COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Over the weekend, the Ohio State women’s ice hockey team returned to glory by winning the program’s second national championship in three years with a 1-0 win over Wisconsin.

In the wake of that historic title, it’s no surprise that central Ohio is becoming a hotbed for the sport. Now a two-time Olympian is helping to grow the game in the Buckeye State.

“I was told my job is to just go out there and play around with the kids,” two-time Olympic silver medalist Brianne McLaughlin-Bittle said. “That’s the best job on the ice.”

McLaughlin-Bittle was on the ice at Nationwide Arena helping dozens of girls get better at playing hockey during the Blue Jackets‘ Girls Hockey Day in March, the team’s first clinic since 2020. She remembers being their age and now she wants to help grow the next generation of female hockey players. And the best way to do that is by having fun.

“Days like this are super important,” McLaughlin-Bittle said. “I think a lot of times you get them on the ice and they’re doing drills and you kinda lose them a little bit. So to have days like this where they’re making new friends. There’s so many girls here saying ‘I didn’t know you before. Or I didn’t know you!’ This is a memory they’re going to have forever.”

The Sheffield Village native has hockey memories to last a lifetime, including two Olympic silver medals with Team USA earned at the Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 games. The goalie spent her college career at Robert Morris before playing two seasons professionally in the National Women’s Hockey League for the Buffalo Beauts.

“I came from Ohio that was completely different than a lot of the kids that I played with, they’re coming from Canada or big places like Michigan or Minnesota. Places like that. Where they had a ton of opportunity. Where I came from Ohio, but I was still able to do it.” McLaughlin-Bittle said.

She’s lent her expertise as a coach for RMU as well as the U.S. women’s national team. Now she wants young girls to find their own path in the sport. At Girls Hockey Day, McLaughlin-Bittle served as a panelist to discuss the future of women’s hockey and share her passion for the game. She wants to see more girls participate in hockey and more teams provide more opportunities.

“All these little girls, they want to do what we did,” McLaughlin-Bittle said. “If you love it, the more the kids love it at this age, the more they’re willing to put into it as they get older. And if that’s a goal of theirs, if they want to play at a high level, the more they love it right now, the more it will help them a long the way.”