Gwyneth Phillips brings skills learned in Pittsburgh to Milan Olympics for Team USA

Gwyneth Phillips’ love of hockey may not have started in Pittsburgh, but it’s where her career took off.

Winning championships at Shady Side Academy and excelling with Penguins Elite laid the foundation for her opportunity with Team USA in the 2026 Winter Olympics.

“Being in Pittsburgh kind of just opened up hockey for me,” Phillips told Channel 11. “That’s where I started skating with a goalie coach, and then starting to actually learn how to play goalie.”

Phillips, who is originally from Madison, Ohio, said she started playing to be like her older brother, Guy. Her family initially sent Guy to Shady Side Academy as his talents grew, and his younger sister soon followed.

Her former coaches at Shady Side Academy remember her as a kid who had a gift for keeping things light.

The school keeps that spirit well-preserved with one of Phillips’ old goalie pads, signed by her with “B.G.E” for “Best Goalie Ever.”

“She was a really fun teammate that lifted the spirit in the room, said Kate Binney, who coached Phillips at both Shady Side Academy and Penguins Elite. “Even when things got serious, and we were in championship weekends and games, she was always light and made everyone else feel comfortable.”

When it came time to lock in between the pipes, Phillips rarely missed.

“She just had a different gear that other kids don’t have,” said Pam Lloyd, another one of Phillips’ Shady Side Academy coaches. “Not just all for the games on the ice, but in the gym, in the classroom. Everything she did, she did at an elite level.”

After three championships at Shady Side, Phillips continued her career at Northeastern University.

She made a quick impact with the Ottawa Charge in the PWHL, helping her team to the finals in 2025, where they eventually lost to the Minnesota Frost.

Phillips was still named Most Valuable Player in the postseason.

Even with an impressive resume, Team USA wasn’t always realistic until recently.

“I think they kind of took a chance on me a little bit and brought me to tryouts in April for Worlds,” Phillips said. “It’s like a week-long process, and I think I managed to surprise a few people.”

Eventually, she received the invitation to the Olympics she all but given up on at one point.

“It was something I dreamed about as a kid, but as I got older and had to be realistic, it kind of dropped,” she said. “It’s really cool to kind of go through that journey of reevaluating my goals, and then getting to come back and push for something that I kind of thought at one point was unattainable.”

Phillips did see action during Team USA’s preliminary round.

She started and played for most of their game against Switzerland, combining with Seven Fields native Ava McNaughton for a 5-0 shutout win.

It was an exciting moment for Pittsburgh.

Though it may not be her hometown, the community that helped shape her will continue to cheer her on.

“To see her and be a part of that journey, and she’s still the same fun-loving person that you knew while she was here in high school, it’s just really special and important,” Binnie said. “I have three kids, and two of them are girls, and they play. These are great role models for them too.”

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