For Chloe Gregoryan, the Golden Knights were a revelation.
She grew up in Las Vegas with little interest in hockey, until the team arrived and rearranged her entire world. She started watching every game, followed by two years of relentless lobbying before her parents finally let her lace up a pair of hockey skates. Playing the sport for Bishop Gorman’s first-ever hockey team led her to sports media, where she became a reporter covering everything from basketball to football, and even an interview with Raiders team President Sandra Douglass Morgan. Now, with her sights fixed on a career in sports and entertainment law, she is planning to go to USC on a pre-law track, chasing a future that hockey quietly built for her.
"Getting to shadow at the Golden Knights today was probably one of the greatest experiences of my entire life," Gregoryan said. "I've only ever seen the games, but getting to see the behind-the-scenes productions of what goes into it has been really inspiring.”
Gregoryan was one of four teenage girls, alongside Izzy Scafidi, Jamie Madsen, and Hayden Rom, the latter three who are members of the 16U Vegas Jr. Golden Knights, that took part in the organization's inaugural Women's History Month Shadow Program earlier this month. The idea originated with Bailey Allen, Coordinator of Special Projects, in a Women's History Month Committee meeting: bring a group of young female hockey players behind the curtain on a game day and let them see what the Golden Knights front office actually looks like. Who runs it, how it operates, and what kind of careers exist on the other side of the glass.
"The vision is leaders creating other leaders," said Sheri Hudspeth, Director of Youth Hockey Programs and Fan Development, who helped coordinate the program alongside Allen. "Girls who play sports become women who lead, and there was no better opportunity to connect our Vegas Jr. Golden Knights girls to accomplished women in our VGK front office."
It's worth pausing on one detail that stuck with Kristen Santero, the organization's Vice President of Digital Marketing and Fan Development: many of these girls have been playing together since they were nine or 10 years old. They’ve grown up as teammates and, more importantly, as each other's support system. In some ways, they were already practicing what this program set out to teach.
Each of the four participants was matched with a VGK leader based on her individual interests and academic path. The roster of women they shadowed across the day tells its own story about what female leadership looks like inside the organization: Kristen Santero, Vice President of Digital Marketing and Fan Development; Cherise Ansotigue, Digital Marketing Manager; Morgan White and M Sydney Walker, Senior Managers of Global Partnership Activation; Krystal Krasnaj, Vice President of Global Partnership Activation; Allie Emery, Coordinator of Foundation and Community Relations; Emma Kazian, Manager of Entertainment Experience; India Shay, Manager of Communications and Content; Lexi Flom, Digital Content Coordinator; and Communications and Content graduate assistant Katie Freter. Across marketing, partnerships, community relations, communications, entertainment and production, these girls were not just glimpsing one or two women in positions of authority, they were surrounded by them.
The morning unfolded in the office and later that night, the group headed to T-Mobile Arena and watched those same verticals operate at full speed on a game day.
For many of the women leading these girls, the experience landed harder than they expected.
"I wish someone had shown me earlier just how many different paths exist in sports," said Santero. "It's not just players and coaches. There are roles in marketing, partnerships, production, content, community, finance, ticketing, and so much more. Seeing women thriving in all of those spaces makes it feel real and attainable."
Santero had her own complicated history with the industry to draw from. Her first experience in sports, nearly 15 years ago, left her feeling like women were undervalued and quietly pitted against one another. The decision to join the Golden Knights reshaped that entirely.
"For a long time, I was hesitant to get back into sports," she said. "Taking the leap to join VGK really changed that perspective. What I wanted to share with the girls is that representation truly matters, and there's real strength in numbers. We shouldn't be afraid to show up, support one another, and use our voices, especially to advocate for those who don't yet have a seat at the table."
That current ran through every part of the day. In the partnerships world, White walked the girls through the planning, intentional storytelling, and relationship-building that goes into every activation, work that shapes how a brand is perceived and how fans experience the organization beyond the ice.
"It helps them picture themselves in spaces and careers that can sometimes feel out of reach," White said. "It builds confidence by showing them what's possible."
Emery, who works in Foundation and Community Relations, introduced the girls to a department she describes as the one that gets to do all the fun stuff, and one that is easy to overlook from the outside.
"What we do bridges the gap with certain audiences in our Vegas community that we didn't even realize were there," she said. "We get to make a positive impact every single day, and it's such a special feeling going home that it makes you want to come back for more."
Her message to the girls was unambiguous: your voice is a tool. Use it.
"It's a very competitive industry, and it is important to have your voice heard," Emery said. "Be constantly raising your hand, asking the right and even the tough questions. Don't be afraid to do it."
One moment during the office portion of the morning served as a shock to Gregoryan. Hudspeth took the group on a tour that featured a walk through the studio where the team films its broadcast content, including pregame and postgame shows. For a student already enrolled in a broadcasting class, seeing that professional setup hit differently.
"Getting to see it in a more professional setting was probably the coolest part of the day," Gregoryan said. "I'm kind of still in shock from that moment."
By the time the group reached T-Mobile Arena that evening, the experience transcended education into something more electric. For Flom, watching the girls absorb game night from the inside triggered a kind of full-circle clarity.
"To us, this is our day-to-day life, but for someone else, this is their dream," Flom said. "I know working in sports was my dream growing up, so being able to see someone else have that same dream reminds you where you started and came from. Having that moment of realization is something that will stick with me forever."
Women's History Month carries particular weight in an industry that has historically been shaped and run by men. For Flom, the month is a reminder of what is now possible and who helped make it that way.
"It's really cool to look around within the VGK organization and see all the women who are absolutely crushing their jobs, knowing that they are always there to uplift and help you," she said. "Working in sports is something I always dreamed of, so being able to accomplish a dream with a bunch of other women doing the same thing is truly special."
For the girls watching from the other side, the effect was just as lasting.
"Watching these women work today, it's inspiring to young girls like myself who want to go into a sports field when they're older,” Gregoryan said. “You can read stories about it but seeing it up close firsthand is a whole other level. It just has a different effect."
That sense of possibility is precisely what the program was built to ignite, and Hudspeth sees it as part of a movement with real momentum behind it. USA Hockey officially surpassed 100,000 registered female players for the first time in history this month, driven by the success of the U.S. National Team and accelerating growth in girls programming across the country. In Las Vegas, the Golden Knights launched their first-ever girls-only Learn to Play program at Wickfest this year, with 45 participants set to graduate this weekend into a newly created Girls Lil Knights cross-ice program. Female participation in the organization's Learn to Play programs has surged more than 113% from last year.
"From entry to elite, we want to make sure there is a place to play for every family under the VGK youth hockey umbrella," Hudspeth said.
The numbers across front offices in sports are just as striking. A 2015 study by EY and espnW found that 94% of female C-suite executives played sports. That figure is a north star for what Hudspeth hopes this program grows into: not just a one-day experience, but a genuine pipeline between a generation of young women already competing at a high level and a network of female leaders prepared to help them navigate what comes next.
"If we can have an impact on their career decisions and help connect them with a network of women in sports, that's valuable experience they can take with them as they navigate their college and career choices," Hudspeth said.
Santero distilled it to its simplest form.
"You don't have to feel or be ready to start," she said. "Some of the best opportunities in my career came from raising my hand before I had it all figured out."
Gregoryan walked out of T-Mobile Arena that night knowing more clearly than ever where she is headed. Douglass Morgan, the Raiders president and former attorney who became one of the most prominent figures in Las Vegas sports, is the blueprint she keeps returning to. A legal career, a front office, a seat at the table in professional sports. Hockey, which she once had no interest in whatsoever, quietly opened every door.
"Being in the office was a really cool experience,” she said. “I know when I'm older I would like to be an attorney, and I want to practice sports and entertainment law, so it's a great way to gain exposure into areas that I want to work in when I'm older."
That is what the shadow program is really about. Not a building tour or a job-fair talking point, but the particular, irreplaceable experience of standing inside something you once only watched from the outside and recognizing yourself in it. As this program grows, as more girls discover hockey and more women ascend into leadership across the sports industry, that pipeline will grow and flourish. The women who filled the VGK front office on that game day are already the proof of concept. For Gregoryan, Scafidi, Madsen and Rom, it was one day that made the future feel a little less far away.
