The Arizona Coyotes hired the NHL’s first full-time female assistant coach Wednesday.

After working with multiple teams in the past on a part-time basis, Dawn Braid was hired as the Coyotes’ skating coach. Prior to working in the NHL, Braid was the director of skating development at Athletes Training Centre in Mississauga, Ontario.

In announcing the hire, Arizona heavily praised Braid for her extensive background in developing strong skaters.

“We feel that Dawn can provide a real competitive advantage for our team,” Coyotes general manager John Chayka said. “The game is getting faster and it’s all about skating. …

“Dawn is someone who we feel is at the top of her field so we thought it was imperative to hire her. She’s got a great personality and the players work hard for her and respect her knowledge. The bottom line is she gets results and that’s the key thing.”

In her job in Ontario, Braid worked with NHL players such as John Tavares of the New York Islanders. Much like Arizona, Tavares had nothing but positive things to say about Braid.

“Dawn has wanted to put me in to make myself a more powerful and efficient skater,” Tavares told NHL.com in 2012. “Dawn always says, ‘If you didn’t train properly and do the certain things you need to do, you’re not going to be strong enough to do the things I want you to do.'”

During the past two years, women have slowly started to get into coaching at the professional level. The San Antonio Spurs pioneered the movement by hiring Becky Hammond as an assistant coach in 2014, and the Buffalo Bills hired the NFL’s first full-time female assistant coach earlier this year.

At lower levels, women are also starting to break through. Lakatriona Brunson, aka Bernice from the truTV docudrama South Beach Tow, recently became Florida’s first female high school football coach.

With the recent hires by these professional sports teams, women are slowly but surely working their way into coaching men’s sports. Look out, world.

[NHL.com]

About Ryan Williamson

Ryan is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri and has recently returned to his Minnesota roots. He previously has worked for the Columbia Missourian, KFAN radio in Minneapolis and BringMeTheNews.com. Feel free to email me at rwilliamson29 AT Gmail dot com.