Windham varsity field hockey coach Cory DiDonato has always had a passion for field hockey. She returned to field hockey as a coach after playing in high school and college because she loves teaching players how to be strong young women and thrives in a competitive team atmosphere. She coached Windham’s varsity field hockey team from 2003 to 2008, and after taking time off to have her son, returned in 2016 and has been the varsity coach ever since. On Tuesday, Oct. 15, DiDonato earned her 100th career win as a Windham coach when her team took down Sanford 2-1 in a thrilling game.
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| Windham High School varsity field hockey coach Cory DiDonato, center, celebrates her 100th victory as WHS defeated Sanford, 2-1. on Tuesday, Oct. 15. DiDonato has been the coach at Windham for 13 non-consecutive years and is incredibly dedicated to the girls and success of the program. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA |
DiDonato was an Educational Technician at Windham Middle School from 2003 to 2008. Since 2016, she’s taught sixth grade English Language Arts and Social Studies at Windham Middle School.
“She’s the main reason I stuck with it, and she really just pushed me to be the best version of myself,” said Windham senior Zocia LaWind, who scored twice in the first quarter of the Sanford game. “I think the main reason is she believes in each and every one of us with her whole heart, she would do anything for us.”
WHS Junior Varsity coach Lyndsay Stretch and DiDonato, along with other coaches, work well with the youth and the middle school programs. When there is consistency in the coaching staff, DiDonato has found it makes a big difference.
“Cory embodies dedication to the program,” said Stretch, who has been with the program since 2017 and has coached alongside DiDonato since 2021. “She has instilled in me the values of perseverance, community, and cultivating leaders off the field. Her lifelong passion for athletics has fostered incredible teams and athletes. She teaches them to dig deep, strive for excellence, and lead by example for the younger players. Cory’s nurturing spirit creates a family-like bond within the team. Each year she brings in a college coach to run the players through some of the top skills and drills being taught at advanced levels. I love how much the team loves this opportunity and it empowers them to believe they have what it takes to take their skills beyond high school.”
To DiDonato, 100 Windham wins means she got to spend 13 seasons with amazing young ladies who she’s gotten to see turn into fine young women. Hopefully this means she’s teaching them how to work hard for something and how good it feels when they finally achieve that goal.
“My goal was to take a program that ... hadn’t historically been strong and build them from the ground up,” said DiDonato. “Both times I’ve come back that’s been my goal; it’s much more rewarding to take a program and teach kids how to work hard for something and not just be handed a winning program. Two years ago, when we made it to regionals, I talked about back in 2006 ... we won our prelim and we had a fire engine escort back, that’s how big of a deal it was to even make it to the playoffs ... it's cool to see how far we've come and it's because of them. They show up and work hard every day, so it’s definitely because of them.”
The past 13 years has taught DiDonato how to adapt depending on the team’s needs; some need a tough love approach, while others thrive under more compassion, but she always holds their feet to the flames to keep them motivated. It’s been incredibly rewarding for her.
The 100 wins is a testament to her teams and how hard they work. While DiDonato does put a lot of time into coaching and works very hard trying to make the team the best it can possibly be, it is her teams over the years who have earned 100 wins. Windham is ready to show people that they deserve to be in it, so they came ready to work. DiDonato wants to make it deep into the playoffs this year.
“A lot of us knew that it was coach’s 99th win before (Sanford) so we were really hoping we could push ourselves to do it for her,” said senior Grace Joly. “It was a really good motivator for us, we just went in as positive as we could and tried our hardest. I think we were all ecstatic for her, sometimes it’s hard for us to push ourselves to do everything we can, but when you’re doing it for someone else greater than us, it definitely helps.” <
