Canada's Jessica Campbell 1st female assistant coach in AHL, hired by Coachella Valley

The Coachella Valley Firebirds have hired the American Hockey League's first female assistant coach.

Jessica Campbell is ready for the opportunity.

"I've been spending a little bit more of my time on the development side the past three years and truly trying to create the opportunities and the growth for myself, and the knowledge to put myself in this position," the native of Rocanville, Sask., said from Palm Springs, Calif. "So I'm very excited to be able to bring that to Coachella."

Campbell, whose hiring was announced Tuesday, has spent the past year working with the Tri-City Storm of the United States Hockey League development program and she was an assistant coach with Germany at the IIHF men's world championships, becoming the first woman to coach at that event.

Coachella Valley is set to begin its first season this fall as the AHL affiliate for the Seattle Kraken.

"All signs and all indications of what we were looking for in a coach kind of led me to Jess and led to our conversations and has led us to her being our first assistant coach," Coachella Valley head coach Dan Bylsma said.

Bylsma was drawn to Campbell's background as a skating coach. He first reached out to Campbell in an email sent to a generic email address for Campbell's skating school.

Her first thought, "Is this spam?"

"It was special because I was obviously in a position where I was looking for that next step," Campbell said.

Campbell also served as an assistant coach and skills coach for the Nurnberg Ice Tigers in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga.

As a player, Campbell represented Canada at the under-18 world championships in 2009 and 2010.

She was the leading scorer with 15 points and tournament MVP at the 2010 tournament in Chicago while serving as