Image: Darren Abate, SAFC
When Mitchell Taintor was voted the captain of San Antonio FC last week, he downplayed it somewhat, saying that his teammates and even the thousands of fans at Toyota Field are all leaders who are valuable to SAFC’s success.
He’s the one wearing the armband though, he gets the “C” next to his name, he’s the one who leads the team out onto the field. Even if he says everybody is a leader, he’s the leader of the leaders, no matter how much he shrugs it off.
“Obviously, I was super happy and really thankful for the trust that all the guys put in me and inspired by the belief that they have in me to lead this team,” Taintor said. “I think the best part about it is that I’m wearing the armband, but I genuinely feel like there’s more than just one leader on this team and it gives me a lot of support going forward.”
Taintor was elected under a new process for 2024, where the coaching staff had no input and the players voted at the end of preseason after they’d had some time to get used to each other. Taintor didn’t just receive a majority of his teammates’ votes, he received all of them, being unanimously voted captain.
Taintor has worn the armband for SAFC before when previous captains like PC, who left SAFC this off-season, weren’t available. This is the first time Taintor has been selected as the number-one choice.
Longtime SAFC fans and returning players alike know that Taintor has been at SAFC the longest of all the current players, having been around almost the entire time since the start of the 2020 season. In fact, he’s set to make his 100th appearance for SAFC in all competitions the next time he steps on the field, presumably Saturday night away to the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Perhaps it’s because of his time in San Antonio that he frequently welcomes the new players and helps them acclimate. Multiple newcomers this season, such as Pablo Sisniega, Kevon Lambert and Kendall Burks, have specifically named Taintor and Shannon Gomez as players who helped them when they first arrived.
“Definitely, Mitch is one of those guys, he wants the guys to feel welcome, especially the new guys,” Burks said. “That’s important to settle into a club because it can take some time for certain players, different personalities and stuff like that. It can be tough, but when you have a guy like Mitch and other guys like Shannon and the older guys, it makes it a lot easier to really get acclimated quicker.”
Both Taintor and SAFC head coach Alen Marcina think that receiving the captaincy means more now that it’s strictly a player vote. Marcina said he wasn’t surprised at all that everybody voted for Taintor, and it’s a well-deserved honor.
Marcina and Taintor have always had a great relationship, with Marcina praising Taintor’s leadership qualities for years before he became the number-one choice for the armband. Marcina said those leadership qualities have evolved too, and Taintor agrees.
“When I was younger, I was super transactional,” Taintor said. “You can have a transactional leader, someone who’s really focused on the results, and I think when you are a transactional leader, you have good intentions but sometimes you can miss the things that can lead you to get the results that you want. Over the years, I’ve grown into a more transitional leader, just helping guys throughout the process to get to the result that we want.”
While Taintor said he’s become more of a transitional leader, he still wants to have a little bit of both styles, mixing them in the right amounts. After all, while the ultimate goal is for SAFC to be lifting trophies again, that’ll require wins along the way, and it’s never too early to start racking them up.
SAFC didn’t win its season opener this past weekend, and while Taintor’s transitional leadership style is more aware of the long-term goals now, he and his teammates will want to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later. It’s not the first setback SAFC has faced in his time with the club, nor is it the first time he’s had to step up and help the team keep moving forward.
That’s why he got the armband, that’s why his teammates both old and new knew he was the right choice.
Bluish Moon 