Morgan Crawford loves the game of basketball and its positive impact on young women.
As the founder of The Moxie League, whose tagline is "It's more than basketball," Crawford had first-hand experience with what participating in competitive sports does for the development of young women. As a child, she played in her hometown of Mobile, Alabama, and went on to play at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. She also worked as an Assistant NCAA Compliance Director for SDA Bocconi in Milan, Italy, coached at Emory University in Atlanta, and as an assistant women's basketball coach at Wiley College. All her experiences and passion for the game led her to launch Moxie League in her hometown in 2020; the name is a nod to the woman who provided Crawford with her first college coaching opportunity.
To represent having "moxie," according to Crawford, is to "have courage, determination, and resilience. It really captures the spirit of boldness and grit that you need to do anything worth doing."
Toyota's Everyday Heroes program recognized Crawford for her work at Moxie and for "making a difference for women and girls in their local communities through sports" at the 2024 espnW: Women + Sports Summit in Ojai, California, on Oct. 29. The award comes with a $15,000 grant, which Crawford will use to extend Moxie's reach into different cities and hire more coaches.
At the heart of The Moxie League is a commitment to mentorship -- Crawford and the league, which includes leaders, career professionals, and mentors for student-athletes, bridge the gap between aspiring young female athletes in middle and high school and seasoned veterans. The ultimate goal of Moxie is to provide young, talented athletes with direct access to role models who have walked the path they aspire to tread.
"It's about learning from the best -- both on and off the court," Crawford has written on social media.
Ultimately, Crawford is helping build connections and an intergenerational development system for aspiring athletes and those who have played on the courts before them.