Bigger in Texas? Not field hockey
But Emmaus grad Edmonds is changing that with dynamic Houston club
Tina Edmonds had spent some time in Texas in her previous profession in sales, and believe it or not, she did not mind the heat. It was better than dealing with snow, she reasoned. So when she had the chance to purchase and operate her own field hockey club in Houston, she took a chance.
The Texas Pride was a small field hockey club in 2013, but the possibilities seemed endless. Edmonds, who played for a PIAA champion at Emmaus High School and an NCAA champion at the University of Maryland, packed her bags and her master’s degree in sports psychology, and headed to the Southwest with some ideas on how she could turn something very small into something much larger.
People in the Lone Star State love their sports, but in all honesty, not many have ever seen a curved stick with a flat side.
They are starting to learn.
“In January 2013, I was just looking for a job change,” Edmonds said. “I saw that Texas Pride was for sale on a field hockey jobs website. They had 20 kids in the program. I was in a position where I could take a big risk. I decided to move to Houston and take over this tiny club and just see what happens.”
What has happened has been amazing. Under Edmonds’ guidance as owner and director, the Texas Pride has become one of the better field hockey club programs in the country. Its U19 team is ranked No. 1 nationally by USA Field Hockey, ahead of powerful programs such as Pennsylvania’s WC Eagles. The Pride’s other age-level teams are all in the top 10.
The national team goalkeeper, Kelsey Bing, is a Pride alumna. Goalkeeping is kind of the Pride’s thing, as Pride keepers are on most of the national teams. The Pride’s influence is present in local high schools; St. John’s and Kincaid have both achieved national top-10 rankings.
The Pride has a new indoor facility and works with more than 700 players each year. Acquiring the building, which took some maneuvering on Edmonds’ part, was essential to the program’s continued growth.
The seeds of the sport are starting to take hold. Although the sport is generally limited to city prep schools, more teams are popping up and new water-based artificial turf fields are becoming more common. The Pride still has longdrives–2-3hourminimum–toplayoneof five Texas clubs, but it’ s better than it used to be.
“People know that there’s field hockey in Texas,” Edmonds said. “When I first came down here, people would look at us and be like, ‘I didn’t even know that there was field hockey in Texas.’ It was like the Jamaican bobsled team. People genuinely had no idea that it even existed. They now know that there’s hockey in Texas.
“It’s a ton of work but it’s an interesting way of taking an entrepreneurial desire and mixing it with the passion of field hockey. [Texas] is night and day from what it used to be.”
Edmonds’s life is night and day, too. She gave birth to her second child, Skylar, in July before returning to work at the Pride facility at the end of the month. She and her husband, Adam Outland, whom she met at Maryland, also have an 18-month-old son, Aiden.
Edmonds said that she initially modeled the Pride after what she knew as a young player in the Emmaus-area youth programs and Sue Butz-Stavin’s travel club, the Firestyx.
“What [Texas Pride] has become today is just an evolution of that,” Edmonds said. “While [Sue Butz-Stavin] is known as a tough coach, she does an incredible job of teaching people how to succeed. That’s a rare attribute that she has. She’s helped so many people succeed not only in field hockey but also in life. … You find a way to always show up on time for practice. And you don’t ever miss a game. From the time I started playing with her in sixth and seventh grade, she did an incredible job of teaching me and other players how to succeed.
“She’s hard to play for but that toughness is so rare in this society. It makes it great when you do succeed.”
The Pride has six players listed in Max Field Hockey’s Top 100 players of the Class of 2026. This year’ s seniors have made commitments to schools like Vassar, Northwestern, Yale, Penn State, Haverford, Wellesley, Brown, Stanford, Princeton, and Edmonds’ alma mater, Maryland.
Notice that none is able to stay home and build a local college program yet.
“It makes me feel really proud of them to think that we’ve all grown together,” Edmonds said. “Our families in Texas are so committed. It is so effortful to play field hockey in Texas because we have to travel so far for everything. That result is an indication of their dedication and commitment.”
While Texas may not have the field hockey history that a hotbed like Pennsylvania, the potential for change is there.
“There’s a ton of growth potential. The great thing about the growth is that it’s been growing a lot in our younger program. That’s where we’re seeing the most growth. It’s great now, but 10 years from now, the sport is going to be much bigger in Texas.”