PWHL’s Kendall Coyne Schofield Says Bringing a Six-Month-Old on the Road for Hockey ‘Gives Me a Lot of Motivation’

For Olympic gold medalist Kendall Coyne Schofield, the first month of the professional women’s hockey league was about much more than the action on the ice.

The 31-year-old winger took on triple duty: she became a new mom, she became the president of the PWHL players’ union. and playing for the league-leading Minnesota team, which sits atop the standings a month into its first season.

“We call her Supermom,” teammate Taylor Heise tells PEOPLE. “She’s amazing.”

Kendall gave birth to son Drew last July, and the PWHL draft took place in September. Two months after that, her husband, football player Michael Schofield, received an invitation to join the Detroit Lions. As the two tackled their busy professional sports travel schedules, they made the decision that baby Drew would stay at home — and travel to away games — with his mom.

“It definitely comes with its challenges sometimes,” Kendall tells PEOPLE. “But when my husband signed with the Lions, we both looked at each other like, Well, this is going to be a little harder than we thought, but we can do it.”

With the help of her teammates and a league-funded babysitter, Kendall made it.

“Drew was an amazing traveler,” says Kendall. “Maybe they won’t believe me, but I took a picture of him so we can remember when he’s older. It was really special and gives me a lot of motivation.”

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Kendall Coyne-Schofield.

Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Getty

Kendall received help from teammates along the way, as well as help from nearby families of the 12 Minnesota players on the team. She recounts stories of other players helping her carry her stroller, playing with her son in the team cafeteria or entertaining him on the bus.

And while she’s racking up wins on the ice, Drew is also hitting his milestones. He ate his first real food, started babbling and is showing signs of crawling every now and then. (“I always try to keep my phone away because I don’t want Michael to miss it,” laughs Kendall, joking that she has “3,000 photos” of her son since last month alone.)

Recently, Drew put on his first pair of shoes: a pair purchased by Kendall’s Minnesota team and longtime teammate Kelly Pannek of Team USA. “I ran into the locker room like, ‘Kelly, Kelly come here!’ Kendall says of her excitement to show it to his great aunt.

“Drew has been pretty resilient through it all and does it with a smile on his face and a bit of a giggle,” she adds. “Every night I just tell myself it’s worth it – because it is.” It would be easy for me to retire from the game and I would be so happy to be a mom, but I never wanted him to be the reason I stopped playing. I knew it would be difficult, but I accept the challenge and it makes me a better mom.”

Kendall Coyne-Schofield and Drew Coyne-Schofield.

Kendall Coyne-Schoefield

The PWHL is helping pay for a nanny to travel with her, hiring assistant coach Jake Bobrowski’s daughter Ella, a 20-year-old nursing student who is on vacation until Feb. 8 — just days before the Super Bowl marks the end of NFL seasons and Michael’s return home to take over the duties of a father.

Coyne-Schofield says Ella has been “amazing”, staying with Drew at the team hotel during games that last past his bedtime.

The unique arrangement also allowed for some special moments between mother and son: Drew was in the crowd watching his mother play her first PWHL game when Team Minnesota and Team Boston kicked off their seasons on January 3rd.

“I kind of forget about the game because there was so much emotion behind it for so many different reasons,” Kendall says. “Obviously, this was the first game I played in this new league that I was involved in founding and making that dream come true. And the other, I knew exactly where he was sitting. Ella was wearing a carrier on her chest, so he was just moving up and down, his head nodding and smiling. I could see him up there watching.”

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Kendall Coyne-Schofield.

Chris Tanouye/Freestyle Photography/Getty

Having young children the opportunity to watch women play professional hockey is something Kendall has thought about for a long time.

“For young boys and girls to grow up and say women can play professional hockey and men can play professional hockey. Knowing it, seeing it, believing it, it’s incredibly important and that’s all,” says Kendall. “And I think this league shows that.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Kendall recently received a message from Team USA teammate Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, who sent a picture of her daughter Hazel Ann watching a PWHL game.

“She wants to be a professional hockey player, and that brings tears to my eyes because that’s why the league was created,” Kendall says. “It was not in favor of the players of the current generation. It’s for next generation players, like Hazel Ann watching the game. It is very important that boys and girls grow up with the same dream and know that they can have the same dream.”

Kendall points to a quote from Billie Jean King, the pioneering former tennis star who sits on the PWHL’s executive committee and helps champion the league.

“Billie always says, ‘You have to see it to make it.’ But we never saw that,” Kendall says of her and her fellow PWHL players. “I didn’t see a women’s hockey game until I was 10 years old. And I mean now, Drew has seen more women’s hockey games than men’s!”

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Source: HIS Education