Louise Waxler wins NSCAA Women's Committee Award of Excellence

The NSCAA Women\'s Committee presented Baltimore\'s Louise Waxler with the 2009 Award of Excellence sponsored by Washington Area Girls Soccer (WAGS) this past weekend at their annual conference.

Waxler is recognized as one of the bedrock pioneers that have brought women’s and girls\' soccer to the forefront of sports in the United States. Her experience spans executive leadership, operational planning and execution, and corporate construction, as well as sports PR and events management.

Louise has been a member of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) since 1991 and served in several distinctive positions within the organization, including President, Women’s Committee Chairperson, Youth Representative, and Board of Directors.

For more than 20 years, Louise has served in key roles of professional and amateur sports management within the Maryland, D.C., and Virginia soccer communities, as well as on the national and international levels for soccer expansion and governance. She served as the Director of Operations for the WPS Washington Freedom where she managed all team, venue, and game day operations for the franchise, before recently taking on a new challenge as Associate General Manager of the WPS expansion team Philadelphia Independence.  Louise was Maryland’s FIFA Women’s World Cup National Coalition Chair and currently serves as Executive Vice President of the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association Board of Directors.

She is widely recognized and respected for her experience running youth and professional sports and soccer events. She served as Director of the Washington Area Girls Soccer Tournament, RFK Stadium Director for Women’s World Cup Tournament, was a member of the staff at the adidas/Disney International Youth Soccer Tournament, and served as Director of Discovery Cup Soccer Tournament and Columbia Invitational Soccer Tournament.

Louise founded the KICKS Against Breast Cancer charity soccer tournament in 1996 in honor of her friend Claudia Mayer, who died of breast cancer at the age of 47. This “labor of love,” has become American soccer’s initiative to raise money to help find a cure for breast cancer and to help women living with cancer to survive and thrive. This year was its 13th year of competition, and the tournament is still going strong!