KINGSTON, R.I. – With the start of the 2022 season just 12 days away, Rhode Island head coach Jim Fleming paused practice Saturday morning to officially name four players as team captains. Center Sebastian Delasoudas, quarterback Kasim Hill, defensive tackle James Makszin and safety/linebacker Henry Yianakopolos were chosen by their teammates for the role during a vote held Friday night.

"We have always emphasized player-led leadership. The players voted last night, and I think they did a great job," Fleming said. "It is a group of guys who will be very serious about doing a great job of leading this football team. We have high expectations, and they will hold the guys in the locker room accountable."

For Delasoudas, it is his third season as a captain. A graduate student who still has another season of eligibility after this year, the Ft. Lee, N.J. native has been a stalwart on the offensive line, appearing in 26 games overall, including 14 consecutive starts over the last two years.

"It means everything to me to know that the guys in the locker room feel I have their back and they have mine. It's an honor and a blessing," Delasoudas said. "It's a comfortable feeling knowing we have a lot of leaders. Being a captain comes with pressure, but when you know you have support from the guys in the locker room and the coaches, it makes a difference."

Hill is entering his third season as the team's starting quarterback since he transferred from Tennessee.

"When I first transferred here, I just wanted to earn everybody's respect first; earn their trust and go win some football games," Hill said. "To be able to be named as a captain this year is definitely a big honor. I'm just excited to go out there and play with everybody and try to win a championship."

Makszin has been a key part of the defensive line since he arrived in 2018. Despite suffering a season-ending injury four games into the 2019 season, he already has 28 games under his belt, including 23 career starts. Like Delasoudas, Makszin still has two more seasons of eligibility.

"It was a surreal feeling. It's a great honor to be recognized that way by my teammates," Makszin said. "It is all a part of the culture that we have built here. There is a standard here when it comes to being a football player, and we all hold each other to that standard. More than that, we hold ourselves to that standard. It's a great feeling knowing that feeling and support go throughout the team. That's how it should be."

Yianakopolos arrived in Kingston as a walk-on in 2017 and is entering his sixth season with the program. He has the longest active starting streak on defense with 14 straight games, and he has appeared in 26 contests overall.

"The weird thing about being a captain is that I don't think the label necessarily pegs people to be the top guy. We have a lot of guys who are leaders on this team, regardless of whether they are captains or not," Yianakopolos said. "It is a true honor, don't get me wrong. But what matters is that we keep working and keep improving moving forward.

"There are probably six or seven other guys just on the defensive side alone who got votes. I don't know how the votes went, so that's just me guessing. The amount of leadership that we have is huge. The idea is that people on this team are not afraid to step up and be leaders. That is what our culture has become. We have a player-led accountability type of culture, and everybody is able to speak up. There are leaders of all ages inside the locker room, which is great."

The Rams open the 2022 season at Stony Brook on Thursday, Sept. 1.