WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue women's basketball senior Abby Abel was named a finalist for the 2019 Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup on Friday. Presented annually by Athletes for a Better World, the award is given to the most outstanding role models among athletes of every level, naming winners annually at the professional, collegiate and high school levels.
The Cup recognizes individuals that best display character, teamwork, and citizenship, the attributes Athletes for a Better World deems central to transforming individuals, sport, and society. The award establishes the recipients as athletes of excellence both on and off the field, role models both as performers and persons, the most important and distinctive honor athletes can achieve.
Abel is the third Boilermaker women's basketball player to be named a finalist, joining Lauren Mioton and Drey Mingo, while Courtney Moses was a semifinalist for the honor in 2014. Purdue football standout Drew Brees was a professional recipient of the award in 2014. Abel has an extensive list of community service and works on her resume, but none larger than her works with the Special Olympics. A national leader in the "Play Unified" movement, Abel helped found Unified Track & Field with the Indiana High School Athletics Association and has continued to bring an annual Unified 3-on-3 basketball tournament to Purdue. She and close friend Mitch Bonar were named the keynote speakers at the 2018 U.S. Special Olympic Games in Seattle, and the pair were also named Co-Grand Marshal's of the 2018 Indy 500 Parade.
Abel will join the other three finalists at an awards banquet in Atlanta later this spring, to be hosted by famed sports writer and ESPN analyst Bob Ryan. Joining Abel is Drake University's Nathan Clayberg, Alfred University's Elisabeth Estep and South Florida's Malani Lee.
Founded by Athletes for a Better World (ABW), a non-profit organization committed to changing the culture of American sports, the Wooden Cup is unique in that it is open to athletes in all high school, collegiate, Olympic, and professional sports. Annual nominations are open to every division and conference in college sports, and to athletes in public and private high schools across the country in partnership with the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
The Cup recognizes individuals that best display character, teamwork, and citizenship, the attributes Athletes for a Better World deems central to transforming individuals, sport, and society. The award establishes the recipients as athletes of excellence both on and off the field, role models both as performers and persons, the most important and distinctive honor athletes can achieve.
Abel is the third Boilermaker women's basketball player to be named a finalist, joining Lauren Mioton and Drey Mingo, while Courtney Moses was a semifinalist for the honor in 2014. Purdue football standout Drew Brees was a professional recipient of the award in 2014. Abel has an extensive list of community service and works on her resume, but none larger than her works with the Special Olympics. A national leader in the "Play Unified" movement, Abel helped found Unified Track & Field with the Indiana High School Athletics Association and has continued to bring an annual Unified 3-on-3 basketball tournament to Purdue. She and close friend Mitch Bonar were named the keynote speakers at the 2018 U.S. Special Olympic Games in Seattle, and the pair were also named Co-Grand Marshal's of the 2018 Indy 500 Parade.
Abel will join the other three finalists at an awards banquet in Atlanta later this spring, to be hosted by famed sports writer and ESPN analyst Bob Ryan. Joining Abel is Drake University's Nathan Clayberg, Alfred University's Elisabeth Estep and South Florida's Malani Lee.
Founded by Athletes for a Better World (ABW), a non-profit organization committed to changing the culture of American sports, the Wooden Cup is unique in that it is open to athletes in all high school, collegiate, Olympic, and professional sports. Annual nominations are open to every division and conference in college sports, and to athletes in public and private high schools across the country in partnership with the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.