Branson Wright, you're here to take us inside the ascension of Leila Edwards, a star on the Wisconsin Badgers, women's hockey team, and the first woman of color to make the U.S. women's national team.

Lila's journey crosses paths with one of to make the U.S. women's national team.

Lila's journey crosses paths with one of her own here at ESPN,

Blake Bolden.

For those who don't know, Blake Bolden is the first black woman

to play professional hockey.

In addition to her job as an ESP and analyst, she's also a scout for the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL. So how did they interact?

Blake Bolden is from the Cleveland area as Leila Edwards is.

Right. And when Lila was playing youth hockey about six, seven years old,

Boulden came to speak to the group.

This was the first time, as Leila told me in the interview, that she saw a black woman,

you know, somebody that looked like her and also played hockey.

When she reflects back she said she can't remember exactly the things she was saying

but she was just mesmerized by saying

someone that looks like her and from talking to Lala's mom, Lala's mom said she

looked at this and said you know I think this is going to have effect on her, and

Leila's sister, Sheila, who plays down the road and it certainly did. Definitely saying someone that looks like you playing a sport that's not

popular with your community, I think it definitely inspired her along the way.

But Branson, Team USA has been around for a quarter of a century at this point.

So what does it mean for the color barrier to finally have been broken here by Lela.

Well, it means a lot of things.

You know, there's more girls playing hockey now

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