Gabbie Hughes has become a star on the ice in the PWHL. Now she's using her platform to raise awareness and funds for Sophie's Squad, and organization aiming to support mental health awareness.
Gabbie Hughes has become a star on the ice in the PWHL. Now she's using her platform to raise awareness and funds for Sophie's Squad, and organization aiming to support mental health awareness.
For Gabbie Hughes it was always hockey, it was always in her blood for the 24-year-old, skilled, physical a top line- centre Ottawa’s new professional women’s hockey team, PWHL Ottawa.
“As soon as I was able to walk, I was putting on skates,” said Hughes,
But Hughes also had a searing personal encounter with the toll that mental health can take on young people when a 14-year-old girl Sophie Wieland she coached committed suicide in 2021. Hughes and her father had coached for three years before Wieland took her own life.
The Hughes and Wieland families were personal friends.
“She was one of the most amazing 14-year-olds I've ever met in my life,” said Hughes.
“She and I shared a birthday and she looked up to me. So, I felt like I was I had a good bond with her.”
Hughes and her family along with others started the Sophie’s Squad Foundation later in August 2021 the Sophie’s memory. The foundation mission is raising awareness of mental health issues and removing the stigma associated with seeking help. And it will be front and centre Wednesday night when Hughes returns to play before a crowd in her home-state of Minnesota.
“When she passed, a group of us kind of sat down, and it really hit us hard. And we knew we needed to do something, we wanted to do something just to raise awareness of mental health and give kids a platform where they feel like they can talk about it, and that they're not alone in their battles.”
The first 5000 fans will get a Sophie’s Squad rally towel in the league’s first game dedicated to promoting mental health.
“I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's game: it isn't going to just be about hockey,” said Hughes.
Hughes like Sophie was just a young girl who loved the game of hockey and worked hard.
Hughes grew up in Minnesota in a household of athletes. Miki played volleyball and her father Terry played NCAA hockey. Terry coached hockey for over 30 years and had his own hockey school.
As Hughes’ mom recounts, it was always sports for Gabbie and her two brothers, Trey and Collin. “[She] had no choice whether they were going to be athletes or not," said Miki.
Gabbie started skating at the age of two and started playing hockey at the age of five. But it didn’t come easily at first.
“I was horrible,” said Hughes. “My dad basically handed me over to my mom afterwards and was like, you can sign her up for any other sport. She’s not a hockey player.”
But the following year she asked her dad to play again.
“He was like: ‘Are you sure? You didn't really do very well. I'm like, ‘No, I want to play hockey’. And he's like, ‘alright, we'll sign you back up’”
“It was a complete 180…And from then on, I just started working hard for the sport, and I absolutely fell in love with it.”
Instead of putting their cars in the garage to protect them from the frigid Minnesota winters, the family handed it over to the kids to work on their shooting and stick handling. In the morning before every school day, Hughes dad would set aside 100 pucks for her to shoot as she relentlessly practiced her game.
"I lived in that garage," said Hughes.
Hughes was falling in love with the game of hockey in the hockey hotbed of Minnesota, but she was always an excellent gymnast as well. At age 10 she knew she had to make a decision.
“She looked at me, she's like, 'Mom, I can't do this. This is too much,’" said Miki Hughes.
Hughes dominated and carried her high school hockey team to the Minnesota state final at the Xcel Energy Center, and soon, she was playing NCAA for Duluth.
“That's when the dream of making the national team came in and trying to strive for that Olympic is still a huge dream of mine,” said Hughes. She won gold with Team USA at the 2023 World Championship.
Hughes was able to carry out her dream this weekend as she played for her country on the same ice that she only dreamed of playing for her High School with when she played for the USA on Sunday for Team USA. Now she plays for her professional team on that same ice, in dedication for Sophie who never had the chance to live out her dreams of playing at the Xcel Energy centre.
“We are at a professional women's hockey game, being able to promote mental health and to be able to promote our organization,” said Hughes. “It doesn't get any better than that.”
The Sophie’s Squad organization has grown leaps and bounds since its inception in 2021. The numbers are impressive: in the 2021-2022 hockey season, Sophie’s Squad held seven events attended by roughly 3000 people, the Hughes say, and have impacted directly 480 athletes through their initiatives.
This year they will have over 40 events, reaching 5000 athletes. They have expanded outside of hockey to soccer, basketball, lacrosse and swimming raising more than half a million dollars combined. The organization has donated $50,000 to the Children’s Hospital of Minnesota.
This effort gave Hughes an opportunity to reflect on her own mental health and connect it to the foundation’s goals.
“It gave me a really good opportunity in my mental health journey to get to a point where I felt like I could talk about my stuff,” said Hughes. “And let kids know that even when you do reach the highest level that you want to reach your goals, you still struggle in there still pressures and anxieties that you feel throughout the journey. And that's okay to feel those things. It's normal, and you're not alone in that battle.”
For Hughes Wednesday’s game is about more than hockey.
“It's going to be about much more than that. So, I'm really excited to play that game and get people to think about their mental health. And hopefully it sends people home with a really great message.”
If you would like to donate, here is a link to Sophie’s Squad.