It was a long road to professional hockey for Central Alberta's Jesse Jack.
"I started playing hockey when I was five years old. It's been my whole life pretty much," Jack said.
"I played with the boys when I was younger and made the switch to the girls side later on. I faced some adversity along the way — I had a spine tumour in high school, which made things complicated. I stuck with hockey and I'm glad I did. I went on to play at Olds College and Macewan University."
The Byemoor native recently signed with IF Troja-Ljungby of the Swedish Women's Hockey League for the 2025-26 season.
"Nothing has been linear, but it's been an incredible experience," said Jack.
"Overseas, they've had professional women's leagues that have been around for a number of years. When I graduated at MacEwan, I wasn't sure that I was done playing. I started exploring my options — at first, it was tough to get in contact with the right people. I talked to some of the girls I knew who had played over in Sweden and they gave me some advice. Over the course of a year, I wasn't able to find a team. But just a couple months ago, with help from my agent, I was able to find a team and I'm heading there in August."
Jack shared her story at the "She Plays" seminar, hosted by Central Sport and the Alberta Sport Development Centre at Red Deer Polytechnic on Saturday, May 31. Two-time Olympic gold medallist Catriona Le May Doan and Dr. Lauren Sulz, an associate professor in the faculty of education at the University of Alberta, joined Jack on stage for the event, which focused on celebrating and empowering women and girls in sport.
"I had so many people support me when I was growing up playing hockey and other sports," Jack said.
"I think anytime you have an opportunity to give back to sport, the sport community and younger females who are playing sports, it's always a good thing to do. I love being part of things like this. It's fun to share my story in the hopes that it might inspire the next group of young girls coming up."
Trevor Thomas, Central Sport CEO, said about 100 people were expected to attend the event.
"The idea for this event came when I was at a conference in Calgary that was talking about girls and women's sports," said Thomas.
"When you get girls into sports at a young age, you'll see the social, physical and mental benefits for them. Kids who play sports become leaders when they're adults. It's really important to keep them in sports for that social, physical and mental well-being."
