Lyla Edwards\u2019 parents say it has been hard to leave behind their life in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and miss much of their daughter\u2019s upbringing as she chased her dream of playing Olympic women\u2019s hockey. Thanks to a wave of donations \u2014 including a $10,000 contribution from hometown NFL brothers Travis and Jason Kelce \u2014 the family will now be able to travel to Italy next week to watch Edwards make her Olympic debut at the Milan\u2013Cortina 2026 Games.<\/p>\n
A GoFundMe set up after Edwards made the U.S. roster topped $59,000 by Wednesday, surpassing its $50,000 goal. The family plans to bring as many as 14 relatives, from Lyla\u2019s maternal grandmother Ernestine Gray to her young nephew Shiloh. \u201cOh my god,\u201d Lyla\u2019s mother, Sharon Gray-Edwards, said. \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to find the words to express my gratitude, but I haven\u2019t found them yet.\u201d Her father, Robert Edwards, added, \u201cWe\u2019re humbled by it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards left home at 13 to attend Bishop Kearney Select Academy in Rochester, New York, later relocating to Wisconsin, where she is finishing her senior season with the top-ranked Badgers. \u201cObviously my name is on the roster, but I feel like my whole family got to go to the Olympics,\u201d she told The Associated Press on a Zoom call. \u201cI really appreciate all the sacrifices they\u2019ve made, everything they\u2019ve done to get me here\u2026 It\u2019s going to be really special for them to be here and share this experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old is widely viewed as a rising star in women\u2019s hockey and will be the first Black female hockey player to represent the United States at the Olympics. A 6-foot-1, 195-pound player who moved from forward to defense, Edwards brings notable speed and playmaking ability. Though she has spent much of her life away from Cleveland, she still identifies strongly with the city \u2014 cheering for LeBron James and admiring local figures like the Kelce brothers \u2014 and even met Blake Bolden of nearby Euclid, Ohio, the first Black player in the NWHL who now scouts for the Los Angeles Kings. After the U.S.-Canada game in Cleveland last November, teammates nicknamed her the \u201cQueen of Cleveland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards said she was particularly touched by the Kelces\u2019 support; beyond their donation, Travis Kelce reached out personally to tell her people are rooting for her. Her mother was moved by strangers who approached her in Wisconsin and said they had contributed what they could. Any leftover GoFundMe money is expected to be used to give back to the community \u2014 for example, buying hockey equipment and funding free ice time. \u201cWe really want to honor the money that\u2019s been given to us,\u201d Edwards said. (Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Fan Take: NFL fans should care because the Kelce brothers\u2019 involvement highlights how players can use their platform to uplift athletes in other sports and communities. That crossover support helps grow hockey\u2019s visibility and diversity, which can broaden the fan base and enrich the overall American sports landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lyla Edwards\u2019 parents say it has been hard to leave behind their life in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and miss much of their daughter\u2019s upbringing as she chased her dream of playing Olympic women\u2019s hockey. Thanks to a wave of donations \u2014 including a $10,000 contribution from hometown NFL brothers Travis and Jason Kelce \u2014 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[859],"tags":[860],"class_list":{"0":"post-40592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}