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When the U.S. ladies’s nationwide hockey crew faces Canada within the Contention Collection on Wednesday at Mullett Enviornment, Laila Edwards will turn into the primary Black girl at the crew, in keeping with NHL. The nineteen-year-old mentioned she felt a number of emotions when she used to be invited by means of e-mail to take part within the U.S. ladies’s nationwide crew’s Contention Collection towards Canada in 2023-24.
“I used to be without a doubt super-excited and simply humbled and thankful,” Edwards mentioned. “Frightened, too. It’s my first time enjoying at that level.”
A way of historical past additionally pervaded the 19-year-old ahead on the College of Wisconsin. Edwards will turn into the primary Black participant to skate for the U.S. ladies’s nationwide crew.
“I’m happy I’ve been blessed sufficient to have this chance, happy that I will be able to, with a bit of luck, encourage the following era for somebody however, extra in particular, ladies of colour,” she mentioned. “There are many different individuals who will also be idolized, however no longer many of us who seem like me.”
Along with Edwards, the roster includes Olympians Hilary Knight, Abby Roque, Hayley Scamurra and 22 other players who played for the U.S. team at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship.
“A couple of them reached out, congratulating me, which was superior; it made me really feel nice,” Edwards defined. “I’m going to place my perfect foot ahead and put myself and the crew within the perfect place to win.”
Edwards ranks 5th in Wisconsin with 18 issues in 12 video games this season and used to be named to the Western Collegiate Hockey Affiliation All-Rookie Group. She used to be decided on as another captain at the U.S. crew — taking house a silver medal — on the 2022 IIHF U18 Girls’s Global Championship. Among all avid gamers, she tied 3rd position with Sydney Morrow for the U.S. lead.
“She’s earned her means into this place,” Wroblewski mentioned. “I consider in her long-term, another way, she wouldn’t be right here. I’m simply excited for her and the entire paintings that she and her circle of relatives have installed to be on this place, and simply are available in, experience it, and carry out when her quantity will get known as.”
In addition to being named most valuable player, best forward, and official all-tournament team member, she was selected as the tournament’s best forward. John Wroblewski, the U.S. women’s senior national team coach, praised her work ethic to the NHL.
“The object that you simply begin to understand instantly is her mind and the way she sees performs broaden,” Wroblewski mentioned. “Whether or not they attach each time is beside the point. You simply understand that the participant can see the issues which are going down available in the market and is processing them.”
“Continuously, what you’ll get from a participant who’s bodily overwhelming for the opponent [is that] she or he will depend on the ones bodily attributes and subsequently the hockey IQ isn’t that sharp,” Wroblewski persisted. “It’s simply the other with Laila. Her mind could be a larger characteristic than her dimension.”
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