Abby Markoe will be awarded the Feron’s Wedgwood Sportsmanship Trophy at the 2018 FS Investments U.S. Open. The ceremony will be on Tuesday October 9 as a part of Character in Sports Day.
Markoe (pictured above, center) is the executive director of SquashWise, the urban squash program in Baltimore.
A lifelong player, Markoe captained the team at George Washington University during their inaugural year as a varsity program in 2002-03. She now is an avid league player in Maryland and each fall plays in the Howe Cup, the national women’s team tournament. For a half dozen years she has directed the Lacy Cup, the annual women’s match between Baltimore and Washington and more recently has led Baltimore’s Howe Cup team. She also annually organizes a Women’s Squash Night at Meadow Mill as a part of US Squash’s global initiative Women’s Squash Week. Last year, in response to low squash participation among girls, Markoe launched the Girls Excellence Initiative. This project works to inspire girls to commit more deeply to their athletic development through mentoring events, team-building activities and squash tournament opportunities.
While pursuing a PhD at Johns Hopkins in the history of medicine, Markoe starting playing squash at Meadow Mill Athletic Club. In 2008 she left her doctoral program to launch SquashWise, now one of the most successful urban programs in the country. Based at Meadow Mill, it has a 100% high school graduation rate and 80% college matriculation rate in a city where fewer than 70% of students graduate from high school and only 42% go to college. Its has five full-time staff and its annual budget has grown from $150,000 to $800,000. On October 18 SquashWise is celebrating its tenth anniversary.
The Feron’s Wedgwood Sportsmanship Trophy is US Squash’s oldest sportsmanship award. Since 1979, it has honored women who exemplify fair play, respect, courtesy and fellowship with opponents. Previous winners include U.S. Squash Hall of Famers Goldie Edwards (1980), Carol Weymuller (1988) and Demer Holleran (1989). Last year’s recipient was Hope Prockop.
Purchase tickets on www.usopensquash.com/tickets.