Off Ice Reviews: As Fast As Her
Kendall Coyne Schofield is one of the most recognizable and decorated players in women’s hockey today. She has not only carved out a legacy for herself because of her time representing the United States of America on the biggest international stages for women’s hockey, but she is also one of the faces of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). With the PWHL flourishing and finally giving women hockey players a chance to pursue their dreams of playing hockey professionally, it can’t be overlooked what many athletes had to do in order just to play the sport they loved.
In Coyne’s book As Fast As Her: Dream Big, Break Barriers, Achieve Success, she recounts the journey it took for her to get to where she is both as a person and hockey player. Although the book was published in 2022, before the PWHL existed, Coyne speaks about the resilience, determination and struggles she went through as a woman and young girl playing hockey. Hearing her story really puts into perspective how the sport of hockey has not tried to include women in a fair or welcoming way unless pressure was applied for change.
Coyne grew up in a suburb of Chicago and noted several times she was a big Chicago Blackhawks fan. When she was younger, she looked up to Chris Chelios and she chose the number seven in honor of him as she started playing hockey. She played multiple sports when she was younger but felt the most connected to hockey and she noted that as she got better, her and her family often had to make sacrifices for her just to continue playing. Coyne was always playing with hand-me-down equipment and was making time to skate with the boys’ teams in her area just to get ice time because she was excelling above the others playing at her age level. Something that Coyne mentions really impacted her experience playing hockey as a young girl was when she met Cammi Granato, an Olympic goal medalist with Team USA at the 1998 Winter Olympics when women’s hockey was first included in the Games. She mentions meeting Granato and wearing her gold medal instilled a new goal in her mind, playing for Team USA at the Olympics. Coyne now had a woman to look up to in the sport of hockey, something that definitely impacted her hockey career.
It was clear early on in the book that Coyne ate, slept and breathed hockey all the time. She loved the game, but was obsessed with being the best she possibly could be and was always doing whatever she could to be better. Whether that be playing with boys teams above her or traveling far distances for tournaments or sticking to routines in the gym to get stronger, she was doing it all. There was something so special about Coyne’s determination to be at her best that was inspiring, even for people who don’t play a sport. Of course, all of her hard work paid off over time as she continued to make elite teams and eventually made it to the United States’ Women’s Olympic Hockey Team. She collected gold medals, scored stunning goals and became a role model for younger girls herself, the same way Granato was for her.
As someone who has watched Coyne play in the Olympics and at the IIHF Women’s World Championships several times over the years, this part of her story was the most familiar to me as a women’s hockey fan. She became a household name and this book gave the important context that she worked tremendously hard for everything she achieved at every level in hockey. But that success also didn’t come without several struggles. Coyne recounts the injuries she played through at different times throughout her career, balancing being an elite athlete while also working a second job because women’s hockey players didn’t receive enough compensation to just live off them playing and the barriers that society had in place for women in a male dominated sport.
That also played a large role in Coyne’s story. While she was being a fantastic hockey player, she was constantly fighting for the sport she loved to be better. She helped lead the movement for better and equal treatment from USA Hockey and was a crucial part in creating the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, which helped lead to the PWHL down the road. She noted several times that while she was fighting these battles for herself and her teammates, it also meant a lot to her to make hockey better for the girls and women that would follow in her footsteps. It’s just another testament to the kind of person Coyne is both on and off the ice.
Overall, As Fast As Her: Dream Big, Break Barriers, Achieve Success is a wonderful book that tells the story about one of women’s hockey’s best players. From her upbringing to skating in the Fastest Skater event at the 2019 NHL All-Star Skills Competition, Coyne has done everything she can to better herself while shattering barriers that have shaped women’s hockey for years to come. For any hockey fans, specifically women’s hockey fans, this book is a perfect read to understand one of the PWHL’s current stars and just how far the sport has come, but still has to go, in terms of equality.