An Important Part of the Journey: Athletes Redefined Assisting Athletes in Preparations for Post-Playing Pursuits — Sport Oregon Voices

Program aims to help the athletes of today become the professional leaders of tomorrow

High-level athletes face a number of challenges on their way to the ultimate success they strive to achieve on the field of play, regardless of the sport. But what gets left out of the equation, more times than not, is planning for their post-playing days.

Shannon Boxx – a three-time Olympic gold-medal winner and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup champion while playing for the U.S. Women’s National Team in soccer – has first-hand experience with the difficult transition from the playing field to the board room, so to speak. Upon retiring in 2015 – after 12 years with the national team and 14 years as a professional soccer athlete – Boxx actually thought she had done a good deal of planning for her future beyond the field. She felt very fortunate to end her playing career exactly how she wanted to, and on her own terms. But she quickly found out that it was going to be more difficult than expected to really find that one thing she was passionate about pursuing off the field.

Her immediate focus upon retirement was on raising a family. She had a daughter near the end of her playing career, and welcomed a son roughly a year after retirement. Beyond this focus on family, though, Boxx – a finalist for the 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year and a 2022 inductee into the National Soccer Hall of Fame – found it difficult to pinpoint the right path professionally, at least at first. When describing her immediate professional exploration upon retirement, Boxx says she “said yes to a lot of different things” but that it took time to really figure out what she wanted to do.

“I definitely had to figure out my identity past sports,” Boxx said. “What else am I good at, what else am I passionate about?”

In 2019, she attended a conference that focused on females in the corporate world, and it just clicked. As a psychology major at the University of Notre Dame and through the leadership and teamwork skills gained during her playing days, Boxx quickly realized how to transfer her love for empowering others with her love of sports. And from this inspiration, her new endeavor, Athletes Redefined, was born.

Under the umbrella of the company, Ethos Mentality Group, Boxx and the company’s co-founder, Jen Croneberger, have set out to redefine how female athletes, in particular, go about planning for their future through Athletes Redefined. While still in the thick of their playing careers, there is a bit of a stigma attached to planning for the day when athletes no longer take the field of play. It can be viewed as a distraction, when in reality, according to Boxx, developing a plan ahead of time can actually boost how one performs on the field. Boxx says this planning can release a lot of stress and anxiety, and through Athletes Redefined, she and Croneberger – a sought-after, four-time TEDx speaker and compassionate leadership and culture change consultant – hope to inspire athletes to see the many wonderful possibilities that lie ahead by providing a blueprint for success.

Boxx and Croneberger have set out on this mission to empower current and former women’s athletes with the firm belief that the skills gained through sports are extremely valuable – and appealing to employers – in the corporate world. The focus of Athletes Redefined, first and foremost, is in helping athletes make the transition. The aim is to help athletes find their identity, give them the necessary confidence and get them to see the skills they gained as an athlete, and shine a light on how those skills are ultimately beneficial and transferable to what they want to do next with their career.

“Our goal is to get these athletes to see this as an important part of their journey,” Boxx said.

The efforts and mission of Athletes Redefined is well-supported by studies that show 95 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs were athletes, and that 80 percent of female Fortune 500 executives have a background in competitive sports.

While Athletes Redefined is still in its development phase, Boxx and Croneberger are focused on networking and connecting people who really want to help make a difference by getting involved. A key part of this development stage for the program is raising interest from companies that see the value in empowering women. Boxx says a primary goal of the program is to provide workshops and mentorship at no cost to the participating current and former athletes, so building the sponsorship piece is key to its success.

To help further its reach in these areas, Athletes Redefined has partnered with Sport Oregon as a primary connector. With its flagship SHE FLIES initiative, the mission of Sport Oregon and Ethos Mentality Group’s Athletes Redefined are essentially mirror images of one another, with a foundational goal of helping the girls of today to become the athletes and business leaders of tomorrow.

The two groups are working closely on producing an upcoming two-day workshop, targeted for the spring. The two-day workshop will be followed by a 90-day period of ongoing mentorship to help athletes implement their action plan, continue to refine their strategy for success and execute on the “playbook” provided during the workshop.

Sport Oregon also is helping to identify sponsors for the developing program, to ensure the service and mentorship is free to those interested.

“The partnership with Sport Oregon is amazing,” Boxx said. “We all want the same thing – to empower girls and women – so it’s just such a great partnership.”

How To Get Involved
Whether you’re a company interested in supporting Athletes Redefined through sponsorship, or you’re an athlete interested in learning more about professional planning and goal setting, additional information is available at www.ethosmentality.com and on LinkedIn.