NEPSAC News ®
NEW ENGLAND PREPARATORY SCHOOL ATHLETIC COUNCIL
SPRING 2019
Kendall Coyne Schofield, Berkshire ’11
First Woman in NHL Skills Competition SPONSORED BY SCOREBOARD ENTERPRISES
by Bob York
K
endall Coyne Schofield, a former standout at Berkshire School, became the first woman ever to take part in the National Hockey League’s Skills Competition prior to this year’s NHL All-Star Game. The former New England Prep School Athletic Council Player of the Year (2011) and two-time U.S. Olympic Team member (2014 and 2018) made the quantum leap by a foot — Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon’s bruised foot. With MacKinnon sidelined after being hit by a shot during a game against the Minnesota Wild just prior to the AllStar festivities, his team sent out a tweet that said: “Nate’s here in San Jose, but has someone else in mind to compete for Fastest Skater. Kendall Coyne, what do you think?” When informed of the sudden turn of events and her opportunity to become the first woman to take part in the NHL’s skills competition, Coyne Schofield
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Kendall Coyne Schofield (#26), Berkshire ’11, is the first woman to participate in the NHL skills competition. Photo courtesy IIHF/Images on Ice.
tweeted, “It would be my honor, I’ll get to the rink as fast as I can,” … and once she got to the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., she went even faster. “Obviously, I was a little nervous,” Coyne Schofield told reporters following the event, “but I knew it was a moment that was going to break a lot of barriers and a moment that would change the perception of our game.” The member of the Minnesota Whitecaps of the Women’s National Hockey League didn’t show that nervousness, however, as she took one lap around the rink in a time of 14.346. The clocking placed her seventh out of eight competitors, but was still quick enough to put her within one second of Connor McDavid’s winning time of 13.378, who would later tweet: “When she took off, I was like ‘Wow,” I thought she won the event the way she was moving.”
The way she moved around the rink may have left McDavid in somewhat of a sense of astonishment, but it certainly didn’t come as any shock to Sylvia Gappa, Coyne Schofield’s former coach at Berkshire School. “I wasn’t surprised that Kendall was invited to take part in the competition, nor was I surprised at how well she did,” said Gappa, who coached Coyne Schofield during a postgraduate season (2010–11) at Berkshire. “She’s the fastest woman I’ve ever seen on ice and even when she was here, fans use to turn out in droves to watch her play … she’s just an incredible athlete. “Believe me, the NHL knew exactly what it was doing when it issued her that invitation,” added Gappa “As the first woman to ever take part in the
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