Is it more of a honorary thing or do you think this person should have certain duties.

Also, who should pick the captain. Coaches, team, or should it be the best bowler?

Just looking for some input.

As a former collegiate bowler, I feel performance should only be a portion of the criteria used in deciding who the captain is.  For me, here is what I would use as criteria:

*  Attendance - is the bowler at all the practices and all the tournaments
*  Relationships - does the bowler get along with all of the team members
*  Responsible - does the bowler do what he says
*  Performance - is the bowler good enough to be on the first team?  I only say this because the captain will need to be at every event and not everyone goes to all the events.
*  Knowledge - does the bowler seek out knowledge and pass what they have learned.  They don't have to think they know everything.
*  Attitude - does the bowler have a positive outlook on competition.  Do they not get down on themselves (or others).
*  Aspire - does the bowler aspire to be a leader.

Not everyone is captain material.  Some of the best bowlers I know are not necessarily the best teammates.  Some have bad attitudes and once things go bad, they shut down.  You need to have someone everyone respects and generally gets along with.  As captain, they don't have to be best friends with everyone, but they should be generally liked.

And has GTGT stated, it should be voted on by the players.  Though I would not disagree with the coach selecting someone early on and go to a vote if things don't go well with the initial choice.

To keep this short, let me know if you have any questions.

Having bowled in High School and College, let me add my take:
 
Since most High School Programs have a coach, they will make the majority of the decisions as to who is in/out, lineup, etc., a "Captain" is more of a honerary title. It should be voted on by the players anonymously. I want the Captain to be the person the team feel most comfortable with being the liason to the coach. If the team wants a change, I feel it's the Captain's job to take that to the coach and ask for it. And vice-a-versa, the Captain should be the person the team feels most comfortable with getting news from the coach, at times. I would also see the Captain(s) as some of the better performing bolwers, maybe not the top 1 (or 2) but near the top. People that can lead by example.
 
I was lucky enough to be a team captain during my High School career. I saw my job as being the guy to go out and perform for my teammates. But I also saw it as my job to help our coach, to be able to say to him "I think bowler X needs to make this move to score better" and see if he agrees and then giving that advice to bowler X. I also saw it as my job to help keep the team morale as high as possible. Cheering on my teammates and helping pick them up after a bad frame/open. I also, at times, sacrificed individual honors for team goals. For example, at the end of every season, there was a 2 day tournament that every high school could send 6 players to bowl. There were individual honors for singles and also team honors. I spent time going around and talking with our other 5 bowlers, pumpng them up, helping them with adjustments, cheering them on when needed, etc. I finished 3rd overall in Singles, but we won the Team portion and one of my teammates took the top overall Singles spot. I was more proud of that, then if I had won the Singles and our team didn't win. JMHO

Good Stuff! I was really hoping to get responses from those who had experience. Big thanks for the info.