Waters, who will miss the next two weeks of pre-season training following a knee cleanout on Monday, led the Eagles in a string of games late last season and was named vice-captain ahead of fellow senior leaders Dean Cox, Adam Selwood and Matt Priddis.
It caps a remarkable return from the football wilderness for Waters, who played 21 games last season and finished third in club champion voting after almost two seasons sidelined with a complicated elbow injury.
Coach John Worsfold said the South Australian has been given an opportunity to one day lead the club.
"It certainly puts him in a position to grow into the possibility of being captain," Worsfold said from Claremont Oval on Wednesday.
"It obviously says he's got great leadership qualities. He's very switched on, very mature, very focused [and] very team orientated. It's a credit to him to get himself where he is."
Glass is, however, viewed as a long-term leader of the Eagles.
"The decision on when Darren steps down as captain and who replaces him won't be made for a long time yet," Worsfold stated.
West Coast is yet to finalise the rest of its leadership group for 2011, but Worsfold said there would be few changes to the group that included Cox, Selwood, Priddis, Josh Kennedy and Shannon Hurn in 2010.
The coach described Glass's reappointed as a great boost for the club, with the dual All-Australian highly respected at West Coast after driving a change in player culture.
"He sets a great example for what this team's trying to achieve," Worsfold said.
"He's disappointed he didn't get to play much last year, [but] we're very confident that he's right to go and contribute, both on and off-field.
"His leadership and strength of character is outstanding and the players really look up to him."
Glass has spoken publicly about his wish to hand over the captaincy before his career is over, and the skipper again offered to relinquish the leadership if a better option was available for the 2011 season.
"He doesn't see himself captaining the team right through to the end of his last playing day," Worsfold said.
"Beau Waters has shown some outstanding leadership qualities last year and Darren raised the question that if the club thought there was a better captain on the list then he'd be more than comfortable for that decision to be made."
However, Worsfold said the player group and match committee had been "fairly unanimous" in their decision to reappoint the dual club champion.
