Laila Edwards has a chance to bring a Gold Medal to Cleveland Heights.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — It was Monday morning and my wife and I sat in front of our television set watching … Olympic women’s hockey.I’m not much of a hockey fan. I rarely watch it, and didn’t watch any of the men’s Olympic hockey games.
Check out Terry's new weekly newsletter that he's writing exclusively for subscribers. A big reason is Laila Edwards, the 22-year-old phenom from Cleveland Heights. Much is being made of her being the first African-American woman to compete in hockey at the Olympics.Then there’s the U.S. team. They are 6-0 in the Olympics. They have outscored the opposition 31-1.She’s a great hockey player. They are an exceptional team. They are fast. They are unselfish. They are smart. They are tough.Yes, the racial angle is important. But so is her excellence on the ice and her attitude off it. Family members of United States' Laila Edwards cheer during a women's ice hockey semifinal game between the United States and Sweden.This woman led Division I hockey in scoring last season as a forward for the NCAA title-winning Wisconsin Badgers.from forward to the less-glamorous position of defender. Edwards desperately wanted to be on the Olympic team, and was “willing to do anything” for that to happen – even change positions. U.S. Coach John Wroblewski planned to keep the 6-foot-1, 183-pound Edwards at forward. She was on the team, period.It’s a little like Shohei Ohtani saying, “I know I can hit for power, but I can pitch, too.”The main job in the mind of Edwards is to play well and win a gold medal. She played against boys growing up, often as a defender. A good guess is Edwards likes a challenge. After all, she has dealt with obstacles most of her life.Edwards’ father is Rob Edwards, a former baseball player at Cleveland State. He saw the Cleveland Heights High hockey team and became intrigued. He played some hockey, but he wasn’t a natural. He took his two daughters Chayla and Laila ice skating. They both started as figure skaters before they were five years old. They discovered hockey was more fun. Laila said she didn’t like the frilly outfits she had to wear as a figure skater.on the ice with sticks and pads and whack a puck around with the boys. Both of the girls could hang in there with the boys. As time passed, they were better than some of the guys. Laila is receiving all of the publicity during the Olympics, but Chayla first went on the hockey journey from Cleveland Heights to powerhouse University of Wisconsin. Two years older than Laila, Chayla was an All-Academic Big Ten selection. She also received the Big Ten Sportsmanship award while playing defense for the national champion Badgers. She graduated with a degree in psychology. Chayla went to Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh for high school. Laila went to Bishop Kearney in Rochester, N.Y. Those high schools are like finishing schools for young women who want to play big time college hockey. Bishop Kearney has five of its former players on the U.S. team. Rob and the girls’ mother, Charone Gray-Edwards, sacrificed to make these hockey dreams happen. Now, the family is in Milan, Italy. The U.S. faces Canada on Thursday in the gold medal game. These two teams have squared off seven times for the gold in the Olympic final with Canada winning five of the matchups. The U.S. won gold medals in 1998 and 2018.If you’ve ever given even a passing thought to watching a hockey game, make sure to catch this one.I'm grateful to my readers who have read me for decades. I'm the author of more than 30 books, a winner of the National Headliner Award as the nation's best sports columnist in 2020 and best sports writer in...
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