How Laila Edwards of Cleveland Heights Became Team USA's First Black Female Olympic Hockey Player

Laila Edwards skates to the side of the rink to join a quiet huddle. The atmosphere around her at Rocket Arena is raucous for the Nov. 6 matchup between Team USA and Canada’s National Women’s Hockey Team, but the 21-year-old hockey player’s demeanor is calm as she joins her teammates in prayer. When Edwards rises from the huddle, her eyes land on her family, friends and youth hockey coaches. They understand the stakes, as she does. 

Come February, when both teams head to Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, the Canadians and the Americans are the favorites for gold. But a win for the stars and stripes isn’t all that’s up for grabs in this rivalry series. 

Today, Edwards is among 29 other players competing for a spot in the U.S. Olympic roster. In 2023, Edwards was the first Black woman to play for the U.S. Women’s Senior National team. Now she aims to be the first Black woman to represent the United States in the Olympics.

Continuing to scan the crowd, she sees a young Black girl screaming in the stands. Edwards skates to the boards and tosses her a puck.

“I know when I was a kid that would’ve made my day,” Edwards says, “so I like to return the favor.”

Edwards grew up in Cleveland Heights and followed her older sister, Chayla, into hockey. The duo got into the sport because of their father, who also played the game and introduced it to his children. Both girls’ talents were apparent from a young age. With just over two years separating them, Edwards and her sister battled fiercely on the ice, sharpening an iron that would follow the younger sister forever.

“We were definitely really competitive growing up. Each other’s biggest competitors and biggest supporters,” Edwards says. “I think we pushed each other really hard. Even though I just got to practice with her, I always wanted to be better than her.” 

Their competitive bond never broke, but the duo spent their high school years apart. Edwards’ sister moved to Pittsburgh to play for a prestigious hockey academy, while Edwards made her own hockey journey to Rochester, New York, at age 13. Their parents stayed behind in Cleveland Heights. This is what a hockey family life looks like, after all.

“I didn’t even really know how to do my laundry too well at that age,” Edwards says. “I was a little nervous to be on my own, but obviously I figured it out. I learned from people around me, which forced me to grow up fast and early, but I think it benefited me.”

On the night of her graduation from Bishop Kearney High School in Rochester,
Edwards missed walking, instead attending the 2022 International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 Women’s World Championship. She also had a big decision on her mind: where to go to college.

Playing at Ohio State University, and closer to Cleveland Heights, was appealing, but eventually, the University of Wisconsin won the face-off. She was more impressed by the facilities in Madison and the coaching staff’s track record of success. 

“The program just wasn’t to where it is now,” she says about Ohio State.

But Wisconsin checked off another important box: Edwards would get to play on the ice with her sister for the first time. The pair played two years together, with an extra year of eligibility being a silver lining to the COVID impact on Chayla’s college years. In Edwards’ freshman year, the Badgers team would go on to defeat Ohio State to win the 2023 NCAA Championship. The moment culminated a lifetime of hard work as a hockey family.

“Getting to play with my sister was unbelievable. I was only supposed to get one year with her, then COVID, so I got two,” Edwards says. “We got to win together, and there was truly no better feeling. I just thought about how proud that made my family and how I’m hoping that they believe their sacrifices were worth it.”

Edwards is a normal college student, too. She loves to read and spend time with family and friends. Her faith, instilled by her family, is an important part of her life. She’s even learning to cook, though she mostly handles the side dishes and cleaning while her roommate and Wisconsin teammate Caroline Havery handles the main dish. 

“For me, it’s just important to be where my feet are,” Edwards says. “I think that’s what helps me be present and get the best out of wherever I’m at.”

This season, Edwards hopes to be a part of another Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Hockey championship run in March. Her college graduation is in May, and she has the potential to be drafted into the Professional Women’s Hockey League this year. But first, another major life event precedes all that. 

Back in Cleveland, Team USA trails Canada 1-0 in the first period of the November matchup, which opens the 2025 rivalry series. Standing near center ice at 6-foot-1, the tallest player on either team, Edwards gets the puck on a rebound and rockets a pass past two defenders to set up Taylor Heise for a close shot. Heise sinks it with ease. The horn blares, and Rocket Arena erupts with cheers.

In the summer of 2024, Edwards knew she had to evolve her game if she wanted to join the Olympic run in 2026. Team USA was already loaded with offensive talent, and  she needed to give the coaches a reason to keep her on the roster. So, the star forward who led the NCAA with 35 goals in the 2024-25 season, told head coach John Wroblewski that she wanted to switch from offense to defense. 

Her size and talent made the transition to a more physical position natural. 

“I don’t feel like a bully,” Edwards says. “I just feel like a player that wants to win, so I got to push people around.”

Playing a new position has been a learning experience, especially against the best players in the country. Yet, Edwards hasn’t shied away from the challenge. 

“She wants to (make an impact), and she can improve, and that’s the thing, improvement,” Wroblewski says. “Everybody wants it to be this steep graduation, and it’s more oftentimes a roller coaster, and she’s got the right attitude. There’s never a time where she regresses in terms of what her belief in herself is. So with that, it’s going to work out.”

For the rest of the November game at Rocket Arena, Edwards dominates on defense in an aggressive fashion. In this first game of the rivalry series, her play shows that she can provide Team USA with a duality of offense and defense when they head to the Milan Cortina Games in February. 

“(Edwards) is a ball player, she’s a gamer,” Wroblewski says. “She’s the real deal.”

That recognition is already finding her. The day before playing Rocket Arena, Team USA practiced in Brunswick. That night, Larry Nance Jr. showed up to the Cavaliers game against the Philadelphia 76ers in a Team USA Edwards jersey. Edwards returned the favor by wearing a Nance jersey to Rocket Arena.

The moment marked not only the first time the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team ever played in Cleveland, but also Edwards’ first time playing in Cleveland since she was 16 for a tournament.

The young girl who caught the puck from Edwards returns to her seat to watch a show and a star come to life. In the end, USA Hockey stomped Canada 4-1. After, Edwards’ teammates crowned her the “Queen of Cleveland,” a city that she left at a young age and then set the stage for her history-making moment. On Jan. 2, Team USA announced roster, with Edwards on the team. That morning, she joined NBC’s Today Show to represent women’s hockey.

“Plenty of people reach out and tell me that I inspire their kid to either start hockey or keep going, and it means the world to me. It’s kind of what I do it for. It motivates me a ton,” Edwards says. “I think the more I succeed at this level, the better it is for the representation.”  

For more updates about Cleveland, sign up for our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.

Cleveland Magazine is also available in print, publishing 12 times a year with immersive features, helpful guides and beautiful photography and design.