Former WNBA player and Baltimore native Sonia Chase is coming home to lead the city's next chapter in professional women's basketball. On Tuesday, the UPSHOT League — launched this year with $40 million in committed investment and fresh off its first WNBA call-up — named Chase the first president of UPSHOT Baltimore, its expansion franchise set to begin play in 2027.
A University of Maryland standout, Chase made history as the first player drafted directly from Maryland into the WNBA before playing professionally overseas and building a career spanning more than three decades as a player, sports executive, and community leader. Most recently, she served as an Associate Director in Secretariat's Global Sports Practice, advising leagues and sports properties on growth and commercialization.
UPSHOT Baltimore will tip off in May 2027 at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena, located on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus in Catonsville. The league's inaugural championship will take place later this month. The team's name, logo, colors, jerseys, mascot, and inaugural head coach are still to be announced.
"Sonia Chase embodies everything that makes Baltimore great — grit, excellence, and an unwavering commitment to community," said Greg Resh, governor of UPSHOT Baltimore and a fellow Baltimore native. "Her career as a trailblazing athlete and respected sports executive makes her exactly the right leader for this franchise."
"As a proud daughter of Baltimore, this moment means more to me than words can capture," Chase said. "I've spent my career building opportunities in professional sports and giving back to the community that raised me — now I get to do both, at home, building something historic for the city I love."
Chase's background since her playing days is heavy on the business side of sports. Before Secretariat, she managed U.S. sponsorship operations at Deloitte, overseeing a portfolio worth more than $4.9 billion that included partnerships with the WNBA, USGA, USTA, NWSL, and the Paris 2024 and LA28 Olympic Games.
She's also spent nearly two decades in youth development work as founder and CEO of Chase Your Dreams Academy, a nonprofit that's reached more than 13,000 young people in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., since 2009 through basketball camps and programming focused on leadership, financial literacy, and life skills — work that earned her a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award.
UPSHOT Baltimore joins the league's four founding franchises — the Jacksonville Waves, Savannah Steel, Charlotte Crown, and Greensboro Groove — along with fellow expansion team UPSHOT Nashville. The league, owned and operated by Zawyer Sports & Entertainment, is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.