Former Hamilton snowplow driver Kayla Vespa among the women making history with PWHL

As a player in the Professional Women's Hockey League, Kayla Vespa's schedule is very full, but it still feels like a bit of a break compared to her last job — an overnight snowplow driver in Hamilton.

With the league now underway, Vespa works out in the morning, reviews video footage of game play, goes over the day's practice plan with her teammates and then gets on the ice for a couple hours.

"We're out of the rink probably around 4 or 5 p.m. and then we do whatever we want to do with our time," said Vespa, a forward for New York who scored in the league's first-ever game on Jan. 1.

For Vespa — who is used to a schedule of working out in the afternoons, hockey in the evening and driving a snowplow during the night — playing in the league is a dream come true.

She just needs to get used to the evening down time. "It's hard for me to sit still," she told CBC Hamilton.  

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Vespa, 26, grew up near Upper Wentworth Street and Rymal Road, a suburban area on the Hamilton Mountain. She attended both St. Jean de Brébeuf and St. John Henry Newman Catholic secondary schools.

After finishing a hockey scholarship at St. Lawrence College in Canton, N.Y., she came back to Hamilton, where she worked for the city, coached girls hockey with the Stoney Creek Sabers and commuted to Toronto to be on Team Sonnet in the Professional Women's Hockey Player Association (PWHPA), a precursor to the new league.

Vespa is one of dozens of players from Ontario in the six-team league. She said it's "an awesome feeling" to be now able to focus on hockey full time, in a professional, paid league that has been a long time coming for players and their fans. 

"November to April was prime season [for