NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Katie Cummings started going to Predators games in preschool. She quickly fell in love with the game of hockey.
“I was the first in my family to start playing,” Cummings said. “I just told my parents I wanted to try it out and they booked skating lessons for me. The rest is history.”
Now she’s a key player on the Jr. Predators U19 girls team, preparing to compete for a national championship.
But, an all-girls hockey team in the south is still uncommon.
“People are shocked,” Cummings laughed. “A lot of people don’t even know there is girls hockey. They think that every team is coed. So, it’s really exciting to be able to let them know that we have an all girls team here in Nashville and we’re really good!”
Their success comes from their all-female coaching staff. The Jr. Preds are one of the only hockey programs with all women leadership.
“Since a young age, it’s been really inspiring to see female leaders like our coaches,” said Cummings. “They’re great examples of what it looks like to be strong, powerful and they’ve helped us so much along the way, inspiring us not only on the ice, but off the ice.”
The Jr. Preds are looking to bring home their first USA hockey national title and head coach Kahlie Singletary believes this group can win it all.
“We’ve had seasons where we can’t win a game and then two years ago, we were runner ups at Nationals,” Singletary said. “So we’ve been all over, we’ve experience that. A lot of these girls came through the program when we were in that dip, in that building phase and they stuck around, which was remarkable for their character not to go over to the grass they thought was greener, but to stay here and develop as a core. And, that’s why we have the success that we’ve had.”
And they have definitely been successful. For the first time in program history the U14, U16, and U19, won the Southeastern District Championship, punching their ticket to Nationals in Anaheim California on March 30th.
The U19 team will face the Idaho Vipers in round one.
