• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

American Gold Sports Alliance

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Media
    • Featured News
    • Diversity and Inclusion Committee
    • Youth Advisory Committee
    • Wrestling for Gold Initiative
  • Raffles
  • Radiosport
  • Try Cricket
  • Athlete of the Month
  • Camps
  • Join Our Team
    • Richard Montgomery Wrestling
    • Richard Montgomery Girls Lacrosse
  • Donate
    • Giving Tuesday
  • Contact Us

Hockey

USA Hockey Wins 2025 IIHF World Championship in Overtime Clash

April 22, 2025 by Tara S

Claire Watkins | Just Women’s Sports

The USA skated to victory on Sunday, taking down archrival Canada in a 4-3 overtime thriller to earn the team’s 11th IIHF Women’s World Championship title.

The US is now closing in on Canada’s record 13 World Championship wins, setting the tone in the run-up to next year’s Winter Olympics as North America’s PWHL showcased its growing influence on the international stage.

After Canada equalized the second-period goals from US defender Caroline Harvey and forward Abbey Murphy — the potential No. 1 pick in June’s 2025 PWHL Draft — the game’s third period saw Team USA lose starting goaltender Aerin Frankel to injury.

Backup goalie and IIHF World Championship debutant Gwyneth Philips stepped in, seeing the USA to a back-and-forth 3-3 tie at the end of regulation.

Philips’s 17 saves — including 10 in overtime — allowed US forward and current Penn State junior Tessa Janecke to play hero, with the 20-year-old capitalizing on a turnover by tapping in a golden goal with three minutes left in the first overtime period.

“Just shows how strong we are as a group and how much we can persevere through anything,” Janecke said afterwards. “I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group.”

The tournament itself also proved to be a success, setting a new IIHF Women’s World Championship attendance record as 122,331 total fans took in the games in Czechia.

“I think this is a watershed moment for women’s hockey, and it’s really exciting to be a part of,” said US captain Hilary Knight after earning her 10th Worlds gold medal.

In a shifting hockey landscape, the USA-Canada rivalry is only becoming more intense — and the looming 2026 Olympics will provide yet another chance to steal the sport’s global spotlight.

Filed Under: Hockey, Women's Hockey

Jessica Campbell continues to inspire the hockey world in 1st season with Seattle Kraken

February 19, 2025 by Tara S

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.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MBa5ZEPUn1g%3Ffeature%3Dshared

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.

Filed Under: Athlete Spotlight, Hockey, Women in Sports

PWHL Stars Emerge as Season Revs Up

January 14, 2025 by Tara S

By: Dee Lab | Just Women’s Sports

Behind a string of stellar performances, PWHL standouts Marie-Philip Poulin (Montréal), Corinne Schroeder (New York), and Sidney Morin (Boston) emerged as Monday’s Stars of the Week.

After scoring two goals — including the superhero-style game-winner — in Wednesday’s sold-out Takeover Tour win, Victoire captain Poulin registered an assist in front a record-breaking Denver crowd on Sunday to claim a three-point week.

Saturday belonged to Fleet defender Morin, who recorded a career-high five shots and notched both goals in Boston’s 2-1 overtime win over Ottawa, doubling her single-goal scoring record last season.

New York Sirens goaltender Corinne Schroeder defends the net during a PWHL game.
Corinne Schroeder is the first-ever PWHL goalie with back-to-back shutouts. (Rich Graessle/Getty Images)

The puck stops with Sirens goalie Corinne Schroeder

Sirens goaltender Schroeder made PWHL history on Sunday, becoming the first-ever goalie to record back-to-back regular-season shutouts.

New York’s 1-0 victory over Toronto also made a mark, becoming the PWHL’s first-ever scoreless game in regulation before New York’s Jessie Eldridge found the back of the net in overtime.

Schroeder, who tops the league in average goals against (1.86) while sharing the lead in wins (5) and save percentage (0.935), hasn’t conceded a goal in over 156 minutes of play.

“I think Schroeder has been our number one goalie for a long time,” said Sirens coach Greg Fargo after the game. “She’s been demonstrating the level of her play since day one, but there’s a calmness to her game and a competitiveness that we really like right now.”https://www.instagram.com/p/DExpHbbyW5o/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=1080&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fjustwomenssports.com&rp=%2Freads%2Fpwhl-stars-poulin-schroeder-morin-emerge-how-to-watch-pro-womens-hock%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A282.3999999910593%2C%22ls%22%3A159.29999999701977%2C%22le%22%3A159.29999999701977%7D

How to watch PWHL games this week

While teams jockey for points one-third of the way through the PWHL’s second season, individual athletes are separating themselves from the pack by tearing up the stat sheet.

The PWHL’s stars are back on the ice in midweek action. First, the Toronto Sceptres visit the Ottawa Charge on Tuesday at 7 PM ET.

Then, Schroeder will try to add a third shutout to her record-setting goaltending streak when the New York Sirens host the league-leading Minnesota Frost at 7 PM ET on Wednesday.

Both games will stream live on YouTube.

Filed Under: Hockey, Women's Hockey

Gillian Apps: “It’s the idea of making this better”

October 24, 2024 by Tara S

Ian Kennedy | The hockey News

Women and girls have historically been excluded from hockey. For more than a century, women have been barred from rinks, kicked off teams, and forced out of leagues. Girls have been given leftover ice times in the middle of the night, or early hours; and they’ve worn equipment not made for their bodies, faced ridicule and discrimination, and despite it all, continued to play the game of hockey.

The barriers are obvious, and it’s why Hockey Canada and a special steering committee aimed at solving these problems for women and girls, have released the first phase of their plan, a paper titled “building the future of women’s and girls’ hockey.”

Leading the charge is three-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time World Champion Gillian Apps. Apps is a member of Hockey Canada’s new board of directors and the lead of Hockey Canada’s Women’s and Girls’ Steering Committee.

Apps knows change has been slow, but feels that the new group, alongside HockeyN Canada are committed to opening opportunities for women and girls.

“It was very clear how Hockey Canada is committed to this,” Apps told The Hockey News.

“It is a testament to say, women and girls hockey matters to everyone involved in this paper, and the steering committee when people were asked to be a part of this, no one hesitated. People truly believe in, ‘how do we make women’s and girls’ hockey in Canada better.’ We have our paper but really trying to understand how Canadians are interacting with the game from coast-to-coast and put strategies in place to try to make it a really great experience, keep women in the game, have new Canadians start hockey and have that be an easy experience. Even for a 30-year-old, 40-year-old woman who has never played hockey before, how can she get involved in a learn to play?”

“It’s an exciting project, it’s an enormous project. We’re trying to get the voice of the country from coast to coast. It’s something that obviously matters a lot to me and something I’m really excited about.”

Apps grew up playing in an all-girls program in Markham-Stouffville, and she recognizes she was one of the lucky ones. She also saw the bulk of her career played without fanfare. After a collegiate career at Dartmouth, which included her first World Championship and Olympic golds, Apps went on to play in the CWHL with the Brampton Thunder.

While the stands would be packed for international tournaments, despite the fact the CWHL features the same national team stars, players, teams, and the league received almost no recognition. It’s why Apps believes visibility in media coverage, and through the PWHL are crucial to the next step for women and girls in hockey.

“Visibility and celebration is a really important thing,” Apps said. “The PWHL for example, for people to be able to watch those games, we’ve been fighting for so long in women’s hockey to be able to just have people in the rinks. I can’t tell you how many times when I was playing in, long ago, the CWHL and we had probably combined between the two teams 20 Olympians on the ice and we were at a rink in Brampton and no one was there except our parents.”


“It’s funny to think it because we were like ‘wow, I’m sure people would love to see this’, and then we’d play at the Air Canada Centre and it would be sold out. It’s juts the visibility and the ability for people to come watch and watch on TV and young girls to watch and young boys to watch.”

Ice time is another recognized gap as organizations have historically allocated ice to boys programs, men’s recreational leagues, and all other user groups before women and gils. Apps also recognizes that a barrier to participation and retention in Ontario will be different than the barriers in Prince Edward Island, or Northern Canada.

That’s why the next step in Hockey Canada’s process, in collaboration with IMI International, is to conduct surveys and interviews with all stakeholders, from parents to players, coaches and staff, and those who have left the game altogether to “try to figure out how we can really come up with strategies that can help people have a better experience and help people stay in hockey,” as Apps says.

The data collection phase, as Apps stated, is important “to have a pulse on underrepresented communities, new Canadians, the BIPOC community, people that have played hockey but then have since quit, understanding ‘why did you leave the game?’ and ‘can we get you back?'”

When they’ve collected the data, Apps and her steering committee, which also includes Jayna Hefford, Angela James, Mary-Kay Messier, Therese Brisson, Kim St. Pierre, Katherine Henderson, Marion Jacko, Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, Pierre Arsenault, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Debra Gassewitz, Rob Knesaurek, Anne Merklinger, and Brad Morris, will look at developing and applying strategies in partnership with Hockey Canada to enact change.

“We’ll have some time where we’re just in pure data collection mode and then coming together and figuring out what are the insights from that, and really after that it’s the idea of how do we think through these difficult problems and come up with strategies and then put them into place,” Apps Said. How can Hockey Canada put them into place across the country so that we address these barriers…and make people’s experience better.”

In the end, it’s about removing barriers, and creating a better experience that promotes inclusion and lifelong participation in all communities in Canada, that has Apps and Hockey Canada optimistic.

“I hope that it makes peoples love for the game stronger and their experience better. There are always going to be things that are hard…but I think that overall if we can really make women’s and girls hockey across the country for everyone, something that it is more enjoyable than it is today, that is more accessible than it is today, that gives women and girls the opportunity that if you want to be an elite hockey player it’s up to you, that you are given all the resources that you need and you can choose whether you do that or not,” said Apps.

“It’s the idea of making this better, it’s a really hard problem to solve, and some of these barriers in order to fix, it doesn’t hap

Filed Under: Hockey, Women's Hockey

PWHL inaugural season: What we know ahead of Jan. 1 start

December 19, 2023 by Tara S

By: Katie Manganelli | Just Women’s Sports

The first puck drop for the PWHL is set for Jan. 1 — just five months after the league was announced. But a lot of moving parts need to be secured before play can begin.

On June 29, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chelsea FC owner Mark Walters bought out the previous pro women’s league, the Premier Hockey Federation. And since then, Walters, tennis legend Billie Jean King and multi-sport executive Stan Kasten — investors in the rival Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association — have transformed the previous leagues into a single six-team entity.

And just last week, the league hosted nine preseason contests so coaches could finalize their rosters and get a last look at the competition heading into the inaugural season. 

To add to the whirlwind, the league also plans to make rule changes that differ from rules in the NHL. For example, the PWHL is debating allowing two-minute penalties to continue after the opposing team scores on the power play. Many of the rule changes seem to be targeted at increasing scoring opportunities and action.

“We’re going to have to look at the data and see if it actually created more scoring chances or more goals, which of course I think is the goal,” Jayna Hefford, the PWHL’s senior vice president of hockey operations, told CBC and Radio-Canada.

“We’ll debrief the event and really understand the pros and cons, and see if it makes sense to implement any of them.”

The PWHL is also still assembling its player discipline committee and its collection of referees, both of which must be finalized before the first puck drop. The league plans to use a pool of officials from other organizations, which include the American Hockey League, Hockey Canada and USA Hockey.

As is typical in women’s hockey, body checking isn’t allowed in the PWHL, but the players still want to play a physical game. So expect no shortage of action along the boards or penalties called.

The first regular PWHL season will consist of 24 games, with international breaks included in the schedule so that players can maintain their national team commitments. The four best teams will make the playoffs and will play best-of-five series through the end of the tournament to determine a champion.

Regular-season tickets went on sale this week and, according to Hefford, sales are already out-performing projections. Toronto already has sold out all 12 home games at 2,600-seat Mattamy Athletic Centre.

“We go into this understanding that we’re building a league, we’re launching a league,” Hefford said. “We’re not going to fill every building every night, so we have pretty conservative projections, I would say. But in initial days into ticket sales we’ve exceeded our projections, which is really great news for us.”

The PWHL plans to launch merchandise soon, including replica jerseys, that should be available in arenas and in online stores.

Even before it hosts its first game, Kasten is shocked at how well the league has come together in such a short time. 

“To see it really coming together, I can’t describe it,” Kasten said. “This will be the league with the highest level of skill for women hockey players ever in the history of the world.”

Filed Under: Hockey, Women's Hockey

Jessica Campbell, the AHL’s first full-time female coach, is living two dreams

December 5, 2023 by Tara S

Jolene Latimer | The Score

In Jessica Campbell’s rearview mirror, all roads lead back to her 10-year-old self. The first woman to coach full time in the AHL, and one of the first women to work a game behind an NHL bench, Campbell spent the first decade of her life living an idyllic, rural Canadian existence that included hockey, family, and more hockey.

“When she was small we lived miles from town – on a farm – and she would say, ‘Can we go skating tonight?’ and it’d be a blizzard,” Campbell’s mom Monique says. “You could not keep her off the ice. She had so much fun skating with people. She would beg for me to drive her in even though you could barely see the road. That’s how much she loved it, she just couldn’t miss a night.”

Loving hockey was a birthright for the Campbells. As a young adult, Monique played hockey at the University of Saskatchewan, while Jessica’s dad, Gary, grew up on outdoor rinks of Canadian lore.

“It’s something I grew up with, my dad liking hockey so much,” Monique says. “He passed it on in outdoor rinks and small rural teams we got to play on as girls. I got the opportunity (to play) from my dad and my husband got the opportunity from his family. So we just kept that going.”

The four Campbell children followed their parents into a lifelong love affair with the game. Josh, the oldest, had big-league ambitions. By the time he was 17, he was up to nearly a point a game for his AAA team. Next in line was Dion, who played university hockey in New Brunswick before professional stints in the Central Hockey League and in Germany. Jessica’s older sister, Gina, followed in her mother’s footsteps to play university hockey at the University of Regina.

From left to right: Josh, Jessica, Gina and Dion Campbell. Supplied

But back in the fall of 2002, when Jessica was 10, the family’s passion for hockey led them to relocate to Melville, Saskatchewan, from nearby Rocanville to be closer to Josh, who signed as a rookie with the Yorkton Terriers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

“I want to be a fan favorite here. I don’t just want to be an average hockey player, I want to be one of the best, the best I can be,” Josh said at a press event at the time.

By Canadian Thanksgiving in October, the younger kids were settling into their new schools. Josh, who turned 18 in September, would be heading home for the holiday.

But at 8 a.m. on the Friday of the long weekend, Monique received devastating news: Josh had been in a fatal collision. He wasn’t coming home.

“I remember that morning very clearly. It’s just a heartbreaking, devastating moment. You feel weak and lost,” Monique says.

Josh had been Jessica’s biggest role model. “She always connected with him because that’s who we watched play hockey the most,” Monique says. “She looked up to him a lot. He always helped her along the way, giving her tips on the ice, strategy. We went shinnying together and played a lot together. There was a really good bond there.”

Jessica Campbell and Josh Campbell as children. Supplied

The pain pierced through Jessica’s childhood. “Those were hard times on me as a young girl,” Campbell says. The family leaned into what it knew best: hockey. “It was just a challenging time, but I think it only made us stronger,” she says. “And, honestly, it made hockey a place for us where we could work through it. The game itself brought so much joy. I think the game of hockey is an amazing sport because there’s a community of people. When you’re from small towns, that rink, and the arena, it’s a place of gathering where people have each other’s backs and everyone knows each other.”

That community sustained the family through the darkest days following Josh’s death. “A lot of Josh’s friends at the time on the Terriers – his teammates – would come out and watch (Jessica) play. I know that meant a lot to her,” Monique says. “The hockey community – it is like a family, really. They seem to know what you’re going through and are really compassionate.”

As the family adjusted to its loss, hockey helped 10-year-old Jessica define her identity. “The avenue of sport and hockey for me was a place where we healed together as a family but we also could carry on my brother’s love for the game,” she says.

Even before Josh’s death, Campbell had announced herself on the ice.

“I remember I was coaching novice hockey,” family friend Leo Parker says. “We lose to this little novice team. House league teams. We lose, I don’t know, 10-2 or something like that. Jess scored all 10 goals.”

Parker paused to laugh. “My son Andre said to me, ‘Dad, we have to get her on our team.’ She was a perfect little hockey player.”

Jessica Campbell on the ice in the 2001-02 minor hockey season.

Following Josh’s death, Parker says Campbell always insisted on wearing his No. 8.

“You can always connect dots back in your life. Right?” Campbell says. “For me, that loss at such a young age and not really understanding why – you never understand why – that was always the driving force for me in my playing career.”

Her goals crystallized in those years: get to the highest level of hockey. As a young woman in the early 2000s, that meant making the Canadian national team. And she had a skill that gave her an edge: skating.

“Jess was always, by far, the best skater on our team,” says Bailey Bram, who represented Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics. “When it came to power skating drills, she was always the one who the coach was like, ‘OK, Jess, you demo because you can do it best.’ No one would ever race her to anything because it was just like, ‘Jess is automatically going to win.'”

Campbell earned a silver medal at the world under-18 championship and gold the following year as team captain before playing four years of hockey at Cornell. After being cut three times in the final round of tryouts for the senior national team, Campbell was eventually named to the team in 2014, on Oct. 11 – exactly 12 years to the day of Josh’s death.

“She called me the minute she found out. She was just sobbing,” Bram says. “She was just like, ‘This is supposed to happen this way. And it was supposed to happen this weekend.'”

That same year, Campbell signed with the Calgary Inferno in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, playing with them for three seasons. As her playing career began winding down, it was time for her to ask: what next?

The answer was obvious to the people who knew Campbell best.

From her mom’s perspective, it was natural Campbell would continue to leverage her high energy and love for people. “Jess was a high-spirited child who liked to do everything. She never missed anything. She wanted to be part of a lot of things,” Monique says. Campbell loved hockey’s team atmosphere; even when she was regularly the only girl on her minor hockey team, her mom noticed she formed instant, close bonds with all her teammates on road trips, at tournaments, and on the ice. Her mom couldn’t imagine her doing anything but being involved with a team.

To Bram, skating definitely had to be part of Campbell’s future. “We all thought she might end up doing something with hockey and skating because that’s what she was so good at.”

Campbell coaches on the ice during a Firebirds practice. Coachella Valley Firebirds

Putting those two together meant Campbell would be a natural fit to coach, so she took a position in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia coaching high school girls. Several years into her tenure, she called Bram from a Starbucks drive-through for an impromptu heart-to-heart.

“She said, ‘I’m not unhappy here. I just feel like I’m not fulfilled. I love the girls. They’re fun. But, I just feel I have more potential,'” Bram remembers.

“I wanted to continue to aspire to work with players of the highest level, regardless of gender,” Campbell says.

To aim for the highest levels of professional coaching meant she would have to do something that hadn’t yet been done by a woman: rise through the ranks of men’s professional hockey and into the NHL.

“There is no true blueprint for anybody’s pathway,” Campbell, 31, says. “If you would have looked at mine, you probably would never have said, ‘She’s going to coach in the NHL or be in this position.’ Because the reality was, nobody else was doing it. But looking back now, I feel if I connect my dots backwards, my upbringing and my story as a young girl with the boys has set me up for the right mentality,” she says.

Campbell headed directly from the drive-through to her employer to give notice she was leaving. She had a plan: to launch her own power skating business. And that business took off.

Campbell briefly relocated to Sweden to launch JC Powerskating before returning to the Okanagan shortly before the NHL’s 2020 playoff bubble was set to begin. At the time, many players were isolating in the Okanagan and looking for summer ice to brush off pandemic cobwebs, and before long, she was running 20-person skates with players like Luke Schenn – who won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning that year.

“I wasn’t focused on trying to get to work with NHL players,” Campbell says. “I was presented with an opportunity where one NHL player wanted ice time and asked if they could come skate with me. Next thing you know, there were 15 guys and I was running an entire NHL group. The realization for me was just to continue to bring that passion and not worry about any of the other barriers or perspectives that others may have about it.”

After noticing her skates gaining momentum with NHLers, Brent Seabrook hired Campbell privately to help him recover from hip and shoulder surgery.

Icon Sportswire / Getty Images

“I really hated her, to be honest,” Seabrook says laughing. He clarifies: “I hated watching her skate.

“I’ll never forget, we were working on pivots. And she’s like, ‘Hey, I want you to come up. And I want you to do like this.'”

Campbell demonstrated the skill and Seabrook shook his head.

“I’m like, ‘Jess, there’s no chance I’m going to be able to get that low and get my leg out that far. And then push and pump. It doesn’t matter how healthy I am or how young I ever was. There’s no way I can get down that low,'” he says. “She was very good with the technical parts of it.”

Her sheer skill earned her respect. “Everything she was asking us to do, she could do,” he says. “Everything. She did it, and she did it really well.

“I find the people that I’ve worked with (who) are really exceptional at what they do are the people that really stop you and correct you and make sure you’re doing it properly.”

But it wasn’t only Campbell’s skating that Seabrook liked; her demeanor was great, too. “She took the time to talk to us. It wasn’t barking. I could talk to her. She’d follow up with questions. She was learning from us as well. She didn’t take any crap from us. She was out there to do a job, and the mentality was, ‘Let’s do it properly.’

“Whatever level you’re at, you want to feel like (your coaches) care,” Seabrook says. “She would go the extra mile. She would text me after to see how I was feeling. Is it too much? What do you want to do tomorrow for the skate? Do you think we should go harder? Should we pull back a bit? There was a plan behind every skate. She cared.”

That’s Campbell’s personality – on and off the ice. “That’s a big piece of who I am as a coach,” she says. “I want to be a coach who is willing to ask the hard questions and who is willing to be sensitive. I know that is my feminine self that comes through in coaching. It is that communication piece. That level of care. Making sure the guys know my coaching style is to lead with love and lead with service for them. Making sure they know I’m in the trenches with them, and all I want to do is see them succeed.”

Opportunity knocked as her coaching reputation grew. In 2021, she headed to Germany to be an assistant coach of the Nuremberg Ice Tigers in the DEL under ​​Tom Rowe, the former Florida Panthers general manager and head coach. After the season, she and Rowe were assistants to Toni Soderholm with the German national team at the men’s world championship.

Campbell, far right, on the German bench at the 2022 world championship. Eurasia Sport Images / Getty Images

That’s where Campbell came to the attention of Dan Bylsma, the 2011 NHL coach of the year and winner of the 2009 Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins. When Bylsma met Campbell, he was an assistant coach with Team USA, and was also scouting upcoming additions for his staff, as he was set to start as head coach of the Seattle Kraken’s AHL affiliate, the newly formed Coachella Valley Firebirds.

“I started my search with a couple of different names in mind. But I saw her coaching the German national team and I started an investigation into where Jessica was at and where her coaching path was at,” Bylsma says.

He was even more impressed when he learned about her skates in the Okanagan. “NHL players reached out to her and asked her to put them on the ice and through the paces to keep their game fresh and relevant,” he says. “That struck a big chord with me in terms of what kind of coach she is. She can put a player on a path to be relevant.”

When Bylsma hired her, she became the first woman to have a full-time coaching position in the AHL. Now in her second season on Bylsma’s staff and with an NHL preseason game under her belt, she’s close to the pinnacle she sought when she left her high school job.

“I think that my hardships and the challenging times in my life were actually the days that prepared me for the work in this job,” Campbell says. “There are a lot of hard days, there are a lot of sleepless nights. And, I am alone in this space. As much as I feel completely supported by my staff, by Bylsma, by the organization, by the Kraken – everybody has been so supportive of me – there isn’t another female coach specifically in my position that I can call at the end of the day and just communicate with on that same level.

“I think the strength comes from some of the challenging times in my life where I can lean in. I can dig in and access the place of strength.”

Bylsma, center, and Campbell, right, before a Firebirds game. Coachella Valley Firebirds

Campbell’s in charge of the Firebirds’ forwards and power-play unit. In her first season, Coachella Valley was the AHL’s third-highest scoring team, with 257 goals. The power play hummed at 20.3% efficiency. The club marched to the Calder Cup final, eventually losing to the Hershey Bears in seven games.

Along the way, Campbell did exactly what Bylsma thought she would: show players how to become relevant. She helped transform forward Tye Kartye’s play and jumpstart his NHL prospects. Kartye, an undrafted free agent, led AHL rookies with 57 points in 2022-23 and was named the league’s top freshman. He was called up to the Kraken for the 2023 NHL playoffs.

Kartye’s experience was similar to the one Seabrook had back in Campbell’s early Okanagan days. “She was really good at telling you how the game went and what you needed to improve on,” Kartye says. “Little conversations like that, when you talk one-on-one about how you’re doing and how you can improve and how the games have been going, conversations like that build a lot of trust.”

It’s an approach that proves itself in the details and the staggering amount of hours she devotes to developing players.

“Last year, I was a rookie. I came in and it was a bit of a slow start,” Kartye says. “Being able to work with her after practice – she was always out on the ice before or after practice – whenever I needed to do something, she was always there. She’d pass pucks, give advice, go over video. She helped me an incredible amount as I was trying to reach my goal to get to the NHL.”

Tye Kartye in action during a second-round playoff game last season. Christopher Mast / NHL / Getty Images

Campbell traces that dedication back to her brother. “That mindset of really not holding back and just going for it has always been inspired by my brother and the way he lived and in the athlete and person that he was,” she says.

That work ethic and people-centered approach keep providing her chances to see her brother’s dream come to fruition. “I think every day about how I get to live out my brother’s dream of working or playing at the highest level on the men’s side. I do feel a sense of pride and honor with my family that they get to also experience this with me, and there’s just so much joy around the game. The game has always been a place where we, as a family, have been able to connect and celebrate.”

If Campbell could say one thing to Josh, knowing what she now does about her career path, and her future dreams, she knows what those words would be: “I’m here because of you. And I definitely am grateful every day. I’m never going to take the opportunity for granted to get to do what I love on the ice.”

And if Josh could see Jessica now, Monique thinks he’d use her nickname, one he gave his little sister because she ran before she could walk. She thinks he’d say something like this:

“Boof, we always knew you were going to go far with hockey. Look what you’ve done. I’m extremely proud.”

Filed Under: Hockey, Women in Sports

Color of Hockey: Diop eyes Olympics with France national women’s team

October 31, 2023 by Tara S

By: William Douglas | NHL

Most Americans visit France for its culture and its cuisine.

Noa Diop went for hockey.

The 15-year-old defenseman from Chicago journeyed to France to play last season at Pôle France Féminin, the women’s national training center outside of Paris.

She enrolled to chase her dream of playing for France’s women’s national team program and eventually representing the country in the Winter Olympics.

“I was in an academy with a bunch of France’s strongest players, so it was extremely demanding,” Noa said. “I thought it would be a really great opportunity and be extremely fun to live over there for a year and be able to play for the national team and hope to go to the Olympics.”

Noa left Chicago for France in August 2022 when she was 14 and returned in mid-June. She’ll return to France this week to play in a four-nations tournament against Hungary, Italy and Slovakia at Vaujany in the French Alps from Nov. 9-11.

Noa_Diop_French_womens_national_team

© Bruno Gouvazé

She hopes the tournament and her work at the training center will earn her a spot on the French team that competes in the IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship Division I, Group A in Egna, Italy, from Jan. 6-12, 2024. France will face Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Italy and Japan in the tournament.

“I’m keeping in contact with the U18 national coach and the academy coach in case they need any film or whatever,” she said. “In the United States, I’m practicing with my club team very frequently and we have tournaments very often, so I’m able to prepare and keep up my skill level with them.”

Noa, who received a $3,000 scholarship from the Black Girl Hockey Club in Fall 2022, plays for the Windy City Storm’s Under-16 girls’ team in Chicago. 

To become eligible to play for the French national team, she had to relocate there to comply with International Ice Hockey Federation requirements for women’s players who change or acquire another citizenship and want to compete for the first time in IIHF competition representing a new country.

Noa_Diop_Windy_City_Storm_action_1

© Grotto Photo Company

Under IIHF rules, players must have participated on a consistent basis for at least one hockey season and been a member of their new national association for at least eight consecutive months (240 days) during that period.

Sebastien Roujon, the women’s national training center coach, said Noa was a welcome addition to the training center and left a positive impression on her coaches and teammates.

“She has hockey sense, she’s very aggressive, she wins puck battles,” Roujon said. “Her competitiveness is unbelievable.”

In February, Noa was awarded the academy’s Marion Allemoz Trophy, presented monthly to the player who demonstrates the best attitude and work ethic on and off the ice.

The award is named in honor of Allemoz, a longtime captain of the women’s national team and the first French player to play professional women’s hockey in North America as a member of Les Canadiennes of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League from 2016-18. 

“During the month of February, in addition to contributing to the first victory of the French U16 women’s team against Hungary, Noa demonstrated all the qualities of a high-level player, while keeping a broad smile,” former training center manager Jean-Baptiste Chauvin said. “If she continues to work … Noa will surely become a respected player for the French teams.”

Noa_Diop_French_womens_national_team_action_2

© Bruno Gouvazé

Noa’s love for France stems from her family background. She is a dual U.S.-French citizen via her father, Ibrahima Diop, who has Senegalese, French and U.S. citizenship, and her mother, Natalie Kissinger, an American from Wisconsin. 

Noa attends a French international school at home and speaks the language fluently. Still, the decision to let her play in France initially wasn’t an easy one for her parents or training center officials.

“I mean, Noa’s my first-born,” Diop said. “Initially, we tried to move there, but the logistics were very difficult. I wanted to make sure she was safe — mom and dad were not going to be around the corner.”

Training center officials wondered how an American player would adapt to playing and living in a foreign country.

“It’s not every day that you receive a call from an American mom saying, ‘Look, my daughter has both nationalities, and she wants to play for France,’” Chauvin said. 
“Usually, they want to play for USA Hockey, we understand that. It was a little bit surprising, but once you know Noa and Noa’s family, you understand that France is really important to them.”

Noa confessed to a bit of homesickness when she first arrived at the center, but it quickly faded, replaced by the excitement of experiencing something new. 

Her parents’ concerns faded as well, eased knowing Diop has relatives in Paris that Noa could visit. 

“It was actually a great opportunity for her to get to know them better,” he said. “We were able to host Thanksgiving there last year, so her French cousin experienced an American tradition there.”

As Noa chases joining the French women’s national team, she’s hoping it qualifies for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics. France is currently 13th in the IIHF women’s ranking.

“It would be an amazing opportunity to play in the Olympics,” she said. “And the location itself is a dream location that I’ve always wanted to go to. To go play there and play the sport that I’ve loved since I was 7 years old would be wonderful.”

Filed Under: Hockey, Women's Hockey, Youth Sports

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S HOCKEY LEAGUE (PWHL) SETS FOUNDATION FOR INAUGURAL SEASON

August 29, 2023 by Tara S

Paul Krotz | ThePWHL

Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto are home to first six teams

Player selection process, including draft and free agency guidelines, announced

TORONTO, ON (August 29, 2023) – The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was officially introduced today with a foundational announcement naming its six markets across Canada and the United States. When the puck drops in January 2024, the world’s best women’s players will compete in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, as well as Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the New York City area.

Rosters for the inaugural season will begin forming during an initial free agency period commencing September 1, with the majority of the league’s founding players to be selected during the 2023 PWHL Draft on Sept. 18.

The league is supported financially by business and philanthropic leaders Mark and Kimbra Walter and is led by a Board of Directors that includes sports icon Billie Jean King, sports executive Ilana Kloss, Los Angeles Dodgers President Stan Kasten, and Dodgers Senior Vice President of Business Strategy Royce Cohen.

“On behalf of ownership and our board, I am honored to announce the official name of our new league and to unveil the blueprint for this historic inaugural season. And we are especially proud to be providing this new platform for elite women athletes,” said Kasten. “Our great game has the power to captivate and connect sports fans everywhere, and we are thrilled to plant roots in six of North America’s most passionate hockey markets.”

The 2023-24 PWHL schedule will feature 24 regular season games per team. The full schedule will be announced in the coming months.

“Today, we look ahead to a phenomenal future for the PWHL,” said Jayna Hefford, PWHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations. “We have never seen more excitement and demand for women’s sports, and through the launch of this league, the top women’s players in the world will have the opportunity to reach even greater heights.”

The PWHL is in the final stages of securing six General Managers who will be responsible for building team rosters through free agency and the draft. A Player Evaluation Advisory Committee has assessed the eligible player pool as an additional resource for the new GMs. The committee has extensive knowledge in coaching, scouting, and player development with members representing all levels of the women’s game from professional (PWHPA and PHF) to collegiate programs (NCAA and U SPORTS) to international competition (Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, and IIHF).

Initial Free Agency

Prior to the Sept. 18 draft, a 10-day free agency period will occur from Sept. 1-10. Each team can sign three players to Standard Player Agreements. Of note, current or graduating players from NCAA or U SPORTS programs are not eligible for this preliminary free agency period.

Draft Declaration

Any player who is interested in competing in the 2023-24 PWHL season must declare for the draft by Sept. 3. Of note, players with remaining collegiate eligibility are permitted to declare for the draft (in consultation with their campus compliance officers).

Draft Selection Process

Order of selection for the first round of the inaugural draft will be determined by a draft lottery. Subsequent rounds will follow a ‘snake format’ in which, once the round is completed, the following round will be conducted with the teams selecting in the reverse order of the previous round. The inaugural draft will consist of 15 rounds. There will be no draft picks traded until at least the completion of the 2023-24 season.

Post-Draft

Undrafted players become free agents immediately following the draft and may sign a Standard Player Agreement with any team at any point following the draft. Selected players may go unsigned for two years before becoming eligible to enter the draft again. No player can declare for more than two drafts.

Standard Player Agreements

No more than 20 Standard Player Agreements per team are permitted to be executed in advance of 2023-24 Training Camps, which will commence in November. Six players on each team will be signed to three-year SPAs of no less than $80,000 per league year. In 2023-24, up to five players on each team will be signed to two-year SPAs. A player will become a free agent following the termination or end date of a signed SPA.

Key Dates

Sept. 1 – Initial free agency period begins
Sept. 3 – 2023 PWHL Draft declaration deadline
Sept. 10 – Initial free agency period ends
Sept. 18 – 2023 PWHL Draft

Fans can stay connected to the PWHL and register for email updates at thepwhl.com. Follow the new league on all social media platforms @thepwhlofficial plus all six new team accounts @pwhl_boston, @pwhl_minnesota, @pwhl_montreal, @pwhl_newyork, @pwhl_ottawa, and @pwhl_toronto.

Prospective players seeking more information about the draft declaration process may contact [email protected].

###

Media Contact:
Paul Krotz
PWHL Director of Communications
647-505-8010
[email protected]

Filed Under: Hockey, Women's Hockey

CATARINA MACARIO, CHLOE KIM AND MORE: 20 FEMALE ATHLETES TO KNOW IN 2022

December 21, 2021 by Tara S

Top 22 Female Athletes of 2022

As 2021 comes to an end, it’s time to look forward to the year ahead in sports.

With the Winter Olympics in February, March Madness on the calendar and a landmark NWSL season to come, women’s sports fans are in store for an exciting year.

Here are the 20 athletes to know or get reacquainted with in 2022: 

[Read more…] about CATARINA MACARIO, CHLOE KIM AND MORE: 20 FEMALE ATHLETES TO KNOW IN 2022

Filed Under: Athlete Spotlight, Golf, Gymnastics, Hockey, Lacrosse, Olympics, Paralympics, Racing, Running, Skiing, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Team USA, Tennis, Track and Field, Volleyball, Women in Sports, Women's Basketball, Women's Golf, Women's Hockey, Women's Soccer, Women's Sports, Women's Tennis, Women's Wrestling

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Donate Here!

Categories

Featured Posts

Introducing the Vulcan Pickleball Line in Support of the AGSA!

… [Read More...] about Introducing the Vulcan Pickleball Line in Support of the AGSA!

Stanford Breaks NCAA Softball Attendance Record with ‘Big Swing’

… [Read More...] about Stanford Breaks NCAA Softball Attendance Record with ‘Big Swing’

Oklahoma Wins 2025 NCAA Gymnastics Championship Title

… [Read More...] about Oklahoma Wins 2025 NCAA Gymnastics Championship Title

Archives

  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • February 2023
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Raffles
  • Radiosport
  • Try Cricket
  • Athlete of the Month
  • Camps
  • Join Our Team
  • Donate
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 American Gold Sports Alliance Inc.

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy