Palos Heights' Coyne Schofield Hopes To Lead U.S. To Gold Repeat

PALOS HEIGHTS, IL – Kendall Coyne Schofield has always intended to leave hockey better than she found it. Although at 29, the captain of the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team is unsure of when her playing days will end, she has already made an indelible mark on the game she learned at such a young age.

The Palos Heights native captains a team that is looking to repeat as Olympic gold medalists at the upcoming Beijing winter games next month. Coyne Schofield helped spark the Americans to their second-ever gold medal in 2018 and now headlines a team that was announced last weekend.

Being named to an Olympic team is always special regardless of how many times it happens, Coyne Schofield told Patch on Thursday. And as she prepares to head to her third Olympic Games next month, the opportunity to go back-to-back for the gold presents a unique opportunity.

"It would definitely be something special if this group is the first group to be part of history and be part of the first team to go back-to-back in Olympic Games," Coyne Schofield told Patch in a telephone interview. "There's a lot of different players who will have a role if that is to happen.

"Yes, we won a gold medal in 2018, but this is a different team, similar identity, but same goal. So you use what you learned in 2018 if you were there and apply to 2022. But it's a different group, it's an equally special group and we're going there to get a job done."

For Coyne Schofield, who has established herself as a ceiling-breaker and example for young girls who dream of big things, fitting in has always been part of the game plan. In a video posted to her bio page on the USA Hockey website, Coyne Schofield said that she never wanted to be treated differently than any other player she grew up competing against – regardless of their gender.

“Growing up in hockey, there obviously aren’t a lot of girls,” she says in the video. “So, I really appreciated all of the youth coaches who treated me just like any of the other hockey players. I was a hockey player, I was a team member. I wasn’t anything different. That really helped me get to where I am today because they made me feel like I belong in the sport.”

Coyne Schofield was named in 2020 as the first female to ever serve as a player development coach for the Chicago Blackhawks. In her role, the two-time Olympic medalist has worked with the Rockford Ice Hogs of the American Hockey League after working as a community liaison with the Blackhawks and working with young players to teach them to love hockey.

The appointment to the Blackhawks staff came after Coyne Schofield became the first female to participate in the NHL Skills Challenge during All-Star game weekend and has also emerged as a color analyst for broadcasts with NBC Sports and NBC Sports California.

While she gives back to hockey off the ice, she also wants to make the most of her time on it. That continues next month in Beijing when she Coyne Schofield hopes to again lead the Americans to another gold medal.

She hopes to build off of the team’s experience in 2018, when the Americans knocked off Canada 3-2 to capture the gold.

“We knew that 20 years had gone by since the last (women’s hockey) gold medal in the United States,” Coyne Scofield said in a video interview with NBC Sports. “A lot of us that were on that 2018 team were inspired by that (1998) team and I ask myself, ‘Why is it that the gold medal team inspires this many more girls than the 2002 team or the 2006 team’” ….we knew we had the opportunity to inspire so many more young girls to pick up the sport of hockey and that was another part of our why we wanted to win.

“That piece was so important, and it couldn’t be lost in our message. Every team we stepped on the ice, we wanted to inspire people to play the game of hockey.”

Preparing for a possible repeat has been made more difficult by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Coyne Schofield told Patch. Because of regulations, the time players have together has been decreased, which has forced the team to meet more by Zoom. As the captain, Coyne- Schofield said she has taken it upon herself to connect more with players and make sure that the team can create a cohesive bond that will be necessary to capture the gold in Beijing.

If the American women were to repeat, Coyne Schofield said that the accomplishment would be even more specific given everything the team had to do to make it happen. She said when the team is able to get together on the ice, the focus has been even stronger because of limited accessibility, which she said is part of what makes this group special.

"It's definitely been tough — there's no script for this," she said. "At the end of the day, we love this game and we're so lucky to play it throughout this pandemic and we're going to do whatever it takes to keep playing it.

"The physical and mental demands these last two years have been put on everybody. It's been an extremely difficult two years...and if we can win a gold medal, it would feel so much sweeter knowing the obstacles of this team and knowing the resiliency of this group it will definitely be extra-special."

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