{"id":366405,"date":"2026-06-18T23:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366405\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T23:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:44:11","slug":"laila-edwards-embraces-being-a-part-of-pwhl-san-jose-history-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366405\/","title":{"rendered":"Laila Edwards embraces being a part of PWHL San Jose history \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area &#038; California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Editor&#8217;s note:\u00a0Sheng Peng is a regular contributor to NBC Sports California\u2019s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sanjosehockeynow.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">San Jose Hockey Now<\/a>, listen to him on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sanjosehockeynow.com\/category\/san-jose-hockey-now-podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">San Jose Hockey Now Podcast<\/a>, and follow him on Twitter at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sheng_Peng\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">@Sheng_Peng<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>DETROIT \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sanjosehockeynow.com\/pwhl-san-jose-selects-laila-edwards-fourth-overall\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Laila Edwards<\/a>\u00a0embraces all the history that she\u2019s making.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards is the first draft pick in PWHL San Jose history. At No. 4, she\u2019s the highest-drafted black woman in league history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRepresentation matters,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cThat role model-like stature, it\u2019s an honor. And I don\u2019t take it lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019ll be a special part of San Jose, both on and off the ice,\u201d PWHL San Jose GM-head coach Troy Ryan said. \u201cI don\u2019t think you can find a better player to start a new franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both on and off the ice, the 6-foot-1 winger-defender is a natural.<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 Olympic gold medalist for Team USA and NCAA champion with Wisconsin \u2014 two goals and eight points in seven Olympic games and 12 goals and 45 points in just 28 NCAA appearances this past season \u2014 spoke about sharing the moment with her \u201cride and die\u201d best friend and No. 1 pick Caroline Harvey, her love for the city of San Jose, the advice that she received from Cleveland Heights natives Travis and Jason Kelce, and accidentally hugging Harvey\u2019s mom first after the pick.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some highlights from her sparkling media availability.<\/p>\n<p>Laila Edwards, on sharing the moment with her teammate and best friend Caroline Harvey:<\/p>\n<p>It was really special. We\u2019ve been talking about this moment for a long time, but nothing can really prepare you for it. So, it caught me off guard. After I gave her a hug, I started crying and I couldn\u2019t stop. It was interesting\u2026 For her to be one of the first people I saw when I went behind the curtain was really special.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4l4mpADVRh5IPCdD2uRw1i\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Download and follow the San Jose Hockey Now podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor&#8217;s note:\u00a0Sheng Peng is a regular contributor to NBC Sports California\u2019s Sharks coverage. You can read more of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[129019,129497,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-366405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-pwhl","tag-pwhl-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}