Leadership, and the development of leadership skills, have been common areas of focus in both sport and the military. However, few studies have looked at the relationship and impact of the two fields. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of high school sport and extracurricular experiences on leadership effectiveness in the Army ROTC. This included factors such as: (a) seasons participating in high school sports, (b) seasons as a high school sport captain, (c) formal leadership training opportunities, and (d) extracurricular activity participation in high school. Participants were current ROTC cadets at Mid-Western universities. They completed online surveys including the Student Leadership Practices Inventory, demographics, sport history, and ROTC grades. Participants included 282 male and female cadets ages 18-32 (M = 20.2). A series of ANOVAs and correlations were run on a variety of data collected. Factors shown to impact leadership effectiveness in the ROTC include seasons as a captain and years in the ROTC. Sport participation and formal leadership training were not related to leadership effectiveness. No correlations were reported between the SLPI and measures used by the ROTC to assess leadership.
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