Women In Coaching Fund Supports 14 Women To Become Leaders In Squash During Black Ball Open

The next round of the PSA Foundation’s Women In Coaching Fund got underway in Egypt alongside the prestigious Black Ball Squash Open 2024 earlier this month.

Supported by the Women In Coaching Fund, the qualification empowers women to become leaders and mentors within their squash communities.

The Women in Coaching Fund was first launched in 2023 as a legacy of the Women’s Squash Leadership program, with the aim of encouraging more women to participate in the game at a coaching and mentoring level. In collaboration with World Squash Federation (WSF), 14 Arab-speaking women gained qualifications to become coaches and leaders within squash.

Egyptian Squash legend Omneya Abdelgawy also took part in the course, giving advice and inspiration to all the women involved.

“We’re trying to get more women into coaching and more women into the sport, playing, coaching and everything else,” she said. “I think it’s a good step, they are all excited to be here. We all learned so much from Captain Ashraf and I hope it’s just the start!”

Omar Raef, Promoter of the Black Ball Open, said: “I believe this goes for every industry, not just squash, which is that industries don’t have as many women in them as men.

“Obviously, there’s some form of inequality there, and we always try to promote, like we do our best to hire female coaches because we think it’s very important for kids to not just have the figure of the male coach, they also need a female coach.

“It’s more comfortable for a girl player to have a woman as a coach, they can share everything.”

Amna El Tarabolsy, of the Egyptian Squash Federation, added: “I believe that women, when they put their minds to it, can do anything. They do it really good or they don’t do it at all. So, I think there must be more women in sport, especially in squash.

“We have a lot of good squash players that can give more to the game.”

A total of 43 females coaches have gained qualifications through this fund, and the PSA Foundation look forward to future rounds of the fund. You can find out more information on the above by clicking here and watch the full video of the coaching course on the SQUASHTV YouTube channel.