HEAD COACH, MIDDLEBURY WOMEN’S LACROSSE TEAM

Director, Physical Education, Middlebury College

Senior Woman Administrator, Middlebury College

5X NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Champions

5X Winner, National Coach of the Year

Assistant Coach, U.S. Women’s Developmental Lacrosse Team, 2006-2009

Springfield College, 1974

The classes and discussion with Cornelia were more than just informative and practical.  Her interaction with the audience is so personal and warm and her information so genuine and useful that my colleagues and I all wanted to begin applying our new found ideas right away.

The best thing about Cornelia is her delivery: she intersperses personal stories with philosophy which makes her authentic.  She speaks from personal experience and lives her life with the values that she espouses.  As coaches, we attend professional development lectures and take away tidbits of info that we want to apply to our coaching, but really we should begin by applying these tidbits to all aspects of our own lives first in order for them to fit into our coaching philosophy.  Cornelia helped me to see how essential embodying what we preach really is because she does that herself!

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MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

Member, New England Lacrosse Hall of Fame

5X Winner, NEILA COY Division III Coach of the Year Award

3X NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Champions (Head Coach at Middlebury College)

.842 Winning Percentage (2nd among peers in D3 history)

NESCAC Coach of the Year, 2004

Master of Arts in Teaching, Tufts University, 1989

Captain, Middlebury Football

Middlebury College, 1986

What a gift it was to have Cornelia spend a few days with our students, coaches, and administrators!  Her information was both practical and inspirational.  She did her homework in advance, was organized and prepared with a wealth of information, but was also flexible and adaptable to our needs and to the feedback from her audience.  Cornelia’s time with us yielded tremendous insights into individual and team performance, as well as how to build a team or organizational culture.

MIDDLEBURY MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM

I would recommend this program to anybody with a pulse. The concepts that were shared with us can apply to anyone during any part of their life; it was extremely valuable.  I think the one thing that will stay with me above all is being unconflicted in my endeavors.  In many of the things I do, I recognize the importance of positivity and focus, but I have never been able to pinpoint all of those mental facets into one word--and I think ‘unconflicted’ is a great one for it!  I think keeping unconflicted in my mind will help me through challenging times both on and off the ice surface.  The two terms, “deep performance ecology” and “stay hungry, stay foolish” cover the broad takeaways (at least for me): I learned that fostering and strengthening one's own mental state is a crucial part of one's life.

MIDDLEBURY WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY & SOCCER TEAMS

I would describe the 2-day Mindful Warrior program as a class that really allowed me to come to understand myself and my feelings as an athlete.  The most valuable lessons I learned were "Evolve and not resign" and "Calm assertiveness."  I enjoyed Cornelia’s description of "Evolve and not resign" and the importance of intrinsic motivation.  She pointed out how it is important for an athlete (or any person in a competitive environment, really) to generate an inner fire-in-the-belly.  I liked how Cornelia described how people must engage and motivate others by first dealing with their own hot anger in order to get comfortable with themselves, and then they can sit with anyone in and with fearlessness.  There were many beneficial words of wisdom and concepts in this program that can help athletes perform better.

CAPTAIN, MIDDLEBURY MEN’S LACROSSE TEAM

I found the Mindful Warrior program to be very inspirational as well as meditative.  I learned a lot about myself just by taking a step back and thinking about my past and present in a different way.  The most valuable lesson I learned was to focus on "IT" (integrity and trust.)  I have found it incredibly liberating, both for myself and for others, to open up your true self, rather than editing out part of my personality.  If I am me all the time, and not scared of hiding some parts of me, I can then be truer to myself and others and form much deeper bonds.  I will certainly carry the values of integrity and trust into my spring season, promoting each member of the team to be open, honest, and committed to the effort of the team.  I found Cornelia’s talks to be very inspiring and I hope she is able to spread her ideas to a lot more people in the future.

MIDDLEBURY INTRAMURAL BASKETBALL TEAM

Everyone should be so lucky as to have the opportunity to take this program. Especially seniors, athletes, coaches, and teachers.  However, it is totally applicable to all walks of life.  I gained so much and I don't play a varsity sport!  I have become more aware of myself and others and see the importance of applying this understanding to groups and relationships.  The classes teach something that is hard to explain but makes sense because after each lesson I found myself saying, “Ah yes, exactly.”  Cornelia put into words and analogies some phenomena I cannot explain myself.  This part of coaching is so important in understanding people.  Read more.

ASSISTANT CAPTAIN, MIDDLEBURY MEN’S ICE HOCKEY

Two of the things that I thought were very valuable during the 2-Day Mindful Warrior program were the ideas that leadership is lonely and to not treat life like a buffet table.  Being in a leadership role on my team, there are always situations where I'm sitting and listening to what's going on within our locker room and I'm constantly assessing the direction we are heading in.  It's like I'm at a distance, alone, for a brief moment where I can reflect and absorb whatever the mood or atmosphere is at a given moment.  I couldn't really put a finger on it before the talk last week but thinking of leadership as lonely got me thinking a lot.   Read more.

HEAD COACH, MIDDLEBURY WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL TEAM

Most Wins in Middlebury Volleyball History (26), 1998

NESCAC Coach of the Year, 1997

Middlebury College, 1992

The Mindful Warrior approach is fantastic.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about Cornelia’s message of people being seen, met, and heard.  When she said that, I thought to myself, "Oh, I'm so guilty of not doing THAT!"  My first goal is to be TRULY in the moment, and to make every effort to be sure my athletes feel seen, heard and met.  In that way, I think that this presentation could have impacted my ability to effectively coach quite a bit.

Cornelia certainly walks the walk, and the full-spectrum approach to her teaching is extremely effective.  I am very much looking forward to pursuing this line of training and expect that I will frequent this website often to obtain information.

MIDDLEBURY WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY TEAM

One of the most valuable lessons I took away from the Mindful Warrior class was the importance of developing the ability to become a "complete" person--one who incorporates mistakes and failures as well as successes.  A lot of times in sport we are told to leave everything else in our life outside of the rink, off of the field, court, etc.  Cornelia touched on the importance of sometimes incorporating the other aspects of your life into who you are as a player and what ignites your passion and motivation.  Read more.

CAPTAIN, MIDDLEBURY WOMEN’S FIELD HOCKEY TEAM

I would recommend the Mindful Warrior program 100%.  Cornelia is a very impressive woman who is extremely well educated and well versed in all aspects of life, but has decided to focus on a very spiritual side of life and athletics.  Her Mindful Warrior classes gave us insight to how the body, mind, and spirit are all connected and how they all can act to improve your performance in the athletic arena or life.  Cornelia touched upon being comfortable with awkward silences and situations and how being in the present can not only enhance your physical performance but really can enhance your performance, attitude, and outlook on any situation.

HEAD COACH, MIDDLEBURY WOMEN’S FIELD HOCKEY

New England Coach of the Year, 2003 & 2004

Division III Coach of the Year, 2003

NESCAC Champions, 2003

All-American Field Hockey & Lacrosse Player

Goucher College, 1990

The Mindful Warrior program is very real--it cuts out all the external layers of why we're doing this and gets to the heart of why and how to coach.  Cornelia is not a glorified version of what we coaches are trying to be, but her program represents who we all are and gives us meaning and direction.  She is just like us and our athletes and her goal is to further understand and spread the understanding of humanness in a way that helps us be all we desire to be.  We can’t wait to have Cornelia back for a visit to Middlebury this fall!

CAPTAIN, MIDDLEBURY MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD TEAM

CAPTAIN, MIDDLEBURY MEN’S XC RUNNING TEAM

The Mindful Warrior training was inspiring and refreshing.  They were probably the two most important classes of my academic year thus far because what I learned in those two days will probably carry me through the rest of my life.  The concept of authenticity was a refreshing perspective on how to approach anything in life.  It reminded me to be true to other people, and, more importantly, to myself.  If I can do this, I believe I can continue to be passionate about whatever I do, each and every day.  The 30-minute writing assignment pretty much forced me to be "authentic" with myself, and I really enjoyed it to the point that I wanted to continue writing. Overall, I had an awesome time and I wish that everyone I know could experience it. 

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