10 Steps Back, 20 Steps Forward with Kendall Coyne Schofield

Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're rewatching Sarah Nurse of the Toronto scepters shorthanded jail break goal. It's Monday, December tewod. On today's show, we'll be talking to captain for the US national hockey team and the Minnesota Frost of the Professional Women's Hockey League, Kendall Coin Schofield about getting back out on the ice with Team USA year two of the PWHL, her role in getting the league up and running and trying to repeat as

End quote.

In college soccer, the semi finals for the NCAA Tournament aka the College Cup are set and the ACC has become the first league in the tournament's forty three year history to send four teams to the national semifinals. Number three Stanford will face number two Wake Forest Friday at five pm Eastern in the first semi final, and number two North Carolina versus number one Duke will follow at

At the Cayman Islands Classic.

On Friday, they fell to number seventeen TCU seventy six sixty eight, who was the Horned frogs first win over an AP Top five opponents since two thousand and eight, snapping an eighteen game losing streak. TCU center Sedona Prince had twenty points, twenty rebounds in eight blocks, while Hailey Van Lift added twenty one points and seven assists.

Then, on Saturday, Notre Dame.

Took a seventy eight sixty seven loss to unranked Utah in the tournament's third place game. Notre Dame star guards Hanna Hidalgo and Olivia Miles were held to just twenty four points on twenty four shots in the loss. More basketball news, Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plumb has announced she's pulling out of the Unrivaled Basketball League, posting on Instagram quote, I've decided to not take part in the inaugural season of Unrivaled in order to take some more

Oh yeah, yeah, Hi guys, not really too much cause for concern at this point.

I just can't move.

I have a pretty good abrasion and something stabbed me under her fingers, so I just can't move.

I am so sorry to scare everybody.

And it looks like.

All spans so far are clear.

So thank you for the support and concern, and congratulations to the winners and to my teammates for incredible performances, in particular e Elizabeth.

First World Cup points I can take as amazing. I'm so proud.

Wait one more thing to add because I'm just actually like seeing the results Paul and Nina also with career best.

It's just.

Very happy for you guys. Loveya.

That is a great teammate right there. You're a jem MICHAELA heal fast. We're gonna take a quick break when we come back. Kendall coin Schofield joined us just a few days before the start of the PWHL season.

You'll hear that interview next.

She's a captain for the Minnesota Frost of the PWHL and for the US national team. A six time world champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and two time Olympic silver medalist. While at Northeastern University, she was the winner of the Patti Cosmier Memorial Award for the top college hockey player in the Nation. Mother of Drew, co founder of the

It's Kendall Coinscofield.

What's up.

Kendall, Hey, Sarah, thanks for having me.

I always love chatting with you and there's so much to talk about, especially as we get super excited for the second season of the PWHL.

But before we get to that, I want to talk a little Team.

USA, because not long ago you wrapped up the first part of this season's rivalry series with Team Canada, and I have to ask how it was getting back with your USA teammates and facing a familiar foe.

It was great to be back.

Anytime you have the opportunity to put that sweater on represent your country, it's a moment you don't take for granted. And I think our roster was very fifty to fifty in terms of college players and pro players, and I think that first game you could tell our college players have a few more games under their belt than the pro players, given the pro players entered training camp. November twelfth was the first first day of training camp, so you know, it was a good first three games to

Yeah.

I just love what the vibes must feel like for you,

We're gonna be okay.

I think there was.

A different energy this year that I felt in different in years past. I think it's because we weren't playing in these games and not seeing another game for till April or till one February. Realistically, that was the landscape before the p WHL. As we play these games and knowing that we have, you know, thirty games ahead of us, and this was these were our first games.

While yes, like you know, you are all out, you empty the.

Take like you're trying to make a team, You're trying to earn a job because you want to be on that next roster. That's the reality of of pro hockey and the national team. Someone's coming in and taking your spot, so you've got to you got to earn it every time you step on the ice. But I think it was, you know, a lot of us were like, Okay, this is our first game in five months. You know, we're entering training camp a couple of days after that that last game, and so.

It was it was a little different.

And I think the other difference too is you know, some of us played with the Canadians in college, but now in the PWHL we're playing, you know, with the Canadians, and you know, it's it's much.

Harder to hate them.

Diverse, but it's it's the greatest rivalry in sport.

Out I will say that, you know, you know, Michael will say it's Michigan versus Ohio State.

I will say it's it's us first Canada.

But so no matter what it's, the games are still incredible and the stakes are high, and it's competitive and one of the greatest hockey games you'll see of the year. But it's reassuring to know that when we pack up our bags during that third game, we aren't going to have to wait months and months and months to showcase women's hockey again.

Yeah.

Is it safe to say you're planning on playing for gold in twenty twenty six?

I got to make the team.

Okay, but you're gonna try.

I hope to be there. Let's go for sure?

Yes, Okay, good, Yeah, Okay, Let's talk p WHL because I do love that you have this to look ahead to and that we have this to look ahead to. You played a massive role in helping make this league happen. What did you think was missing in the previous iterations of pro women's hockey and what were your hopes for this p WHL league.

I think what was missing, ultimately was the proper investment, and I think the lack of investment that women's hockey had kept us siloed in many different ways, because you know, there was a.

Little bit of here, a little bit of there, a little bit of here, you know, and nothing was professional. And then finally when we came together, we came united. We you know, Mark and kimber Walters said yes, we're going to do this. You know, thanks to the efforts of Billy Jing King and a lot of coss you know, in helping secure Mark and Kimbra to wanting to do

I mean, it feels like anytime you start by going to Billy Jean King and being like, we need your help, help us figure out how to do this, like you're on the right track there because her record of being able to help across so many different sports and really caring about women across different sports, getting the opportunity to experience what it is to be in.

A professionally run league.

And you know, you and I survived what I would call a very tumultuous tenure as minority owners of the Chicago Red Stars women's professional soccer team here in Chicago. It ultimately ended when our majority owner was forced to sell, taking us minority owners out with them.

You were in those meetings, you were behind the scenes.

Do you feel like anything from that experience informed your leadership and decision making for the PWHL, and also how you wanted to work with owners like Mark Walter to make sure that things were run with the players centered.

Absolutely, I learned a lot, you know, I think I learned what I liked and didn't like behind the scenes. But I just remember a simple conversation of getting the player's boots and but you know, the other conversation quickly pivoted to, you know, we need to repair the scoreboard, and I'm like, well, there's nothing going to be going up on that scoreboard if the players don't have the

Yeah, we get it.

You get a meal and we're like, no, no, no, what you got to define that meal?

That doesn't mean bananas and peanut butter sandwiches like a meal.

And they're like, yeah, we got it.

And so for them it was it was standard.

For us, it was what we've always the standard, we've always earned and deserved, but we've never had. And so you know, we're spelling out these things, you know, these things in the in the CBA that may seem elementary, and they're like, yep, we got it, Yep, we got it because everything that they do and the way they do it is first class, and so they weren't going to look at us any differently. And the you know, the the meals is just you know, one example of many.

Now we're doing that.

They're like okay.

It was like there are a lot of those moments, and I think it was it was jaw dropping to both sides for us to understand you know the standard and expectation that, of course we're going to set, and then for us to realize the new reality and the standard expectation that we are now going to have from this day moving forward. Right, it's and it's only going to get better. Yeah.

But you know what's very smart of you is to say, Okay, it's great that you're saying that now, but we need to put in writing what we mean by this, because we don't want it to become another situation where whatever promise we believe you were delivering, we didn't end up getting because it's easy to start to wheel out of those promises further down the line.

So it's really smart.

I remember talking to a WNBA executive committee member who said, yeah, they told us we were getting charter flights, but it wasn't written down. So it's been a promise that they've delivered on this season, but now we need it in our CBA so that it is in language, in black and white if going forward something changes. And so that's really smart for you to do in this case too.

But eight years is a really long CBA deal.

Do you know if there are player options during that time or are you worried at all about how growth or changes within the league might not be caught up with on the player side, because that's such a long CBA.

It's a long CBA, And I think in conversation throughout the process, it wasn't about year one, it wasn't about year two. It was about year not even year eight, but year eighty, Like, how do we ensure sustainability? How do we ensure that all the young girls who aren't even you know, on this earth yet are going to be able to grow up and know that they have a place to play, because this isn't about us, Like you know, the average salary is fifty five thousand dollars.

Can I sit here and say I wish that was higher, of.

Course, but I think we all wanted to start, you know, in a realistic standpoint, to know that this league was going to be around for years and years and years to come.

You know, there's there's benefits that come. The benefit package that we have is excellent.

You know, we receive a housing stipend in market, we received two meals you know, every day that we're at the rink, and so, you know, we really were methodical about, Okay, what salary can we get to where we know that this is going to be around forever, but yet surround the players with benefits that makes that fifty five thousand, you know, go farther great, Yeah, yeah, go farther with the housing stipend, with the you know, the health insurance

You know.

And I think speaking of Amy Sheer, a few weeks ago at the espn W summit, she announced their plans to look at expansion and to look to add two new teams, and I think all of her.

Just hit the floor. Okay, let's go. Yeah, you know, everyone's like, where are they are?

Like, I don't know, Like I know.

I actually interviewed h that was my panel that she was on, and I said, Chicago, and I will be claiming Kendall quoint Schofield as my first player.

So I just wanted you to know that I've already claimed you. Yeah, yeah, I'm.

You knew the news before us.

I did, I did. I should have texted you.

So it's pretty cool.

It is pretty cool, and we love to see that the success of the first season allows them to start thinking bigger, are ready just before.

You've even started season two?

What was the biggest and I want to move forward, but what was the biggest challenge on getting players on board and getting the league up and running were Where was there any disconnect, particularly maybe for players who are like, we're doing this again, We're starting another league. We're trying to, you know, be enthusiastic and hopeful, but we've seen this happen before. What did you have to ensure other players that you know was going to happen and why they should buy in on this one.

The difficulty was the timeline.

The difficulty was asking players to continue to remain patient,

Play in the league, and that's fine.

But I think it was hard for a lot of the best players in the world to recognize that as as a league, given that the standards in which the league operated under was not good enough. And so, you know, I think it was the difficulty was continuing to have

There were players who were tired along the way.

There were players that I can't do this right like, But all of those players are part of the success of this league.

They are the fabric of this league.

Regardless if they've played in it or not, they know they were a part of it and we are successful because of them. And so I think that's that's the difficult part, knowing, like the four years of grind and build and hard and Sarah, I mean, I mean every day, it was every day. I remember talking to people on Christmas, Thanksgiving, Canadian Thanksgiving right just every day for four and a half years to get to this point.

And it was hard.

It was hard.

But there's a lot of people who deserve credit for getting us to this point and getting the sport to this point. And regardless if they put a p WHL jersey on or not, where they work in the league or not, there's there's years and years of players who deserve credit for being a part of this.

I think knowing how much work went into it and knowing how big of a role you played, it felt right that you got to lift the first trophy that you got to put baby Drew in the trophy. We got to watch all of those celebrations and it was

One need to give you this answer, but everything, Like obviously you know the in pro sports goals to bring that championship back to your city, and we accomplished that. But I honestly don't think anyone lost last year, like we all won. Everyone won, the game won, every team won, every player one that future generations won. Like it's it was such an iconic year, and you know, it's gonna be fun to thirty years for now to look back, like, remember.

When we are the first Walter Cup.

Champions, you'll still be playing. I'm gonna look.

At us like we're crazy.

The kids, you know playing that, they're gonna be like, oh my gosh, you're so old. But I just think, like the challenges it took us to get to this point, to to put.

Those jerseys over our head.

To hoist a trophy over our head was always the last thing in the back of our heads, right, Like the hockey was the easy part is getting to play hockey, But we were always doing everything but that. You know, We're on phone calls and AirPods and locker rooms and you know, sometimes even on the ice with an AirPod and trying to just keep up and emails and so, you know, I think the hockey is the reward given

I love.

We were at the Women's Sports Foundation Galon. I was talking to about like, oh, how many years do you have left? And know after you're done, you'll just get into the leadership side running things, and You're like, I've already been doing that.

Sarah for years. And I'm like, oh, you're right, you have.

You basically had to do all the things all the same time, which brings us to this second season, which is so exciting. I loved hearing Amy talk about some of the cool events that are going to be across some different cities, so that there are new cities that are going to get to experience it. I love the idea of the expansion squads and maybe trying out some games of different places to see which fan bases really respond,

Yeah, I think it's important to make it very clear that that was a league decision and that I had no part in that decision and regardless of what was reported, and I can tell you one hundred percent that that's false, and I had absolutely nothing to do with the decisions that were made from above. I'm a player and my job is to play, and that's what I did. That's

Yeah, And for those who don't know.

So it's a single entity owner league, meaning, unlike a lot of other professional leagues that we might know, there isn't an owner of each team. There's an ownership group that runs the league from their position. So ultimately, when you say it's a league decision, they get to decide the kind of thing that potentially, like a single owner would decide for a team. It's going to be one storyline of many, many, many for season two of the PWHL.

Yeah, I think just looking forward to defending our title and.

Also with a logo and Cresten name and colors and all the other exciting merchant like stuff like that. I think that's going to be a really cool addition this season for fans who want to give themselves that identity of a fan of a team, which is awesome. Well, thanks so much for giving us time. I know you're so busy and we're so looking forward to the start of the season.

So thanks Kendall.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks again to Kendall for joining us. We got to go pay the bills. When we come back, we assign you some movie watching welcome back slices. We love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game every day too, So here's our good game play

Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. It's easy.

Watch a listener's pot casts app revealing that good Game with Sarah Spain is his most listened to show of the year, rating ninety eight out of ninety eight fantastic episodes.

That's right, we're almost at one hundred.

Review shout out to Michael Coley, who posted his pocket Casts year in review stats and revealed that our little show is top of the heap. He wrote, quote, despite Good Game with Sarah Spain only just starting this summer, it was certainly my top podcast since I don't miss an episode end quote. Thanks for posting that on Blue Sky and thanks for being such a loyal slice.

Now it's your turn rate and review.

Go to Apple Podcasts, scroll down to the stars and click there to share your thoughts.

It's a big help to us and the show. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.

Good game, Kendall, Good game, Mikayla Shiffern's great sportswomanship you whatever stabbed Mikayla.

Good Game with.

Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Pod, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are