The Beyond the X’s & O’s Podcast is hosted by Dr. Cassidy Preston, a Mental Performance Coach & founder of CEP Mindset, & Chris De Piero, a High-Performance Coach that has spent the past 30+ years in the game of hockey within the NHL, Hockey Canada, OHL, and European pro hockey. Cassidy is one of Chris’ former players where they won OPJHL Championship together in 2006. This podcast was born from their shared passion for helping coaches and leaders to go Beyond the X’s & O’s and develop the ‘human’ skills of leadership. Outside of the podcast they work together at CEP Mindset where they coach elite athletes, coaches, teams, and high-performing executives to achieve Consistent Elite Performance.
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Andrew Cogliano has spent the past 15 seasons in the NHL amassing 1,140 games, of which he had a consecutive streak of 830 games. He recently won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche. He previously played for the San Jose Sharks, Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks, and Edmonton Oilers (the team who picked him in the 1st Round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft).
Championships seem to follow Cogliano, as he has also won internationally representing Canada at the World Junior tournament, winning two gold medals, as well as being on the U-18 Canadian team that won gold, and representing Team Ontario, winning the gold medal at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge. He also led the St. Michael’s Buzzers Jr. A team to an Ontario Championship. He truly has a team-first mentality and is dedicated to helping his teams win.
In this episode Cogliano shares:
- How he has grown as leader throughout his career
- Insights into the recent Stanley Cup championship culture
- His speech to the team between game 5 and 6 in the finals
- The importance of mindset at the highest level of the game
The bottom line is you will get to see a unique perspective into Cogliano’s mindset and how he is clearly someone who goes Beyond the X’s and O’s.
Enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more.




Blair has over 13 years of experience as a Professional Dancer, Assistant Dance Captain & Cast Manager, as well as an additional 17 years of training. Over the last 3 decades, she has lived and experienced first hand the highest of highs & lowest of lows that come with pursuing a career in the Performing Arts.

Sean Mahoney is a member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), and a Master’s candidate in the Sport and Performance Psychology program at the University of Denver. For as long as he can remember, Sean has been fascinated by human performance and how to gain an edge over the competition. For most of his athletic career, he focused on the physical aspect of performance but neglected the mental. Because of this, he struggled with performance anxiety, focus issues, and limiting beliefs pertaining to confidence and self-doubt. His lack of focus on optimizing his mental game prevented him from reaching his full potential.



As a former member of McMaster University’s women’s soccer team, Emilie intimately understands the demands and challenges athletes face on and off the field. Although she encountered many challenges as a high-level athlete, particularly struggling with self-doubt and overthinking, Emilie was able to make a remarkable transformation when she began to embrace the principles of sports psychology.








Danielle Hanus, MA
Monica Russell, MA






