Ice hockey has taken Olympic gold medalist Kendall Coyne Schofield all across the globe. She’s lived in Los Angeles, Denver, the Carolinas, Florida and beyond for her own career and in support of her husband, retired NFL player and Super Bowl champion Michael Schofield. But no matter how distinctive nor beautiful the setting was, no destination could compare to where it all began. “All roads lead to home and for both of us, home is where our family is, home is where our community is and wherever they are, that’s home to us,” Coyne Schofield told NBC Sports in August.
More specifically, home for Coyne Schofield is Palos Heights, Illinois, in the suburbs of Chicago, home to just around 12,000 people. “It feels like the perfect pair of jeans, you know when you put ‘em on, it fits just right,” Coyne Schofield said. “I know all the streets. I know all the schools, the neighborhood, the community, a place where I feel like I belong.”Which is exactly why she and her husband have decided to raise their two-year-old son Drew there and expand their hometown roots.
The small town is where both Kendall and Michael attended Carl Sandburg High School —the springboard for their prolific professional sports careers. “The community has played a tremendous role in supporting me throughout the earliest days of my career, all the way up until now,” Coyne Schofield said. Both she and Michael are part of the Sandburg Hall of Fame, and Michael is a volunteer coach for the football team, after retiring from his NFL career in the fall of 2024.
“When I think of a word that describes Michael’s football career, it’s versatile,” Coyne Schofield said. “He was versatile on the field, he was versatile in all of the transactions that were made throughout the 10 years of his career. I think it was his versatility and his ability to adapt to the situation that made him want to come back and provide all of the knowledge and experience that he had to now be a coach at the high school level.”
There have been some adjustments for Michael from the Super Bowl stage to his hometown high school.
“He comes home, he’s doing film,” Coyne Schofield said. “I have to remind him like, ‘Honey, this isn’t the NFL.’But you know, to him, it, it is.”
Coyne Schofield started playing boys ice hockey in the Chicago suburb at age five because a team for girls didn’t exist at the time. While it wasn’t always easy for her to fit in, she said the support from her teachers, parents and coaches kept her going.
Since then, home was not only a place of comfort and support for her, but it also became a place where she felt like anything was possible. When Coyne Schofield was seven years old, she attended a nearby girls’ hockey camp hosted by Olympian Cammi Granato. At the time, the Hall of Famer had just led Team USA to the inaugural gold medal in women’s hockey at the Nagano Winter Olympics. “I held her gold medal. That’s when I turned to my parents, I said, ‘I want to go to the Olympics.’ I was able to see her and then I knew I could be her,” Coyne Schofield said. Flash forward to a quarter century later and that young girl is gearing up for a potential fourth Games and is eyeing Olympic medal number four.
READ MORE: Kendall Coyne Schofield’s new hockey journey could lead to fourth Olympics in 2026
The 5’2” forward has played for Team USA since she was 15 years old and made her Olympic debut for the Stars and Stripes in 2014 at the Winter Games in Vancouver. While she admits it’s never been an easy road, it’s evident that it’s been worth it for the future Hall of Famer. “I truly believe you can accomplish anything you set your mind to if you’re willing to put in the work it takes to accomplish those goals and those dreams that you do have,” Coyne Schofield said. Now, she wants to make sure other kids, like her, have the support necessary to pursue their own childhood dreams.
She and her husband started the Kendall and Michael Schofield Family Foundation shortly after they wed in 2018, to help provide funding and support for student-athletes in their community. “I think we both feel so lucky to have made it to the pinnacles of our sport, to be able to live out our dream jobs, to be able to play a sport for a living and how much sport has given us,” Coyne Schofield said. Each year, the foundation awards a scholarship to a student-athlete at their former high school, as one of the many ways they’re trying to repay their beloved community.
“If I can just provide an ounce of inspiration or change somebody else’s life like mine has been changed, I want to be able to do that,” Coyne Schofield said.
Three years ago, the couple opened the Kendall Coyne Dream Big Park in Palos Heights, their biggest completed project to date. Coyne Schofield says growing up, her love of sports blossomed while having fun with friends and family on the playground and it was important for her to pass on that formative experience. The Dream Big Park is a playful paradise that even includes giant hockey sticks, but the real showstopper is the inspiring giant archway at the entrance. “I hope every kid that goes through that arch can look up at that Dream Big sign and realize that their dream is worth dreaming. There’s no dream that’s too big or too small,” Coyne Schofield said.
Coyne Schofield’s next dream is focused on the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games. The veteran is hoping to be named to her fourth Olympic roster in January and emphasized that “a gold medal and gold medal only” is the expectation for Team USA. And she can already picture her victory celebration. “I just have such a strong vision of being at the Olympic Games with my son and sharing that moment with him. For him to know that mommy didn’t give up, she kept going and you were the reason she kept going,” Coyne Schofield said.
The U.S. women’s hockey team begins competition against Czechia at the Milano Rho ice hockey arena on February 5, as Coyne Schofield aims to inspire the next generation in the quest for another Olympic title.
Throughout the winter, in a series called Hometown Hopefuls, NBC is spotlighting the stories of Olympic and Paralympic athletes from across the United States as they work towards the opportunity to represent their country at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. We’ll learn about their paths to their sports’ biggest stage, the communities that have been formative along the way, and the causes they’re committed to in their hometowns and around the world. Visit nbcsports.com/hometown-hopefuls for more stories on the road to Milan Cortina.
