instructor and founder of My PATH Learning Society educational program. Certified in Social Innovation, Natasha was a founding member of the grassroots initiative Achieving Community Together and co-founded the Parkland Youth Sport Consortium. She is also a committee member and coach for the Parkland Minor Softball Association. Natasha is an avid sports enthusiast and loves exploring nature.

Ted Temertzoglou, M.A.

Ted is a seasoned educator, author, and speaker and is on a mission to deliver programs rooted in equity, diversity and inclusion, social-emotional-learning, and culturally responsive teaching practices to empower people to lead authentic, happy, and fulfilling lives. As the president and founder of LifeIsAthletic, he provides global educational services in health & physical education, staff and student mental health including workshop facilitation, program/resource development, curriculum design & writing, monitoring and evaluation, professional development, demonstration classrooms, action research, and eLearning.

Pam Reilly

Pam is a seasoned coach and educator who integrates her experience as a personal trainer, yoga/group fitness instructor, and certified life coach into her framework. She is a qualified multi-sport coach with the Ontario Coaching Association and a member of the Board of Directors with Oro Minor Hockey Association. Pam specializes in integrating mindset work using physiological feedback to engage the body in learning and development. Her aim is to help athletes discover their strengths, achieve focus, and build confidence to see their potential in everything they do. Pam enjoys partaking in outdoor sports with friends, family and her dog.

Jesse Nairn

Jessie is committed to developing young athletes with a focus on teamwork, discipline, and personal growth in her role as Head Coach for Halton Regional Volleyball Club (U17) and formerly Elite Volleyball Player Inc. She has demonstrated her passion for community engagement in previous roles of Operations Coordinator for the Ontario Volleyball Association as well as Co-President of the Varsity Leadership Committee, and Mental Health Executive at McMaster University. As a standout member of McMaster’s varsity women’s volleyball team from 2016-2022, she was recognized as a three-time OUA First Team All-Star and named McMaster’s Female Graduating Athlete of the Year in 2022.

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