Sue Cabot, Athletic Director
For Sue Cabot, every Peddie team was her team.
As Peddie’s first certified athletic trainer and first female athletic director, Cabot’s legacy is deeply woven into the foundation and progress of the athletic community.
Her tenure from fall 1986 to spring 2012 was marked by tireless support for student-athletes, coaches and the athletic department, always ensuring their safety, health and success.
Sue mentored countless students, inspiring many to follow in her footsteps as athletic trainers or
to pursue careers in the medical field. Cabot held the athletic trainer position for 11 years.
Former student trainer Tiffany Strauss is only one of several she inspired.
“Her passion, care and work ethic sparked my own journey into athletic training, and I had the
privilege of learning directly from Sue as a student trainer during my four years at Peddie,” Strauss said. “She taught athletes how to prevent injuries through proper stretching, strengthening exercises and with supportive taping. When injuries occurred, she administered effective care and guided athletes through rehabilitation with a level of compassion and expertise that was second to none. Today, after 25 years as a professional athletic trainer, I strive every day to emulate the standard of excellence Sue modeled for me.”
In 1997, Cabot became Peddie’s first female athletic director. Her vision and leadership helped shape the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL), and she played an instrumental role in advancing Peddie’s athletic programs and facilities.
“It was my first year as athletic director, and I was brought to a meeting of the MAPL Athletic Directors,
and they were talking about a football league. And I said, ‘No, we can’t have a football league. We have girls sports, we have boys sports; we need to make this bigger and make this for all sports,’” Cabot explained. “Working in conjunction with them, I wrote the constitution and bylaws throughout the summer. I brought it back for approval, and we continued to evolve.”
There was so much that could be done to evolve, and she was always trying to make improvements.
“My job wasn’t to tell coaches how to coach the game, the X’s and the O’s, the technical parts. It’s to help them grow and support them in some of the more tangible ways of dealing with kids,” Cabot explained.
Cabot credits her time as an athletic trainer with helping her become the leader she is.
“To be a good athletic trainer, you have to be able to listen, hear and respond,” she said. “While I had my
own sports, I found I love all of them in different ways, and I learned so much about each of them. It’s being able to recognize what you don’t know and let the experts ‘do,’ but be able to support them and balance them in ways that allow them to shine and do more.”
As time went by, she saw areas in which she could really help the athletic program, in ways that she couldn’t as an athletic trainer. Earlier growth led her to the athletic director position as well.
“The way she provided leadership, she never did it in a way where she made someone feel like she was more than them,” Athletic Trainer Jose Roca said. “She did it in a way that was just incredibly supportive, and that’s why she’s admired by so many.”
For Marc Buchner ’92, not only was Cabot his advisor when he was a Peddie student, but she continued in that role when he was her assistant director of athletics.
“She was a great listener and regularly offered sound advice for me early in my career at Peddie,” he explained. “While she strived to give coaches and teams what they needed to help them lead successful programs, Sue made sure to have the student-athletes’ best interests at heart when making department decisions. Her positive impact on the athletic department, programs, coaches and athletes is still felt to this day.”
The Susan K. Cabot Spirit of the Game Award is named in her honor and given annually to a student who models Cabot’s commitment to loyalty and fair play.