Q&A with Reagan Rust — What to read in women’s hockey

Want women’s hockey content? Subscribe to The Ice Garden!
The IX Sports is collaborating with The Ice Garden to bring you Hockey Friday. And if you want the women’s hockey goodness 24/7? Well, you should subscribe to The Ice Garden now!

I had a great interview with Reagan, but a lot of what we talked about didn’t make it into the episode. I’m excited to share that conversation with you now, as we discussed everything from her content creation style to her mental health advocacy to her signature headbands.

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

LJ Bachenheimer: You’ve done a lot of fun and interesting hockey content, both when you were a player and now, and as a coach. How did you get started doing that? What would you say is your trademark style?

Reagan Rust: I started doing content in 2020 during COVID. Actually, for the longest time, I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not good on TikTok, I’m not going to do it.’ And then I finally caved in July of that year. I’d gone probably five months without social media, and then I decided to pick it up because I wanted to test some stuff out. Then I realized [TikTok] was a really cool tool that I could use to share stories about women’s hockey and resources about getting to the next level. 

That’s kind of what kept me going, and that would also be my trademark. I’m known for helping people, not only with hockey, but also with mental health, spreading resources and giving people a chance to learn something. I consider myself a coach through and through, not just on the ice, but also on the internet.

LJB: You’ve always been a big advocate for mental health. Do you want to talk a little bit more about some of the mental health initiatives you’ve worked on, and why that issue in particular is so important to you? 

RR: I’ve done a lot with different hockey teams that I’ve been a part of, but also, last year, I spoke at the NFL headquarters for AAPI Month and for mental health awareness. That was really cool, because I got to share my story about what I dealt with as an athlete and some of the ways that I overcame it. This year, I’m participating in a gala in New York City on October 15, and that’s to raise money for mental health awareness and prevent suicide. Those are a couple of the ways I do it. A lot comes from sharing on social media as well. Not only about my story, but being able to help people find the resources that they need. Starting is always the hardest part about mental health. 

The reason why I got into it was because I had dealt with so much in my own private life with mental health. I’ve suffered from depression and anxiety for more than half of my life, starting at 14 years old. Even a few years ago, I had my own bout with depression, where I almost ended my own life. So I’m very outspoken about it now, because I realize that whenever you’re going through those things, you feel like you’re the only one going through it. The more people who speak out about it and share their stories, the more that other people will feel comfortable coming forward with what’s actually going on in their own lives. 

LJB: Thank you for sharing. The work you do is very important and influential, and definitely makes a difference.

More on the coaching side, I know you’ve worked with athletes of all ages, but youth athletes in particular can be interesting. Do you have any funny stories about working with kids or things you’ve noticed about the newest crop of aspiring hockey players?

RR: With kids, I’m known for getting on their level. I see them eye to eye and I’ll chirp them back. I always have very good relationships with the girls and even the boys that I work with. But I love to focus on the girls, because their personalities really shine as soon as they hit, like, 12, and you can really see who they are. They just want to learn and get better. I think that’s the best part about them. 

But I was working this one camp for my old billet (host) mom, and she asked me to ref the game. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do that.’ I’m really bad at reffing, and I don’t really care to be yelled at by kids. I ended up doing it, and she told me not to call icings or offsides and just let the game play. I was like, ‘Okay, I can do that, but should I inform the team?’ She said, ‘No, don’t even let them know. You’ll be fine.’ So I did it, and I didn’t call this one icing or something, and this kid was chirping me while I was skating backwards. And then I get to the face off, and she’s taking the face off. She’s like, ‘My grandmother can ref better than you.’ Okay, first of all, I’m not even trying to ref that well right now, and I could call more penalties if I wanted to. Second of all, that was actually pretty good, and it caught me off guard. I think working with kids is the best because of how funny they can be and their personalities overall.

LJB: When I was doing a little bit of research on you, I learned that you were the first Division 1 (D1) women’s hockey player from Mississippi. What was it like growing up in a less conventional hockey environment? What was your journey like to become a D1 and professional player?

RR: My journey was crazy. When people ask me, ‘How did you get into hockey?’ I’m like, honestly, it was pure luck at this point, pure chance that I grew up very close to an ice rink, and very lucky since it was the only rink in my entire state. In Mississippi, there were the Memphis River Kings, and one of my mom’s co-workers had season tickets to the games. We ended up going when I was five years old, and they ended up starting a little kids’ program the following year. So my sister and I played in Mississippi until probably age 13. We traveled out but, primarily, we were getting our ice time in Mississippi. We went from Mississippi to Nashville, then my sister went to St. Louis and I went to Pittsburgh for our AAA programs. We were both always in different states, never at home, and ended up billetting. I went to five different high schools and two different universities, and then played around the world. My journey is so strange whenever I look back on it now, but every single step made sense to me at that time.

LJB: I bet you racked up a lot of miles via car and plane. 

RR: Oh, many, many miles. My mom would drive most of the time, 12 hours to Pittsburgh, 12 hours back. We were definitely road trippers.

LJB: Speaking of traveling, your Instagram is full of doing cool things and going cool places. What was the coolest experience you’ve gotten to do or place you went to recently?

RR: I feel like it’s so hard to pinpoint one. In the last few years, I would say, seeing the Stanley Cup get hoisted at the Vegas Golden Knights stadium. That was so sick. It was such a blowout of a game, and it was so fun to watch. Maybe watching from home was as fun, but the energy in there was unbelievable. 

In the past year, probably working at [the IIHF Men’s Ice Hockey World Championship] again. I did it in 2022 with the IIHF, and they brought me back this year once I finished coaching. It was really fun to be able to experience that. I got to interview Sidney Crosby, I got to interview Marc-Andre Fleury, all the Canadian guys. Team USA was at the other facility, so I didn’t get to talk to them that much, but then the US ended up winning, which was really cool. I got to be in the locker room with the guys when they were spraying their champagne and having a good time celebrating. 

LJB: I always love your funky headbands. Where do you get those and how did that become your signature style?

RR: I don’t even know why I started wearing them. Well, mainly because I have frizzy hair. There’s a lot of humidity down here in Florida, but I’m from Mississippi and there’s a lot of humidity there as well. I probably got my first headband — I still have the one, it’s like my signature headband — in tenth grade at a random mall in Dallas, Texas. I could not even find another one right now if I tried, and I’ve looked so many times to find that headband. People love to get them for me, too, and I found them a lot through traveling. I got one of my favorites in Mykonos, Greece. I got another one in Switzerland. And my mom has given me quite a few. Anytime I go anywhere, I always look to see if there’s a headband, but they rarely ever have them, so it’s a little disappointing. Honestly, I might have to make my own headband line.

“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is available now!

Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible.

Secure Your Copy

What to read

Over at The Ice Garden, we’ve started our yearly countdown of the top 25 women’s hockey players under 25 years old. Here are the honorable mentions who just missed the main list and the first three athletes who made it.

Also from TIG, Giselle Velazquez has a great story on Team Nainimiut, a U15 indigenous hockey team from Newfoundland and Labrador, and their once-in-a-lifetime PWHL experience.

Izzy Cheung from The Hockey News spoke to PWHL Vancouver players about how the Takeover Tour helped introduce them to their new home.

If you’re a movie buff in the Toronto area, maybe catch a screening of Pink Light, the directorial debut from former professional player Harrison Browne, starring Browne and PWHL Seattle’s CJ Jackson. Meredith Foster from TIG spoke to Browne to get the scoop on the film and how it came to be.