![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2017\/04\/IMG_0404.jpg\")
Reagan Rust, 10, and Max McClelland, 9, pal around during the Jr. StreetKings youth roller hockey summer league at the Hernando Civic Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Hockey was a relatively new sport in Mississippi. The Nashville Predators were just three hours away, but they had only joined the NHL in 1998. When I was five, we got our first semi-pro team: the Memphis RiverKings moved to Southaven.<\/p>\n
They changed their name to the Mississippi RiverKings. The team was exciting, but more than that, they were involved in their new community.<\/p>\n
When I was growing up my mother created a magazine called DesotoKids. It never really turned into anything major, but it did run a few features on the RiverKings. In the team\u2019s early years after the move drawing crowds was something of a challenge. They rarely filled more than half of the 8,000 plus seat arena.<\/p>\n
People didn\u2019t grow up playing the sport, let alone watching it. The RiverKings needed to start fresh. They needed to appeal to the community at the grassroots level. They needed to create a fanbase that would bring people to the games; they needed kids.<\/p>\n
Enter my mother.<\/p>\n
The RiverKings rec league ran every year, and every year we went. It didn\u2019t matter that I was one of the only girls there. It didn\u2019t matter that my sister was more interested in getting lunch after the practice than with the practice itself. I was five, and I was in love from the second I stepped on the ice.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Ask a 10-year-old girl what they want to be when they grow up.<\/p>\n
Chances are you\u2019ll hear the usual: doctor, teacher, artist, astronaut; you\u2019ll probably run into a few singers, some dancers, maybe even a soccer player or two. Some, like me, might even combine a couple. I wanted to be a doctor, and I wanted to play hockey.<\/p>\n
By the fifth grade I had made a ten-year plan:<\/p>\n
Step one: get into a good high school, and join the hockey team there
\nStep two: get a scholarship to play Division 1 hockey at Harvard University
\nStep three: Study medicine and become a doctor<\/p>\n
Even the best laid plans run into problems.<\/p>\n
I went to five different high schools, in four different states. Ninth grade was at home, in Mississippi. There weren\u2019t a lot of local teams in the state that played at a competitive level. Instead there were 12-hour car rides every other weekend with my best friend. Did you know that La Grange is actually a place? It\u2019s right after Louisville on the I-71. The drive through Florence, Sparta and Lebanon in the same day would be truly incredible had they actually been those places. Instead they were passing blurs on the weekly trip to Pittsburgh (It was home to one of the best youth teams)<\/p>\n Sophomore year meant a move to Lake Placid to spend some time at the National Sports Academy. It was an amazing experience, and I met some of the most talented people there; girls who had spent time with their respective national teams. Kali Flanagan is actually currently playing for Team USA at the World Championships. \u00a0Unforunately, the school ran into financial problems, quickly ending that. It was back to Pittsburgh to rejoin my old team, but if I was going to progress there was no way I could continue living nearly 800 miles away from my team.<\/p>\n So I moved.<\/p>\n The first billet family was a nerve-wracking experience. They were a nice family but it\u2019s a strange feeling living away from home before you can even legally drive. By the second family it was same-old, same-old; just another stepping-stone on the way to D1. There was no way I was missing D1.<\/p>\n The summer before senior year things finally began falling into place. It was the final tournament of the summer and the drive from Mississippi to Boston was more stressful than normal. On top of packing all my gear, it was also moving day; back to Pittsburgh for my final season. Anyone who has ever moved knows there\u2019s always something you forget. In this case it was my jersey. With a little tape, and creativity, a goalie\u2019s jersey transformed from 31 to 81. Add a custom name plate, and I was ready to go.<\/p>\n I was in a makeshift jersey, playing out of position, at a game where there wasn\u2019t even supposed to be scouts. I believe to get anywhere in life it takes a lot of hard work, and a little bit of luck and being at the right place at the right time. That weekend, I got lucky. Right after the tournament I got an email, asking me for my phone number. Then I got a call, how would I like to play for the Rochester Institute of Technology? I thought the time would never come.<\/p>\n I was a Division 1 hockey player.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n 10-year-old me might be a little upset that I\u2019m not at Harvard, or that I chose to study exploration business instead of medicine. But I made it to Division 1, and it took a damn lot of hard work to get there.<\/p>\n So back to the phone call I got last week. How could I say no to an offer to play with team USA?<\/p>\n Easy.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t earn it.<\/p>\n They did. All those girls who spent hours away from their families chasing a dream that seems impossible. Spending hours on bus rides across the country, scraping by on salaries that are pennies compared to what they should be making. That jersey isn\u2019t mine to wear.<\/p>\n I have my own ambitions, and if the day comes I wear a USA jersey I will have earned the right to wear it.<\/p>\n As you undoubtedly know, USA Hockey and the women came to a deal. It\u2019s fantastic, and I couldn\u2019t be happier for them, but this can\u2019t be the end.<\/p>\n There is so much work still to be done, on the development side, that this can\u2019t be where it ends. If we are going to grow our sport, if we are going to make women\u2019s hockey equal, we need to start working towards actually developing women\u2019s hockey.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2017\/04\/IMG_0408-200x300.jpg\")
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