#88SSY Check-Ins: Jordyn Huitema, OL Reign
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - The Seattle Sports Star of the Year Awards, hosted by the Seattle Sports Commission, are the place to be for all things Seattle sports and their accomplishments on and off the field of play. Whether that be professionally or collegiately, the awards show features the biggest athletes, media, and sports personality to grace the Pacific Northwest from the past, the present, and the future. Converge Media and Circling Seattle Sports were on site at the Westin Downtown Seattle to get the sights and sounds of the night, including six sit-downs with athletes from differing teams, and a separate sit down with a mascot. The sixth interview of the night was with OL Reign forward, Jordyn Huitema.
Jordyn Huitema and Charles Hamaker pose for a photo (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Huitema is another newcomer to this event, having joined the Reign around the midway point of the 2022 season after leaving from club Paris Saint-Germain. The 21-year-old forward, hailing from Canada and frequently featuring on their national team, is just one of many exciting and talented players on the OL Reign roster. Huitema scored her first national team goal at the age of 16, became the top Canadian scorer in the UEFA Women’s Champions League before she turned 20. Coming into the club late into the season, she did her best to get integrated with the current group and add on to a unit that ultimately went on to win the NWSL Shield, awarded to the team that sits atop the league’s table at the end of the regular season. Huitema wasn’t able to fully click and connect on the chances that she was having on net, but with a full offseason with the club now under her belt, she should be a large part of the Reign’s success in 2023.
“It’s been really cool. I haven’t been to an event like this in a long time, especially not in Seattle. So it’s been really nice to kind of just talk to people get in people’s heads a little bit, get to know what people think. And it’s been really nice to kind of just interact with everybody. It’s an amazing environment with so many high class people and high class citizens. So it’s definitely been an honor being here so far.”
“I think the people of Seattle get behind their teams, I think like their big sports people. They’re out there to support, they’re out there to cheer to make us win. Like, we really feel the energy and for me, I haven’t played in a crowd. Like, obviously, coming from Paris, we have the ultras who are very like, loud the whole time and cheering and doing chants. But as far as everybody else who sits in the stands, it’s quite quiet, but I feel like here everybody in the stand is really getting into it cheering loud, wanting to be involved in the game, and it really does. We really feel it as the 12th player and the 12th man and I think like going to multiple different sporting events in Seattle. The energy is always there. It’s always amazing.”
Jordyn Huitema in OL Reign’s preseason match against the Portland Thorns, 2023 (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Special thanks to The Elite Collective for their outstanding video production on behalf of Converge Media.