The Women's Hockey Star Fighting to Grow the Game

Richard T Gagnon/Getty

When she was just 2 years old, Kaliya Johnson knew figure skates wouldn’t cut it. “I was obsessed with Julie in D2: The Mighty Ducks,” says Johnson. “She was the only girl on the team … I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
For the next six years, Johnson followed in Julie’s footsteps. With no girl’s youth hockey club within an hour of her home in LA, she played with the boys. But once her mother, Kelli, a former collegiate basketball player, realized hockey was more than a phase, road trips became part of the family rhythm. “I knew she was serious when she gave up all her other sports,” Kelli tells OZY. “She was an amazing soccer player and was on her way to a black belt in Hapkido, but she gave that up.”

LINK

Via: OZY