[EricH]

If the only problem with the student is that he/she is continually trying to be a leader, and there is a good chance that the other students won't go with that, then you have a delicate situation. On the one hand, deny the student what they want. On the other, risk the team not accepting the leadership.

I would suggest sitting down with the entire team before the season, if possible. Certainly, have a team meeting before captains are chosen. Explain what leadership is. You don't want to direct this specifically at the one student, but rather to the entire team, including mentors. One thing to particularly point out is that you can't lead if others won't follow you.

To that end, what is leadership? It means responsibility, knowledge, and respect, combined with the ability to get others to do what you see as best for the group you lead. Yes, there are benefits. However, those should be secondary. Many see the benefits and not the dangers. (The Sword of Damocles, an ancient Greek myth, is an example of that...)

Responsibility means that you have to be able to take the blame as well as the credit. So many times, responsibility is only claimed for good things and is denied for things going wrong. Knowledge is knowing what needs to be done, often how to do it, and always being ready to learn.

Respect is the most valuable. One needs to respect others and gain their respect to lead them. Without respect (with which the student apparently has had issues, at least with regard to the other students), there can be no trust, and therefore no followers for the leader.

I have had no issues with this on my team, but in another group, we had literally just gotten some people in. One of them was elected to lead the entire group, and he turned out all right. Some of us were annoyed, because we'd been around for a little while. We got over it.

One other thing you could do, in regards to this particular student, would be to talk with him/her one-to-one. Find out why he/she wants to be the leader so badly. It might be that he/she simply wants another position for college applications. Or it might be that he/she doesn't like the way the team is currently run and wants to change that. Or maybe he/she just wants to be "the boss" of the team. Each reason has a different method for dealing with issues that may be caused. If you find out why the student wants to be the leader so badly, the team can help the student understand why he/she can't be the leader at this time, or help him/her to become a leader.