Wisdom, perspective and inspiration are just three words that come to mind after meeting 13 year old Cate Evans.
“I like to live by a Jackie Robinson quote, ‘life is not a spectator sport.’ I like to live by that and show that you can’t just sit on the sidelines, if you have a goal you have to pursue it,” sled hockey player Cate Evans said.
Her road to this point began long ago, in a place that isn’t known to be a ton of fun. Some doctors said she’d never walk again, Cate had other plans.
“I was always encouraging her, ‘what are we going to do outside of therapy?’ Because therapy is not an extra curricular, it shouldn’t be considered that and so I started talking about hockey and she loved it,” physical therapist Stephanie Herrle said.
“I really like being out on the ice because out on the ice, there is no disability, it’s all ability so it’s really cool to be able to feel like that,” Evans added.
“She is the type of young lady that’s going to inspire other kids, she will run with it, no matter what she does she’s going to be an inspiration,” said Herrle.
Cate’s work ethic got her noticed by the National Women’s sled hockey coach, who invited her to participate in the tryout this year, even though she’ll have to wait a year before she’s eligible to make the team. However this is a preview of the dream she’ll no doubt continue to work towards.
“That would be awesome, just so cool to be on the team because it’s the highest you can go as a female sled hockey player so it would just be awesome,” Evans added.
