Double Duty
WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. – Kenzie Kattich’s doctors let out a big laugh when she asked them if she could still compete at the 2025 USA Hockey-Long Drink Adult Women’s National Championships after she had just given birth to her son, Bryson, 11 weeks ago.
“I was hoping if I had just a regular delivery that I’d be good to go to play, but then I ended up getting a c-section and I cried because I was like, ‘Can I play in Florida still?’” Kattich recalled.
“They were like, ‘Ma'am, that should not be on your mind right now, and I'm like, ‘But it is. Can I play?’
“All the doctors were laughing at me.”
Fast forward to this week at AdventHealth Center Ice, and little Bryson is one of his mom’s biggest fans whenever she hits the ice with the Carolina Lady Hurricanes C (21+ Tier 3 Division) team.
Hockey has been one of Kenzie’s largest stress reliefs ever since her parents introduced her to skates by the time she was walking in Massachusetts. Her love for the sport – and the ability to use it as an outlet – only increased throughout her life, especially in the last one-and-a-half years as she has transitioned back to civilian life following six years of military service with the Air Force.
Kenzie was thrilled to still be able to play this week at nationals and be around her teammates and fellow mothers after working her way back to the ice full time only eight weeks postpartum in March.
“Hockey's my escape,” Kattich said. “You touch the ice and everything just kind of flows away. All your problems. It's a good way to push all my new mom stress, post military stress. It's a good mental break, and it's also a really good physical workout too.”
Kattich worked in various roles while in the Air Force, ranging from time in Libya, the withdrawal of Afghanistan and nuclear security in the United States. When she left the service in July 2023, Kattich turned to hockey as an outlet, and she currently plays with four different teams – including the Ohio s Hockey program.
The 26-year-old was eventually introduced the Lady Hurricanes through Renee Buck, who had moved to Ohio and was working with Kattich.
Kattich said being able to play with fellow military vets, as well as non-veterans, is a great experience, and she would encourage other eligible players to consider playing both Warrior and adult hockey.
“While you're in the military, you build that camaraderie, that brotherhood, with everybody. Regardless of gender, race, sex, anything, you're all just put in the uniform. You're all a family, you live, breathe for each other. You die for each other – if it comes to that. When you leave the military, you kind of lose that brotherhood, that camaraderie, and you're back in the world. For me, it was a world I hadn’t known since I was 18, so I'm like buying a house and doing college, and I'm like, ‘Wait, I don't know this. Where are the guns?’
“Now having a team behind me, both playing on this woman's team as a new mom and then on the warriors, getting the fellow combat veterans that I play with that kind of have the same things going on that I do mentally and medically is great. I kind of get the best of both worlds with the support systems.”
Kattich has also been offering her assistance and encouragement to Lady Hurricanes teammate Meredith Saad and her pursuit of becoming a firefighter.
Saad said it was a natural friendship between the two players as their commitment to service to others resonated with each other.
“I like helping people,” Saad said. “I'm the type of person who doesn't run away. I go towards something that is in need help. I've always had that. I'm a people person.”
Saad has actually wanted to be a firefighter since she was 5 years old when her mother took her to a fire station in Pennsylvania.
“I put that helmet on, and I was like, ‘This is something I want to do,’” the now 23-year-old said.
Saad, who first started playing hockey at 11 years old, recently attended the PWHL Takeover Tour in Raleigh and was amazed at the turnout in support of women’s hockey. Even seeing young girls this week getting the opportunity to watch adult nationals was impactful to her.
There's been a few kids running around here and they keep looking at the boards. I've waved to one girl when I was over here this week. She lit up when she saw hockey and females playing at this site at a competitive level, and how happy we look out on the ice we're all talking to each other.
Saad has found a supporting community on and off the ice since joining the Lady Hurricanes five years ago.
“It was such a life-changer and has been so much fun,” Saad said. “We were at some tourney back in Raleigh, North Carolina, and one of the girls is like, ‘Why don't you come join our team?’
“I joined and the girls are so much fun, the traveling, and just being part of a team is just everything that I wanted.”
Source: usahockey.com