Cora Dunham, a senior at the Morgan school, leads the girls lacrosse team as captain in her final season, but if you ask her, she wouldn’t be able to do it without the help of past leaders.

Marin Stopkoski was a senior captain when Cora was a sophomore and helped shape Cora into the person and captain she is today, Cora said. Whenever Cora had questions or concerns, Marin was the captain she went to.

“I have vivid memories of her reaching out to me after practice or after a game and telling me good job. She connected to me, like friend to friend, instead of like captain to player, and that showed me that yes, you’re captain, but you’re also another teammate to the girls. I looked up to her the most because she was willing to talk to me about things other than just lacrosse, but also be able to help me and recognize that I needed help.”

Because of this, when Dunham thinks of success, she does not necessarily look at stats and the scores; she looks at the deeper meaning.

”I think if you get better every day, or you learn something, I think that’s a success. Success is also just having fun, enjoying what you’re doing, and getting better.”

Cora is now having that same effect on younger players. Lanie McEnaney, a freshman part of the girls’ lacrosse team, remembers a moment when she first joined the lacrosse team. She remembers that Cora was there for her every step of the way and helped her learn throughout practices. McEnaney stated, “Cora has helped me a lot through my time spent on the team, like when I am getting confused about drills, she doesn’t get annoyed about explaining them and always has a smile on her face while she explains them to me.”

McEnaney continued, “I always see her helping the team, and she always has a positive mindset no matter the score of the game or how the team is playing.”

It hasn’t always been easy for Cora, though. Cora explained that she had challenges while being a captain for the volleyball team, during the winter season, because she was not sure how to take control of the team and lead by example as she does in lacrosse now.

That struggle bled into the lacrosse season. During an away game against Old Lyme that was not going well, Cora got upset about the team not working together as one, so she slammed her stick against the ground due to her anger.

“I remember having a big crash-out scene at the Old Lyme game. So I thought to myself, I should never do that again because I should be leading by example, and to show people how to act when things don’t go our way.”

Dunham has learned to trust in herself. Before, Dunham would often worry about her performance.

Dunham explained that she performs for others and not herself, and something she learned along the way was playing for herself and the love she had for the sport, and not the people who she felt would be judging. “For me to outgrow that, I had to trust in my skill and not focus on the groups who are judging,” Cora explained.

Cora did not have the best freshman and sophomore year on the girls lacrosse team because she felt the team didn’t work together as one.

Since then, Cora has learned a lot about herself and the team.

“Throughout my four years of being on the team, we’ve grown so much, and we’ve learned all the new rules. We’ve also come to play more as a team. So, I think remembering that’s where I started. It’s something that I’ve worked for, for four years to see us succeed together.”

“As a captain, people are looking up to you, and I like to see people grow. I like knowing that they want to take the advice from me, it sounds kind of silly, but I like knowing that I’m useful.”

So far, the team has come together so well.

Cora’s main goal for the beginning of the lacrosse season was to take the lessons she learned from those older than her and continue to grow and improve. Cora stated, “We learned new skills with plenty of drills, we practiced every day, and we got better at the sport.”

The girls have been working together very well. At games when the team is not doing the best, Dunham tries to stay positive and has decided to have conversations with other captains and coaches to work on the difficulties during practice times to continue to learn from the mistakes.

“Having conversations with Mr. Lindsey about the things that we’re noticing, and about the things he’s noticing, to make an effort to change the mistakes without making people feel bad about them. So that way, they’re confidence is still up, but also we’re improving every day.”

Cora looks forward to the rest of the season and all the potential it brings.

“[The captain’s role is about] calming everyone down and moving on to the next play, not dwelling on our mistake, sometimes it can lead to more success,” Cora closed.