Jullee Joshua Applies Her Sons’ Advice at USA Hockey-Long Drink Women’s Adult Nationals
Jullee Joshua may not fully grasp her abilities as a hockey player, but she is certain of one thing: she will always prevail in faceoffs.
“I win every single faceoff,” stated the 54-year-old Joshua. “No one can beat me in the faceoff. Additionally, we have faceoff clinics in the dining room where the boys teach me how to execute it. I have two professional athletes guiding me on how to take a faceoff. And, not to be unkind, but I’m competing against 50-year-olds. I’m going to win.”
The faceoff instructors for the high school librarian from Dearborn, Michigan, are Dakota Joshua of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs and Jagger Joshua of the AHL’s Rochester Americans, which is affiliated with the Buffalo Sabres.
The small pieces of advice they offer her — “Row the boat, mom. Row the boat and pull that puck back,” Dakota encourages — are their way of expressing gratitude for everything she has done to help them pursue their hockey aspirations.
Jullee Joshua demonstrated her faceoff skills this past weekend at the 2026 USA Hockey-Long Drink Adult Women’s National Championships in Wesley Chapel, Florida. Her team, the Lady Blue Hairs, lost to the Polar Bears 3-0 in the Tier 2 50+ championship match. Joshua, who has previously won two national championships, had played for the Polar Bears in earlier years.
As a single mother, Joshua did everything possible to ensure her three sons — Bishop is her youngest, and he continues to play adult hockey alongside her — made it to their various practices and games while sometimes juggling two or three jobs. Despite her hectic schedule, she still found time to continue playing hockey herself.
Joshua frequently depended on family and other parents to transport the boys to their events, while she would be there to pick them up afterward.
“It was challenging,” Joshua remarked. “You just do what you have to do.”
At times, that required some inventive solutions.
For one of her late-night adult games, Joshua found herself without anyone to supervise her three young boys. So, she took a hockey lace and threaded it through the belt loops of their pants to ensure they stayed together and wouldn’t cause too much trouble.
“Because I figured no one’s going to take all three of them, and I didn’t want one leaving the others, so I tied them all together with it,” Joshua explained. “The statute of limitations, I don’t think I can be arrested now. I just tied them all together and made them sit in the stands.”
That wasn’t her only challenge. When Dakota was preparing for a Tier I tryout, Jullee was there lacing up his skates. While many of the other fathers were familiar with each other, she had no connections in the locker room aside from her oldest son.
“The guy literally referred to me as ‘little lady,’” Joshua recounted. “And he said, ‘Move over, little lady. I’ll get that for you.’ And I’m just laughing at him. You really think I can’t tie his skates because I have nails?”
Dakota, who was 10 years old at the time, stepped into the conversation.
“No, it’s OK. My mom will do it,” he said.
The love and gratitude from her three sons for their mother remain strong. When Dakota received the call from the St. Louis Blues for his NHL debut, his first call was to his mom, who was getting ready for her own game that evening.
Dakota’s first NHL game took place on March 1, 2021, on the road against the Anaheim Ducks. It was nearly a year since the COVID-19 pandemic had begun, and fans were still unable to attend games. It was bittersweet for Jullee not to witness her son’s NHL debut in person. Dakota scored a goal in that match, which ended in a 5-4 victory.
However, he made sure to send a message to his mom. After the game, he posed for a photo with the puck, which had a piece of tape with a note: “Hi Mom!!”
“That was his little shout-out to me, and it means everything,” Joshua said, her voice beginning to tremble with emotion. “That’s my heart. He’s my rock anyway. But I’m just saying that he couldn’t have thanked me more. He couldn’t have expressed his appreciation for the sacrifices more than by doing that.”
All of this began because Joshua’s parents didn’t want her to be the only girl playing with and against boys during her childhood. Instead, they encouraged her to try figure skating.
Most days, she found herself at one end of the rink with other figure skaters while a hockey team practiced at the opposite end, which often distracted her. Having grown up in a family of hockey-playing boys, she longed to have a stick in her hands and a helmet on her head.
Eventually, at the urging of the figure skating coach, her parents relented. She went on to play travel hockey in high school and received a partial scholarship to Northeastern, back where she initially grew up before the family relocated to Dearborn. The financial commitment of a partial scholarship proved too much, leading her to transfer to Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, which offered club hockey.
Joshua recognizes her good fortune in having not just one, but two sons playing professionally. She also appreciates the opportunity to continue participating in a sport she loves and intends to keep playing as long as her equipment lasts.
“My elbow pads are older than half the girls I play against [back home],” Joshua noted. “[Playing hockey is] better than step aerobics. I’ll play until I can’t anymore.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
