Support Tate's Dream and Journey in Women's Hockey

This is Tate. There are two things Tate loves in this world above everything else - learning and hockey. She’s an incredibly determined, amazingly talented, and completely driven young lady, and it shows. Tate graduated, for instance, at the age of 15 at the top of her class. She’s maintained a 4.0 in her first two years of college, which she’s just wrapping up at the age of 18.

She is just as dedicated to the game of hockey. In late 2020, Tate was just learning to skate and started playing hockey as a goalie in early 2021. By 2022, just a year and a half after learning to skate, she tried out for - and made - a travel tournament hockey team.

She loves the sport - and wants others to love it to. She’s spent weekends volunteering for Learn to Skate and Learn to Play programs for kids and works with younger goalies, helping them increase their skills whenever she can. It’s just the kind of generous spirit that she is. Plus, seeing other little girls' eyes light up when they see Tate in all of her equipment is like no other feeling in the world.

For the past two seasons, Tate has played on boys' travel tournament hockey teams - first on a 16U A in 2022-2023, and this past season on an 18U A team. Why play boys' hockey?

There are few options for girls' hockey where we live in central Texas. And, sadly, in many places, boys' programs just have better training and facilities. Tate wants to be the best she can be, so she pushed herself to play in boys' programs instead of settling for club or house leagues.

But now it’s time to make the next leap in her hockey career. She’s made the jump from boys’ A to girls’ 19U AAA for the 2024-2025 season by being offered a position as the goalie for Team Colorado in the fall. Go Tate! This will give her more opportunities to be seen by scouts and colleges, not to mention build lasting friendships with other female players.

Of course, this comes with challenges. Fees for a higher-level team are more expensive. There are more tournaments, which means more travel. She’ll need to “billet” (basically rent a room from another hockey family) since she’ll be nearly 1000 miles from home. Plus, she’s outgrown her equipment - and anyone who has bought goalie equipment knows that’s an investment all by itself. Even with Tate working full-time and with financial help from her family, it’s going to be tough.

Tate’s dream is to keep playing - first for Team Colorado and then, with hard work and dedication, college. And who knows where she’ll go from there? With more opportunities for women in hockey, thanks to the PWHL and other programs, the sky is the limit.

But those big dreams tomorrow mean smaller steps today. The costs associated with playing at this level add up quickly. That’s why we’re reaching out to our community for support. With your contribution, Tate can focus on playing her sport and achieving dreams that were limited for women just a few years ago.

Every contribution, no matter how small, will bring Tate one step closer to that dream and maybe even help her become a role model for girls coming into the hockey community behind her. We’re so grateful for all of the love and support our community has offered up so far, cheering Tate on and being there for her. Your support now, as always, would mean the world to Tate and her family, and we’d be so grateful.

Thank you for believing in her as much as we do!