For NHL on ESPN Production Coordinator Jill Olson, taking on a new role at this year’s NHL Player Media Tour offered an opportunity to combine her career at ESPN with a lifelong connection to the sport she grew up playing in Connecticut.
“I was the only girl on my team,” Olson said. “Then they branched off and started what’s now the Northern Lights girls team. That was the first-ever Northern Lights girls team.”
She went on to play four years at UMass, where she served as captain during her sophomore, junior and senior seasons.
“It was so much dedication and so much time, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Olson said. “It was the best experience of my life and I still have my lifelong best friends.”
The experience at Player Media Tour also brought back memories of conversations she had while playing in college.
“There was a time in college where my dad was like, ‘There’s no professional women’s league. You need to start thinking about your future outside of hockey,'” Olson said. “I never really thought past hockey.”
Olson always had a goal in mind to work around the sport, so when the opportunity with ESPN came around, she jumped on the moment.
“I knew ESPN was always somewhere I wanted to work,” she said. “Being out there now, I had a full-circle moment where I was like, ‘I just can’t believe I’m standing here working on NHL on ESPN. On the ice, in my skates, in my gloves.’”
Camille Bova, ESPN Senior Production Coordinator, immediately thought of Jill when it came time to fill this role.
“We were so excited to get Jill in this position,” said Bova. “It’s a unique role where you need someone with hockey experience, the ability to be on skates for eight hours while interacting with players, pulling out their personalities and navigating directions from our production crew while managing the lasers. Jill was the only one who came to mind for this role. As production coordinators, our jobs are mainly logistics-focused with creative sprinkled in, and I love when we get the opportunity to take on a new role and show off our creative side.”