Former Notre Dame Soccer Champion, Shannon Boxx, Launches Ethos Mentality Group

Former Notre Dame soccer champion, Shannon Boxx, and Sports and Performance Psychologist, Jen Croneberger, have just launched Ethos Mentality Group. Who are Shannon and Jen, and what does Ethos Mentality Group do? Let’s take a look!

Shannon Boxx, Co-Founder

Shannon Boxx enjoyed one of the most remarkable careers in U.S Women’s National Team history. She was a member of three Olympic gold medals - winning sides and finished third in the 2005 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year voting before capping her career at the age of 38 as a member of the 2015 Women’s World Cup Championship side. Boxx, in recognition of her achievements and her career was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in May of 2022.

Using her experience of the ups and downs of her own transition from professional sport into the work place, she is dedicated to helping athletes realize their potential and transition their careers with confidence.

U.S. Soccer Women’s National Team Instagram

Jen Croneberger, Co Founder

Jen Croneberger is a widely sought-after 4-time TEDx speaker and compassionate leadership/culture change consultant and is the Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of JLynne Consulting Group, LLC and The HUMAN Leadership Institute.

Besides bringing this work into the corporate world, Jen has coached softball at the high school, college and pro levels and was the owner of Excellence Training Camps, a training center for athletes. She has a Master’s Degree in Sports and performance psychology and some of Jen’s clients have Included pro athletes and teams.

What is Ethos Mentality?

Shannon and Jen created Ethos Mentality Group for the professional athletes to:

• Expand self-identities.
• Discover interests and competencies beyond sports.
• Mentorship and connection in the business world.
• Encourage strong relationships and community.

“Our passion is to support and empower athletes to rediscover who they really are. To build confidence in the skills they have acquired as an athlete and trust they can and will transfer into the business world. We will equip every athlete with the tools to help redefine their sense of purpose and create their own authentic playbook for a successful and fulfilling life after sport.”

80% of athletes take 2 years to transition into retirement. (Stambulova & Wylleman, 2014)

20% of athletes experience the transition out of sports as a crisis. (Stambulova, 2017)

“Without exploration and encouragement, athletes are at risk of developing a foreclosed identity — a premature commitment to an athletic identity without considering the value of other interests or aspects of identity.”

“The fact that the Ethos Mentality programming meets each person where they are is game-changing. Whether you have your new career mostly organized or have no clue where to start, the sessions are extremely impactful. Being provided scheduled space for follow-up questions/thoughts/struggles (and wins!) is unheard of and so appreciated.” ~Joey Lye, Canadian National Women’s Softball player, Olympic Bronze Medalist, and TEDx speaker.

“What I enjoyed the most was taking a deep dive into finding what drives me. My who and why as well as understanding my strengths and how I will use those.” ~Carli Lloyd, American professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion, two-time FIFA Player of the Year, and four-time Olympian.

“We’re here to support and empower athletes to rediscover who they really are.”

If you want to learn more about Ethos Mentality Group, you can learn more at their website: https://ethosmentality.com/

If you’d like to learn more about Shannon Boxx, here is a snippet of her story from my book, Triumphs from Notre Dame: Echoes of Her Loyal Sons and Daughters:

The Notre Dame Years

“I arrived at Notre Dame and I was lucky in the fact that I got to start right away, which in hindsight was pretty crazy. I certainly didn’t expect to start my freshman year, but it was really fun to get thrown in right from the beginning. I knew it would be more challenging than high school soccer, but the speed and physicality was so much different. You had to figure out how to deal with that pretty quickly in order to not only be able to compete, but to survive. Academically, it took me at least a semester to really get up to speed. First semester freshman year was hard for me because it was soccer season. In addition to trying to get used to being away from home, you also had to try and figure out how to juggle your classes along with practices, games, and travel. It was a lot to acclimate to all at once. That first semester my grades weren’t too good. I came from having straight A’s in high school, and then all of the sudden I was struggling. Second semester I started to figure things out and was able to turn my grades around. By my senior year, things were pretty much smooth sailing. But after that first semester, I had a fair amount of catching up to do in order to get my grades where I wanted them to be. Freshman year is a transition, no matter how prepared you think you are, especially when you play a fall sport. You arrive at school early for fall camp, and then you jump right into school and games. It’s a lot for an 18-year-old to have to figure out, and figure out quickly.”

“When I was a student at Notre Dame I studied psychology. I knew, heading off to college, that psychology was what I was interested in pursuing, so that wasn’t a difficult decision for me. Along the way, as I was picking electives, I took a lot of African-American Studies classes, and thought I was on track to earn a minor. As it turned out, I picked up so many African-American Studies classes, that I earned a double major. It just sort of happened that way. They were both subjects that I was interested in and passionate about, and so it wasn’t much trouble to get a major in both.”

“Where I grew up in Southern California, there were not many African-Americans living in our community. My mom is white and my dad is black, so when I got to Notre Dame and discovered the African-American Studies degree program, I was very excited to have the opportunity to learn more about my heritage. And my mom was very supportive of me as well. I was also very happy to be at a school that was much more diverse than where I grew up, but even when I was at Notre Dame in the mid 1990s, it was still very segregated. As an athlete, my teammates and I didn’t see each other as black or white. You were a team, and you saw each other as teammates.”

Every athlete who plays in college or at the professional level has one primary goal, to win a championship. And though they all share the same common goal, very few actually reach that pinnacle of success. Shannon did just that at Notre Dame and beyond. Shannon shared with me what it was like to be a member of the first Notre Dame women’s soccer team to win a NCAA Championship.

“It’s hard to put into words what the experience was like. We had so much talent on that team, and such great leaders. I was very lucky that this was the time when I came on to the team, and that we had the veterans we did, such as Cindy Daws and Jen Renola. They were such great leaders, and I loved the fact that they were our veterans when I came on to the team. And then we had so many quiet players that just did their job and were so amazing. The big turning point of that season was when we went to play in a tournament in Texas against UNC and Duke. It was around the midseason point, and we didn’t do very well. Coach Petrucelli sat us down and asked us, ‘Do you want to win a national championship? Because if you do, this is not how you’re going to get it done.’”

“At that very moment we came up with a term that any of us could say, and it would make us all refocus and keep our eyes on the prize, and that word was ‘focus.’ Any one of us could say it on the field and it would instantly focus the team. That was a big turning point for us in that season. In another game, the starters were having a terrible day, and so Coach Petrucelli sat all of the starters and put in the second string. They came in and not only played awesome, but played together as a team. He looked at the starters and said, ‘They are playing for each other, and they want to prove that they are worthy of starting, and you guys are just out there.’ I remember hearing that and thinking, ‘Wow, we have to do this as a team, or it doesn’t happen. If everyone does their job, and fulfills their role, we win.’ That was another big turning point in that season. Going into the semifinal and final games our coaches told us, ‘If you do this like we’ve practiced it, you will win.’ And we stuck to our game plan and it worked.”

“As I became more of the veteran player, our senior year was such a bummer. We felt we could have won it my junior year, and to lose in the semis of the Final Four was devastating. After I played on the national team, I came to realize that it was during my time at Notre Dame where I learned that I am playing for more than just myself. I’m playing for my team, for my University, for the fans, and for all of the students that go there; you can be successful if you all play together and are good teammates. Those are all things I left Notre Dame with, and they helped me be really successful on all of the teams I played for after college. Luckily I was able to win at every level of the game.”

If you’d like to read more of Shannon’s story, please check out my book: Triumphs from Notre Dame: Echoes of Her Loyal Sons and Daughters.

Cheers & GO IRISH!