“Warrioress” Finds “Sisterhood” In Ice Hockey

By: Allison Stevens

For many Veterans, ice hockey offers a return to the kind of “brotherhood” that supported them while serving in the military.

Increasingly, the stick sport is an opening to a “sisterhood” as well.

That’s thanks to “warrioresses” like Tiana Schneider, a Veteran of the U.S. Army who aims to “grow the game” among girls and women, including her fellow female members of the military community.

As president of the Chattahoochee Valley Warriors, Schneider is leading her all-Veteran team to play in Navy Federal’s fifth annual Veterans Showcase this weekend—a one-of-a-kind military hockey tournament that honors Veterans across the country. The credit union is pleased to host it alongside the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series™ in Columbus, Ohio, as the official military appreciation partner of the National Hockey League.

The only female player at this year’s 60-person Veteran tournament, Schneider is grateful to Navy Federal, her longtime credit union, for supporting it—and hopes her presence will spotlight the value that the sport has for women.

“Women’s hockey is taking off,” she beamed from her home in eastern Alabama. And for that, she’s beyond grateful.

Hooked on Hockey

In 2017, while serving as a professional saxophonist and vocalist in Army bands, Schneider developed post-partum depression after delivering her son via an emergency c-section. She struggled to maintain her weight in the months afterward and eventually no longer met military standards. After nearly 16 years of service, she was honorably discharged and transitioned into civilian life.

Schneider mourned the loss of her professional identity as a musician—but found a new one as an athlete. Her love of music had sustained her through the first chapter of her life, she says; now, her love of sport does—and it goes deep.

A native of Maine, Schneider attended minor league games with her dad as a young girl. With season tickets to the Portland Pirates, she grew up cheering on the team from the stands and watched it win its first Calder Cup in 1994. A few years later, she played on her high school’s new all-girls team, joining a rarefied group of the nation’s first female high school hockey players.

She’s been “hooked” on hockey ever since, she says.

After leaving the military, Schneider settled near Columbus, Georgia—not exactly a hotbed for the cold-weather sport. But she connected with a member of the local all-Veteran hockey team, the Chattahoochee Valley Warriors, at a meeting for Harley-Davidson motorcycle owners—and has played with the team ever since. “Hockey 100 percent helped me get through my recovery,” she confides.

“A Natural, Authentic Fit”

Now nearly a decade later, she and Captain Zach Small are thrilled to lead their team to Navy Federal’s invitational tournament.

As part of the all-expenses-paid weekend, four all-Veteran teams are attending a welcome reception and dinner on Feb. 27, followed by the Veterans Showcase tournament on Feb. 28 and a VIP experience. On March 1, they’ll attend the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series™ game at Ohio Stadium.

The select group of participating teams—chosen from some 200 applicants—includes Marines Ice Hockey, whose members hail from around the country and even overseas. The full team only gets together during tournaments, but bonds are strong throughout the year, says Captain Tyler Bluder. “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”

Meanwhile, a pair of identical twins—Matt and Johan Suyderhoud—are taking their Virginia Beach-based team to Ohio. The retired naval aviators (now commercial pilots) played for the St. Louis University men’s hockey team before enlisting in the military and now play for the Kids Hockey Club, which boasts a strong family feel—not least because it’s led by brothers.

The Guardians Hockey Club of San Diego also touts family-like bonds. When two members lost their wives last year, teammates rallied around them, delivering dinner, running errands and checking in regularly by phone.

The deep bonds forged by hockey are what makes Navy Federal’s partnership with the NHL “a natural, authentic fit,” says Captain Keith Hoskins (U.S. Navy, Ret.), Navy Federal’s Executive Vice President of Branch Operations.

“We’re like-minded organizations both in terms of our shared passion for the sport and our shared values of service, integrity and community,” Hoskins says. “We’ve also seen firsthand how our Veterans love the sport of hockey, and that’s how the Veterans Showcase came to be.”

A Goal Worth Shooting For

That applies to all team members, regardless of background—or whether they inspire feelings of “sisterhood” or “brotherhood.”

For her part, Schneider will continue to elevate the sport among girls and women when she returns home. Apart from tending goal and playing defense, she helps coach Auburn University’s women’s ice hockey team and, like her teammates, is an active supporter of youth hockey leagues for girls in the area.

Gender parity in the sport is a long-term goal. More than 90 percent of the nation’s hockey players are male, and there are considerably more men’s college hockey teams than women’s. What’s more, rink facilities and equipment stores in Schneider’s Chattahoochee River Valley are few and far between.

Still, women’s hockey is definitely on the rise, Small says, even in the Deep South. That, he says, is thanks in no small part to “unicorns” like Schneider—and support from organizations like Navy Federal. Inspiring more women and girls to lace up a pair of skates, grab a stick and a puck and take to the ice is a goal, he says, that’s certainly worth shooting for.

Learn more about Navy Federal Credit Union’s NHL Stadium Series™ Veterans Showcase.