USA Hockey Magazine

the last five years, Takatsuka has grown the program and the number of interested goalies exponentially, and she's showing no signs of slowing down. Growing up in Seattle, Takatsuka start- ed playing hockey as a kid after her neigh- bor showed her a Try Hockey for Free flyer. Hockey wasn't a very prominent sport in the Pacific Northwest at the time, but Takatsuka was hooked. She played through high school, switching to goaltending when her team needed it. What she didn't realize at the time was how much she needed goaltending, too. When Takatsuka returned to Seattle from college, a former coach asked if she had ever considered becoming a hockey coach. She was extremely against it—at first—but came to realize she'd rather dedicate her time to the next generation of goalies than sit at a desk. "Every time I got on the ice was really dif- ferent," Takatsuka said about when she first started coaching. "So I enjoyed that process of, 'Oh, hey, let's try to figure out how to be more efficient or more effective, or learn more things, or try new things.' On top of that, just being on the ice, moving and playing the sport and getting better at it like myself, while I'm making the kids better, is pretty cool." In 2021, a few years after Takatsuka started coaching, the Seattle Kraken played their first-ever NHL game, and in that same year, the Kraken Community Iceplex was built. While the Iceplex is home to the Kraken and the PWHL Seattle Torrent practice facilities, it is also home to many camps, youth hockey teams, and Learn To Skate classes. When the facility was created, they needed a goalie specialist for these programs—and Takatsuka was an easy hire. As a goalie development coach, Takatsuka doesn't work solely with full-time goalies—she works with kids of all ages, levels, and posi- tions to drive interest in goaltending. During Learn To Play programs, the coaches build the foundation for being on the ice before kids ever play a game. Once they have the fundamentals covered, Takatsuka introduces the goaltending position. By slowly exposing kids to each element of a hockey game, they get excited about the next stage and aren't forced into positions early on. And Takatsuka has PHOTOS COURTESY Julia Takatsuka 22 // THE GOALIE ISSUE // JUNE 2026 "WHEN THEY FIND THE THING THAT THEY LOVE, AND IT'S ALSO THE THING THAT I LOVE, IT'S COOL TO BE ABLE TO SHARE THAT WITH THEM." TEAMS 6 TEAMS 40 PROGRAM GROWTH SINCE THE ICEPLEX OPENED IN 2021. from to

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