Growing up in what she calls a “sports-heavy town” just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, it was inevitable that Meghan Duggan would spend her childhood years on not just a baseball field, but an ice-skating rink, too.
“I was super competitive in baseball growing up, from when I started Tee Ball until I went to high school. I just loved it,” said Ms. Duggan. “I played every season with my friends on various teams. Even though I went on to play hockey at the professional level, I feel like Little League was one of those experiences that helped me so much with my athleticism.”
Her passion for competition and being the best continued after she graduated from the Little League program, turning her full attention to hockey and making a career out of it. Ms. Duggan went on to play on the international stage, representing Team USA for 11 years, which included leading the team as its captain while bringing home medals in three Olympic Games and eight International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships before hanging up her skates in 2020. Off the ice, Ms. Duggan has spent her time working with the Women’s Sports Foundation since 2017. She served as the foundation’s president for two years (2022-2023) and conitnues to work as a committee chair on the Athlete Advisory Panel.
“Being a part of the Foundation is something so near and dear to my heart,” said Ms. Duggan. “I started to get involved in 2017 when our national team was honored with an award at our gala for the Women’s Sports Foundation. Once I got there and was introduced to the people, the mission, and the work that they do, I was pulled right in. It’s a great group to be a part of. It doesn’t feel like work because I’m so passionate about it, and it’s something that is really near and dear to my heart.”
In June, Little League announced it would be enshrining Ms. Duggan into the Little League Hall of Excellence, the highest honor that can be bestowed on its alumni. Prior to her official induction, Little League sat down with Ms. Duggan for a special Girls with Game 50 (#GWG50) Six-Inning Conversation:
First Inning: As a young female athlete, what was the best advice you received?
Work hard and have fun. It sounds so simple, but in this climate of youth sports, it feels like there’s so much pressure on kids, and I think having fun needs to be the number one thing. Everyone wants to enjoy what they are doing. I loved baseball, I loved hockey, I loved soccer. I loved just being with my teammates, being outside, or being in the rink, and just really enjoying what I was doing in each sport. The work ethic component is also so critical for young kids to learn because it’s hard. Baseball is a hard sport. I think about how many times I would swing and miss, or as a young kid, hit the tee and the ball just falls off. It’s a hard sport and we need to encourage kids to work hard and to get up when they fall. Although it’s cliche, things that you learn through sports are so critical and so transferable to what we’re doing now in our adult lives. So, yea, work hard and have fun.
Second Inning: After your baseball career ended, you continued with ice hockey to the professional level. Can you tell me a little bit more about your ice hockey career and what it was like to be at that level as a female athlete in the sport?
My parents put me on skates when I was about three years old, and I loved it right away. From there, it picked up momentum. I had an opportunity when I was 10 or 11 years old to watch women’s ice hockey in the Olympics for the first time. It was 1998, the games were in Nagano, Japan, and that was the first time I ever saw women playing hockey. I had never seen a young girl at the local rink, let alone women playing the sport on television. That was kind of my “aha moment” that really changed my life forever. At that point, I set my sights on professional ice hockey being what I wanted to do. I was a teenager running around, telling everyone in my hometown that professional ice hockey was what I was going to do. I built my life around it. I just kept that mentality I had from a young age, which was to work hard, enjoy it, have fun, and good things will happen.
Third Inning: You now work with the New Jersey Devils organization as the Director of Player Development. What is it like for you to be “behind the scenes”?
Staying close to the game is awesome. I love everything about the sport. Ice hockey is where my passion lies, from when I was a young kid to now. It’s one of those things people always say, stay close to what you love, because then it doesn’t feel like work. A lot of what my job entails right now is being at the rink, working with players, evaluating talent, watching games, and thinking about how players can get better. To have the opportunity to work in the NHL, to be challenged every day, and have lots of room for growth and opportunity, that’s exciting for me. You know, being a woman in this job, you see how there are so few of us right now. There are women in management, development, and scouting, which is awesome and we are growing; but when you look at all the jobs and positions across the league, it’s still a very small amount. I know myself and those other women who currently hold positions in the NHL, we wear that badge proudly. We want to help create pipelines for other women, whether that means letting young women who want to get into the business shadow us, taking calls with women who might have questions, or helping to create a pipeline and a path for other women to get their foot in the door.
Fourth Inning: If you had the opportunity to speak with a young female athlete who is just starting her athletic career, what advice would you give her?
If there was a young female athlete facing challenges or needing to be inspired, I would first address the challenges or barriers that she is facing. There are going to be challenges in sports. I’ve had huge heartbreak, I’ve lost publicly on the world stage, I have been in tears and had gold medals ripped out of out of my hands. There are so many challenges in sports. So, I would encourage young girls to fight through challenges, to see what they are made of, to see what it feels like when they get out on the other side. Being able to push through challenges is an important thing that young athletes, especially young female athletes, learn to push through at a young age and see it as an opportunity to grow and be overjoyed with what is on the other side of that challenge or barrier.
Fifth Inning: Little League is celebrating 50 years of female involvement in the program this year. While we celebrate the past, what do you think is the future for females in sports, whether it is on the field or behind the scenes?
We are at the launch pad right now. The women’s sports era that we are living in right now is exciting and the visibility is critical. You turn on the TV and watch girls like Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles and you can’t help but be inspired by what they have been through and what they continue to do in their sports. It is key for organizations to continue to shed light on women in sports through increased visibility on social media and other platforms so people can see it and talk about it. Plus, it’s an investment and I think this era of women’s sports is all happening because people are finally seeing that it is worth something. We knew it 10, 15, 20 years ago, but now the rest of the world is realizing it.
Sixth Inning: With your Little League Hall of Excellence induction, you join a group of eight other women who have been inducted over the years. What does it mean to you to be receiving this honor?
It’s a huge honor because of how big a role Little League played in my life. I was able to dig up some photos and reminisce about the days at the field because that was just what our lives were centered around back then, and I really did grow up at the ballpark. So, to be celebrated by Little League and to be honored in this way, especially now that I am part of this group of women who have also been inducted, it is really special to me and just a tremendous honor. Little League is all about family, friends, community, teammates, and celebrating the big and little moments and I hope that other people have that same experience with the program. For me to now be associated with Little League in this capacity, it is very special to me, and I look forward to my continued connection to the program.
NOTE: To read more of the Special “Six Inning” Features as part of the Little League Girls with Game 50 Celebration, visit LittleLeague.org/GWG50. The #GWG50 celebration is proudly supported by DICK’S Sporting Goods, a long-time Little League partner that is committing to creating opportunities for girls and women in sports and will be activating for this celebration around key events and milestones this year.