From Ryan Abraham:

After 3 years of different winners for the Scholar-Athlete Challenge trophy, 2011 brings the list full circle back to the first ever recipient: Charlotte Knaggs. Now, in its 4^th year of existence, the Ryan Abraham Scholar-Athlete Challenge trophy continues to target those squash juniors who have shown the ability to consistently demonstrate excellence both on the court and in their academic endeavours.

Charlotte Knaggs won this prestigious award in the year of its inception when she was in Form 1 after placing 39^th in the country in the 2007 SEA exams (http://www.newsday.co.tt/sport/0,78578.html).
Now 3 years later she has proven herself worthy to reclaim the prize.

Charlotte is currently a Form 5 student at St. Joseph’s Convent, P.O.S. preparing for her CXC exams. She has been able to maintain an overall A grade average as a From 4 student while sustaining a competitive squash training and tournament schedule.

With a lack of junior tournaments and competition in Trinidad over the last year, Charlotte decided to compete in some Canadian Junior tournaments to get the necessary exposure and match experience. She placed 5^th in U 15 in the Ontario Dunlop Gold #2 in November 2010, followed by a quarterfinal finish in U 15 in the Canadian Junior Open in December 2010.

She continued her success in 2011 as she moved up to U 17. She placed 5^th again in the Ontario Dunlop Gold #4 in March in her first U 17 tournament for the year. This was followed by another quarterfinal finish in the Ontario Junior Open in April.

However, these were merely the preparation tournaments for her successes to come. In May, she captured another National U 19 crown to solidify her #1 junior ranking in the country. She almost went one step further when she was runner-up in the National Senior Championships, a few weeks later, in a close 4-game encounter with Rhea Khan.

But the icing on the cake came when she brought home the Caribbean Under 17 title defeating top seed, Victoria Arjoon from Guyana. Victoria has been undefeated in Caribbean junior squash for about 4 years. The two girls cruised to the Caribbean Final without dropping a game, and Charlotte continued her perfect run with a 3-0 victory over the 2009 & 2010 Caribbean U 15 champ in the final.

Charlotte Knaggs accomplished a great feat to become the new Caribbean Under 17 Champion and has clearly worked hard to achieve this goal over the year while striving to uphold a good academic profile in the process. A youngster with an outstanding work ethic both on and off the court, Knaggs will definitely go far in her future endeavours wherever her journey takes her.

A worthy recipient for the Scholar-Athlete Squash Challenge trophy in 2011!!

NOTE: LIST OF PREVIOUS WINNERS / RECIPIENTS

2008 - Charlotte Knaggs

2009 - Mandela Patrick

2010 - Jessica Scott

2011 - Charlotte Knaggs