The upcoming NFL draft has many more people thinking about character. 

The way NFL teams draft players (or don’t) based on their character traits will set an example for youth coaches. Whether your program “drafts” or “selects” or “recruits” players, character can be key to your team’s success and the overall environment and experience you create for your players and their families.

Consider players on the basis of character, and not just talent.

If you have ability and experience with mentoring young people, and you can use football to help them understand leadership and character within the community and improve their lives, then draft those players and/or consider ways to turn them into team leaders.

For example, show some trust by naming those players captains – even if it’s just for coin flips or leading pre-game warm-ups – or give those players specific tasks or objectives through which they can earn that trust.

If you lack experience in mentorship, and can do the most good in your community by helping children of staunch character develop even further, then draft/develop those players.

Either way, don’t just work with the players who will make your life easier. Most importantly, resist the urge to focus only on the most talented athletes regardless of character. In the long run, you do neither them, nor the other players on your team, any favors.

Whether you take the direction of building a team known for developing character, or the direction of a team known for enhancing already strong character – or, most likely, come combination of the two – it is critical that strong-character players be known as team leaders.

Ideally, your most talented player also exhibits the greatest character, setting an example for teammates that hard work pays off. Assuming everyone wants to excel, but not everyone has the will to work for excellence, a top player of great character can uplift the others by demonstrating that hard work pays off.

Of course, great character is not confined to just hard work. It also concerns many other traits, such as honesty, loyalty, empathy, sacrifice, humility, patience and perseverance. As you build your team, look for signs of those even more than you look for size or speed or brute strength, and you will find ways to win on and off the field.