Take a journey with me back in time, to December 2025. An email arrives in my inbox from Jason Cohen, a former senior editor at
Texas Monthly and a contributor to many other quality publications, including ours. He wants to write about someone I hadn’t heard of: Hannah Bilka, a 24-year-old Coppell native who was likely (but not guaranteed) to make the U.S. Women’s Olympic hockey team. Bilka, he told my colleagues and me, could be the first homegrown hockey superstar to come out of North Texas.
Some cursory research made it obvious that Jason was not blowing smoke, so we assigned the story for our February issue and
put it online last Thursday, just in time for the start of the games. On Monday, Bilka made us look real smart by knocking in a one-timer in the Americans’ third game, against Switzerland. The next day, she made us look brilliant by scoring two more goals against Canada, including this beauty. Now she’s getting
featured on NBC promos and
getting interviewed in the rain on international television.
The point is not that we are sports super geniuses, although it is
a point. No, the point is sometimes in our line of work, you’re fortunate to be right on time when something big is about to happen. And Bilka feels like something big, especially for girls in North Texas who until recently hadn’t had something—someone—to aspire to at the sport’s highest level.
Jason’s piece has a lot more about that. I suspect Hannah Bilka has a lot more United States goals in her future, too.
