By Hailey Salvian (The Athletic)
In the spring of 2020, with the NHL season suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Damon Severson was looking for somewhere to skate in preparation for the league’s return to play in August.
As it happened, a childhood friend had access to ice time. Jessica Campbell, who grew up with Severson in Melville, Sask., was running small group skills sessions for her power skating business in Kelowna, B.C., and Severson started coming out with a few teammates and friends.
“The first time we got off the ice after one of her sessions, the boys were like, ‘That was a really good skate. She knows what she’s doing,’” said Severson, who is now a defenseman for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Campbell’s business, JC Power Skating, was still fairly new — launched in 2019, a few years after she officially retired from her international playing career with Team Canada — but it took off that spring. Her skills sessions were high-tempo, with drills that simulated real game-like situations and pace. Word spread, and soon enough, the group of NHL players showing up to those sessions started to grow. Everyone from Luke Schenn and Tyson Jost, to Brent Seabrook and Shea Weber took part.
Until that point in her career, Campbell had mostly thought about becoming an NHL skate coach. She had never envisioned herself as an NHL coach. But as more NHL players started coming to her skates that spring, and she worked more closely with Seabrook — who was working to get back to playing after multiple surgeries in 2019-20 — the vision started to take shape.
“It definitely catapulted me into this space,” she said. “Brent and the guys in Kelowna, they showed up for me and almost gave me permission to believe in this dream.”
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