When it comes to college athletics, leadership among players is crucial to the development of team culture and performance both on and off the field.

For senior defender Nealy Martin, this rings home. As the team’s captain, the only Alabama native and the only true senior on the team, Martin has anchored herself as a key member of the team’s leadership. With 10 of the team’s 26 players being freshmen, it has become important for team leaders like Martin to help them acclimate to being a collegiate athlete.

“We’ve created a new culture here, and we’re trying to just continue to build on that,” Martin said. “What coach Wes [Hart] has created is just really great. Holding everyone to the same standard is really important to us. If we’re on the field it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m an upperclassman, I’m telling you what to do,’ it’s like we’re all holding each other accountable.”

In addition to building and maintaining the team culture at Alabama, Martin also praises the freshmen for their focus and skill despite their young age.

“They’ve really all adapted extremely well to everything we’ve asked them to do,” Martin said. “They’ve come and fit. I think most of them came in July to start working out with us, and we built bonds right away. So the way they’ve adapted has helped us a lot, and they comprise a huge part of our team, so it was really important that we all supported them moving in because we’ve been there and we know how hard that transition is.”

Thanks to the leadership of players like Martin, the Crimson Tide has seen freshmen start in every game so far this season. While this is to be expected with 10 first-year players, they hardly play like freshmen on the field.

“I don’t think they’re playing like freshmen,” Hart said. “You’ve got a lot of girls that look confident out there — physically, their soccer IQ, technical ability — everything about them. You don’t look at these girls and think that they’ve only played two or three months.”

Freshman forward Carly Wyatt also praised the team’s leadership. With players like Martin helping develop and strengthen the team’s fundamentals and culture, she said Alabama soccer has a bright future ahead.

“The leadership here is amazing,” Wyatt said. “You know Nealy Martin, Chloe Maize and then Alex [Plavin], you know it’s absolutely incredible. They’re setting a pathway for us, so whenever we’re in their shoes in the next couple of years, we know how to lead. We know how to act and represent ourselves and this team and the school in the future because of them.”

Martin takes pride in her role as a developmental leader and sees her leadership as a way to not only strengthen the team but also to better herself as a player and a person.

“Coming in freshman year, it’s hard to have the same confidence that you would have as a junior or senior,” Martin said. “After my freshman and sophomore years, it really laid the foundation for having more confidence my junior and senior years, and having to lead the team and speak up has helped out a lot.”