Jessica Campbell, a former professional women’s hockey player, made history on Oct. 8 as the first female to coach a National Hockey League team.
Campbell was hired by Head Coach Dan Bylsma of the Seattle Kraken in July and took the league by storm.
Seattle Kraken new assistant coach Jessica Campbell speaks during an NHL hockey press conference Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Seattle. Campbell will become the first woman to work on the bench of an NHL franchise after the team hired her as an assistant coach. Photo by Jason Redmond/AP Photo.
“I think what’s special and what I’m excited about is whether it’s a young girl or young boy’s first NHL game, they’re not going to see anything different than what they can possibly become,” Campbell said in an interview with Fox13 Seattle after being hired.
When Bylsma was looking at his new options for this assistant coaching position, the Seattle’s general manager Ron Francis continually brought up Campbell, and that’s when he reached out to her on her personal website.
“I can’t say enough how fortunate I’ve been to not only learn from him, to be around someone who’s won a Stanley Cup, knows how to win and has established himself and even more so brings so much enthusiasm to the rink every day,” Campbell said to the Seattle Times. “He really allows, encourages and empowers every person who’s around him to be themselves.”
Bylsma also stated that after he was hired, Campbell soon followed. Bylsma said he was better for it and Campbell helped him become an even better coach he said to the Seattle Times.
Campbell, however, wasn’t hired on a whim and has an extensive professional background. She played hockey for the Cornell Big Red from 2010 to 2014 and then played for the Canadien Women’s National Team until 2017, where she retired and started coaching.
In 2017, she created her own company, JC Power Skating, and trained professional athletes Tyson Jost, Joel Edmunson and Natalie Spooner.
In 2022, she was hired to be an assistant coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the AHL affiliate of the Kraken.
“We’re seeing trends in the right direction,” Campbell said in her interview with the Seattle Times about attaining this position.
In our society, sports have been a male-dominated field, but as time has gone on, we’ve seen more and more woman in these positions.
Campbell has broken the glass ceiling for young girls who dream of leading an NHL team, standing behind the bench drawing out plays in the pursuit of the coveted Stanley Cup.
As Campbell said, not only is this a step in the right direction, but it is also the commencement of woman being in a league all their own.
Keep women out of mens sports and keep men out of womens sports, women always are allowed to infiltrate mens sports, clubs or any other mens activity, she has no idea what it takes to compete in mens sports and she never will, she is nothing but a WOKE, Feminist, DEI hire that has taken a job away from a man ex hockey player who deserves the position, she doesn’t deserve to be coaching in the NHL, she never earned it, she was privileged the job because she’s a woman.