Niko Tamurian, KOMO Sports Director
Jessica Campbell is making history. Every single time the Seattle Kraken takes the ice, Campbell inspires as the first woman to work as an NHL assistant coach on the bench.
She accepted the role last summer, and now that the Kraken approaches a two-week break for the Four Nations Tournament, we caught up with Coach Campbell to get an update on the experience and the meaning of everything she’s accomplishing.
“As far as the experience, it’s been wonderful,” Campbell said. “The guys have been great, just try continue to do my part every day in ways to have a strong impact on the team and get better and demand more of ourselves, demand more of the guys.”
Indeed, it is a new era for the Kraken with Campbell and Head Coach Dan Bylsma taking over the team in just its fourth season since entering the league. So I had to ask how exciting it was to be a part of it and trying to work to lay the foundation for this Kraken team as it hopes to establish itself as a perennial playoff contender.
“Exciting is probably a great word, for me it’s, the season is always full of highs and lows and all sorts of waves and I think just riding those waves and taking it all in,” Campbell said.
Taking it all in certainly pertains to the experience of this first NHL season after a life in hockey. Campbell played in college at Cornell and turned that playing prowess into a coaching career.
She landed with the Kraken organization working with Bylsma with the franchise’s American Hockey League affiliate in Coachella Valley. When the Kraken made a coaching change last April, Bylsma and Campbell came to Seattle and history was made.
“There’s a responsibility I think that comes with the opportunity that I have, carrying this torch for the next generation of young girls, young boys to be able to dream things they never thought was possible,” Campbell said. “I never pictured this opportunity for myself, I never had it to look up to.”
ALSO SEE | Jessica Campbell and the Kraken make history, but this move is all about winning
It’s incredible to think that she is doing what she loves, and that it just so happens doing what she loves is absolutely inspiring so many to do the same.
“That’s what it’s all about right? Just inspiring the next generation to believe in also dreams that they don’t traditionally see themselves in,” Campbell said. “It’s not just about young girls, it’s also about young boys, what they look up to – who they see is in a leadership position. I think it’s huge for eliminating that gap that we have and just continue to open doors for others to come into this space and find themselves following their own dreams.”
That’s why when we say Jessica Campbell is inspirational, it’s the most unequivocal fact you can encounter. She is making history and she is a coach that has earned every opportunity with an incredible offensive mind that is on full display to anyone who watches a Kraken game.
But she’s embraced Seattle, a city that certainly has supported her incredible journey. Her groundbreaking NHL season has been nominated by the Seattle Sports Commission as a finalist for “Sports Story of the Year.”
That support? It goes well beyond awards though, prestigious as they may be.
It’s about connecting with this city and its fans. And really, hockey fans all over the country.
“There was actually a moment in Dallas early on that inspired me to make bracelets for young kids because this little girl came with her mom,” Campbell said. “Mom was teary eyed at the back of the glass during warmups. She threw the bracelet over the top, it landed on the ice and Jamie Oleksiak and (Brandon) Montour they picked it up and brought it over in the middle of their warmups and it was an important moment I think because I think for me it truly captured what this means for young girls, young women and adults that are able to be on the sideline and see what this means for the growth of the game and I’m just so proud to get to do what I love every day and for it to have a bigger meaning beyond the game so I don’t take for granted any opportunity I have to connect with fans.”
Campbell’s lifelong journey on the ice as compelling as it’s been is just getting started. She hopes to be in Seattle for a long time to come. She hopes to inspire more change and give so many people in an out of hockey something to believe in.
And for all the things she hopes for, there’s one thing she knows for certain.
Because of all this, Jessica Campbell may be the first but certainly won’t be the last woman to coach an NHL team.