Color of Hockey: Takatsuka developing future goalies in Kraken youth program

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Julia Takatsuka, goaltending development coordinator for the Seattle Kraken Youth Hockey Association.

Julia Takatsuka employs a two-prong approach when it comes to teaching young new goalies and their sometimes-skittish parents about the position.

“The reason being is, a lot of times parents are like, ‘Oh no, I don't know about goalie, that sounds scary, you're going to be standing in front of pucks, are you sure?’” Takatsuka said. “Even if they don't say anything, their face says it, or their body language says it.”

It's a holistic method Takatsuka uses as goaltending development coordinator with the Seattle Kraken Youth Hockey Association at the Kraken Community Iceplex, the NHL team’s practice facility. She joined the organization during the Kraken’s inaugural 2020-21 season and has helped its youth hockey program grow from six teams to 45 and the number of goalies from six to more than 60.

“We first see if the kid likes it," she said, "and then after that, once they are like, ‘Yes, I want to keep doing this,’ we bring the parents in and we start educating them right away … let’s try to break down some of these barriers and some of these myths on like, cost and is it safe and are they still going to be a good hockey player?”

The 29-year-old Seattle native was also a goaltending development coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Amateur Hockey Association, a USA Hockey affiliate that serves the state of Washington, and was a goalie coach for USA Hockey’s Under-15 and Under 16/17 national camps from 2021-23. She holds gold goaltending and Level 4 coaching certifications from the nation’s hockey governing body.

“She transformed the goalie pathway,” Kraken Youth Hockey Association director Martin Hlinka said. “We teach the goalies the basics but at the same time you get to understand the player side as well. She’s so dedicated, it’s awesome … Our goalie position got better in five years. It’s been tremendous how many goalies we’ve developed and how many players want to try it.”

Teaching goalies has been a labor of love for Takatsuka, who began hockey as a skater at 9, but was soon drawn to goaltending by the equipment and the feeling of invincibility wearing it. She played in high school and while she was a graphic design student at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, and played in an annual Asian hockey tournament in Toronto in 2015.

She began her coaching career in 2018 at the Sno-King Amateur Hockey Association and the Washington Wild Female Hockey Association. Takatsuka plays in local adult leagues and in tournaments like the Seattle Pride Classic, but teaching the position and producing an army of goalies in the Pacific Northwest became her mission.

“Well, you can't have a team without a goalie,” she said. “But also, if we have a larger pool of goalies, more goalies that love the sport, then more people are going to be informed about goalie as a position.”

It all starts with getting kids in pads early, Takatsuka said. The Kraken youth program accomplishes this by using “quick change” equipment that allows them to put on goalie gear over their gear in less than a minute.

“The quick change gear is probably one of the biggest things, it’s so easy,” she said. “The kids play (goal) for seven minutes, and then they can take it off. They can try it in a practice or a scrimmage. They can score goals, they can get an assist, they can get a shutout and then do the relay race all in the same practice.

"I think that it’s invaluable to get them started and to give them that first opportunity and continue to use that and build up their love (of goaltending) over time versus being, like, ‘Now or never,’ especially if you’re nervous to ty it.”

Takatsuka learned early about the agita associated with the goalie position. Like many parents, her mother wasn’t enthralled with the idea of her daughter facing frozen vulcanized rubber when she asked to become a goalie.

“She was always really worried about me getting hurt and, ‘Oh no, goalie is expensive and it's scary,’” she said. “Now she says she's more like, ‘Man, we should have known back then, even after you started, that this was going to be like, what you were going to do with your life.’ I was always all about hockey and loved it so much.”

Takatsuka says she’s just getting started. Her aim is to bolster on-ice goalie training and coaching training and provide even more information on goaltending to parents.

“Build those pillars up,” she said. “The other part is how do we get more goalies? We always want more goalies.”