Hudspeth is the Director of Girls & Women's Programming, coaches the Vegas Junior Golden Knights and directs all girls and women's hockey programs at City National Arena. She invited Melanie Jue out to City National Arena on March 31 for a girls hockey clinic at City National Arena with their intentions set on emphasizing the importance of representation, ambition, and persistence from girls and women in hockey.
Jue is known for her work as a former NCAA Division I coach, a former player for the Canadian Women's Hockey League, and a current player for the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays in the Zhenskaya Hockey League. In a sport that is often thought to be male-dominated, female representation can be a significant motivator for a girl considering hockey.
"Hopefully they walk away with some inspiration for seeing a female pro player here in Las Vegas - it's not something that we really get to see," Hudspeth said of the 30+ girls who attended the clinic. "We get to see a lot of professional men's hockey here, but we don't get to see elite female athletes of this caliber. If you can see it, you can be it."
The event's attendees sat down for a Q&A session with Jue before taking the ice to run through drills and put into practice some of the themes they learned from talking with two role models in women's hockey.
In the Q&A, the Cornell University Hall-of-Famer, Jue, described her experience as a girl playing hockey as well as what it took and what it means for her to have reached such a high level with the sport.
"I hope that they recognize that they can pursue hockey at a higher level, and that they can go as far as they want to go as long as they love the game," Jue said. "I think seeing women ahead of them achieve it makes it a little bit more possible for them and more real."
Jue also expressed excitement for seeing such promising desire for the game "even in the desert."
Amongst girls and women alone, hockey players in Nevada rose 327% within the last four years as the arrival of the Vegas Golden Knights ignited an increased interest in the sport statewide.
The first official season of the Vegas Junior Golden Knights girls hockey program at City National Arena began in 2018, and by the 2023, the program will house 10-and-under, 12U and 14U girls teams. In all, girls and women throughout Nevada are discovering and embracing hockey more and more by the year.
Hudspeth and Jue stress that when girls and women have opportunity and ambition, they can advance to exciting levels with hockey. Clinics like the one these two women held encourage the growth of girls hockey, for they showcase female representation. Sometimes when starting something new or unconventional, a little inspiration is all someone needs to go a long way. Hudspeth and Jue are there to do just that: inspire and lead. After that point, it takes consistency and grit to turn a hobby like hockey into something grander. And as stressed during the girls hockey clinic, this is something anyone, male or female, can do.
