Ashley Hatch
Photography by Diana Hernandez.
Like life, soccer can bring out the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Given the intense emotions in the game, it’s no secret that teams on all levels, from recreation to national teams, begin to feel like families. Particularly for professional players, it can be especially alienating traveling the world in chase of tactical improvement, trophy lifts, and personal development. In both the highs and lows, leaning on family is a necessary skill.
Enter Ashley Hatch. Born in Southern California and raised in Arizona, Ashley is no stranger to relying on her family to get her through uncertainty. Leaning on her family was actually how she was introduced to and began to develop a love for soccer. “Soccer was huge for our family — and still is,” she told us. “Soccer basically became a bonding activity for me, my dad, and my sister. Whenever we had free time, we were always at the park, dribbling through cones and passing the ball around. It just became our family activity.”
Like most kids, Ashley played various sports when she was younger, but soccer did not start off as her favorite. “I was fast. That was pretty much the only thing I had going for me”, she explained as she recounted her early experiences with soccer. “When I started playing, I remember thinking, ‘I hate soccer. It's so restrictive, you can only use your feet’. When I told my parents, they said, ‘We signed you up for a whole season, so you have to finish it.’ So I stuck with it.”
Now, at 26 years old, Ashley Hatch is one of the brightest young talents in the United States. After a stellar college career at BYU that prompted the North Carolina Courage to select her second overall in the 2017 NWSL Draft, Hatch won Rookie of the Year, scoring seven goals and helping lead the Courage to the NWSL Shield. In January 2018, the Courage traded her to the Washington Spirit, and since then, she has become one of the league's most significant scoring threats. She won the 2021 Golden Boot, scoring 11 goals, and was one of the biggest reasons why the Spirit were able to win their first-ever NWSL Championship -- further cementing her place as one of the league's biggest offensive threats. Her offensive consistency has earned her regular call-ups with the United States Women’s National Team as of late, where she has scored three goals in 6 caps.
As Ashley scores goals left and right for both club and country, scoring her first-ever goal is a feeling that she’s never forgotten. “All I wanted was to score a goal in my first youth season,” she explained. “In the very last game of the season, I finally scored my first goal … and it felt like the best day of my life.” While Ashley basked in her excitement, her father, Barry, was quick to ground her in the reality of her talent. “I remember driving home from the game, and I was like, ‘Dad, can you believe it? I scored a goal!’, but his response back to me caught me off guard. He said, ‘Yeah, of course I can believe it. I knew you were going to score. You're going to score so many more, too.’”
Through a strong work ethic and motivation from her parents, Ashley was able to develop into a strong soccer player. However, one person played the role of her biggest cheerleader, teammate, best friend, and confidante: her sister, Brianna. “My parents had four kids, so it was difficult to get everyone where they needed to be,” Ashley explained. “As my sister and I started getting older, my parents told Bri that if she wanted to play soccer, she was going to have to play two years up with me. She did, so we essentially grew up playing on pretty much every team together, all the way up until I left for college.”
By capitalizing on their existent chemistry, Ashley and her sister Bri became a force on the field. Despite being younger than the rest of the team, Ashley’s sister quickly rose to be one of their club’s best players, along with Ashley, and they frequently connected for goals.“It was just really cool to always have my best friend and sister with me on the same team,” she told us. “It was just so much fun. We'd always look after each other on the field and hope to score goals together.”
As strong as the connection was on the field, Ashley and her sister were even closer off the field. Ashley has valued time spent with her family, but no day was quite as special as Sundays in the Hatch household. “Before we even started playing sports, Sundays were always a really special and holy day for our family,” she recounted through a smile. “We always went to church in the mornings, and then we would fill the rest of the day with quality family time together.” The time spent with family, coupled with the religious significance, led to Sundays being the most important part of Ashley’s week - arguably more important than soccer. As Ashley and her sister got older, they decided that they would not play soccer on Sundays, and they would always keep the day reserved for family time.
“Growing up, we would tell teams, ‘We’d love to be on your team, but the only thing is we don't play soccer on Sundays,’” she told us. This arrangement was reasonable, and many teams understood and respected their wishes. However, as Ashley and Bri’s overall talent began to flourish, and the games and tournaments got more competitive, more coaches began to take issue. “I remember one time, when I was probably nine or 10, we had a pretty big championship game scheduled for a Sunday. My coach had called me the night before and asked, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to play on Sunday, just this once?’”, she said. “I remember having conversations with my parents, and they were very good about letting it be my decision. They would always remind me that if I did want to play on Sundays, it was my choice and that they would understand. But, I knew if I did it once, I would be expected to do it again, so I always chose against it. Oftentimes, it was very hard for my sister and me.”
At too young an age, Ashley was seemingly forced to make the choice between her personal desires and her professional development. This was Ashley’s choice, made without the direction of her parents. But where her parents did come in, though, was in their reminders that she would need to overcompensate in her on-field performance to make up for days she was missing. “My parents did a really good job of instilling the idea that missing soccer on Sundays could never be an excuse,” she said. “Rather, they helped me turn it into motivation. They would tell me, ‘Because you're not playing on Sundays, you need to be that much better. You need to be so good so that teams will still want you, even though you can't play on Sundays.’”
So she started to approach every league and team bullish and unapologetic in her convictions. This work ethic earned her a scholarship to Brigham Young University Cougars, where she scored 47 goals across 75 caps. Despite a grueling injury during her junior year, Ashley was still able to establish herself as a force on the field and began to look toward professional soccer.
Unfortunately, there were many questions surrounding the reality of professional women’s soccer and its sustainability in the United States. The NWSL was not as well established then as it is now, and Ashley was prepared to send her life in a completely different direction post-undergrad. “I was looking into getting my masters and continuing school. I was looking into social work, or something like marriage and family counseling, or possibly being some kind of school counselor… I mean, I still think that my career will probably go in that direction after soccer!” she hinted.
“There were still a lot of question marks and uncertainties around the world of professional women’s soccer when I was in college. But what was certain, though, was that in order for professional soccer to be a possibility for me, I had to play consistently well in college.”
Ashley entered her name into the 2017 NWSL Draft but never hired an agent, instead choosing to go with a different, more personal plan. “My dad acted as my agent,” she said. “I remember refreshing Twitter every hour, looking to see what the various users and mock drafts were projecting. I know my dad had called almost every NWSL coach and just let them know that ‘Hey, my daughter's entering the draft.’”
Typically, being one of the ten best draft-eligible players will gain you some notice on where and when you may get drafted. Yet even with all of what Ashley had done up to that point in her career, she had no idea how the draft would go. The most knowledge that she was receiving were through those Twitter mock drafts.
Yet when draft day arrived, she knew something was up. “When I got to the draft, they let everyone sit wherever they wanted, but they made sure to strategically place Rose Lavelle and me in the front row,” she said. “That’s when I knew something was up and that they knew something I didn’t. And then, sure enough, Rose went first, and I went second.”
That triumphant moment was only the start of Ashley’s scintillating and ever-evolving professional career. In her rookie season with the North Carolina Courage, Ashley was immediately thrown onto a championship-caliber team and was playing with some of the best soccer players in the world, like Debinha, Lynn Williams, and Sam Mewis.
Playing on a team full of star players certainly had its disadvantages, though. Ashley would often start games on the bench, something she was not used to, and she had very few tangible opportunities to prove herself. Eventually, due to injuries that plagued the team that season, Ashley was able to earn several starts. Even still, some of her coaches were sure to remind her that this was not going to be a regular arrangement. “Before my first start, I remember one of the coaches giving me a backhanded compliment when he said, ‘We have to start you today, you're our only option because of injuries, so let's see how you do.’”
“All I could think was, ‘Screw you, I’m good enough for this.’ Not only did we win the game, but I scored my first professional goal as well.” From that moment, it was clear that Ashley was going to be a force within the league.
At the end of the season, Ashley won the 2017 Rookie of the Year award after scoring seven goals across 22 matches. Everything was looking up for the relationship between the Courage; they had just won the NWSL Shield in 2017, and they had a budding star in their organization that would likely help them win more trophies for years to come. Ashley had no reason to think she was not going to be a member of the Courage going forward. “I felt I had left North Carolina on such a high note,” she said. “I had won Rookie Of The Year in 2017, and the Courage won the NWSL Shield that year as well. We lost in the championship, but we still had a really good team.” But the business side of the sport got in the way, and all of a sudden, Ashley found herself being traded to the Washington Spirit. “I got a call from the coach, and I thought he was just calling to check in, maybe see how I was doing. But then he said, ‘We had to trade you. We had no choice.’ All I could say to myself was, ‘Dang, this is real, this is how this sport works. It's kind of ruthless.’”
“As the trade set in, my emotions were all over the place. I had a gut check where I thought, ‘Is this really what I want to do? I don't have a lot of say or control over where I go or where I live. Is this worth it?’”
While Ashley was dealing with the details of the trade and her emotions surrounding it, she also had to be focused on the thing standing between her and the upcoming NWSL season: her loan to Melbourne City, one of the top teams in the Australian A-League. “I always thought there was no way I would go play in Australia, and I’d said that multiple times,” she said. “It was just way too far, and I’d miss Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family. I truly thought there was no way. But when clubs started to reach out to me, I talked to Abby Dahlkemper, who had spent some time down in Australia with Adelaide, and she insisted that I go. So, I went for it.”
In the middle of a foggy headspace and an unfamiliar state of transition, Ashley’s loan to Melbourne City ended up being the perfect catalyst for her to earn back her professional confidence and help her build a case for a starting role with the Washington Spirit. She was able to get away from it all for a few months and found some respite in the splendors and uniqueness of her temporary Australian home. “What I liked the most about Australia were the small little coffee shops on the beach, or maybe the little Mom and Pop shops that you couldn't find anywhere else,” she said. “I loved going into downtown Melbourne or to the beach on weekends. I just really enjoyed my time in Australia because of how cool of a place it was.”
What also made Australia a life-changing experience for Ashley were the cultural experiences that allowed Ashley to gain a new perspective for evaluating the world around her. “In Australia, I lived with two Australians and then one Japanese teammate as well,” she told us. “We had a really cool house, and in our downtime, our Japanese roommate would try to teach us Japanese. We all would take turns making dishes as well, so I would make American dishes, and they would make Australian and Japanese dishes, and we would all share them.”
“My Japanese teammates spoke minimal English, but it was still so fun to live with them. We weren't able to speak a ton, but we had so much love and respect for each other that it didn’t matter,” Ashley explained. “I’m so thankful for my time in Australia. It was a big move for my career, but more importantly, it helped me develop as a person. It proved that I could go do these hard things, like living across the world in a different culture and have to figure it out.”
With this newfound mentality, Ashley arrived in Washington DC for a fresh start, looking to transform the Spirit into contenders. The Spirit were in the middle of a slump, as they finished last in the standings and were struggling to replace key players they lost like Crystal Dunn and Ali Krieger. Ashley Hatch was looking to be the difference this team needed in order to replicate the success she had experienced with the Courage.
And in due time, a difference was made. The Spirit went from 10th place to 8th place in 2018 and set a then-club attendance record at the newly-opened Audi Field. Ahead of the 2019 season, combined with the 2018 improvements, key trades and strategic draft picks allowed for the Spirit to completely rebuild the roster with the necessary experience and skill set to win a championship. Once all the pieces were there, the hunt for a championship was on. “We wanted to make the playoffs, and in order to make the playoffs, we had to win games. So that's where we started, because we knew we had something special. But there was still a lot more we needed. Our heads weren't really in the clouds. We knew we needed to get to work.”
One of the key parts of “getting to work” was following the guidance of veteran leadership. Kelley O’Hara, a veteran USWNT defender, was traded to the Spirit in December 2020 and helped form a dynamic leadership duo with established captain and league veteran Tori Huster. “At the start of the season, Kelley and Tori said we needed to start ‘point hunting’ or hunt down every possible point during league play, so we could make the playoffs. That ended up becoming our mentality for the season.”
The “Point Hunt” was almost in jeopardy, though, due to an unexpected coaching change in the middle of the 2021 NWSL season. This came at a particularly inopportune time, as the team was dropping points and struggling to maintain a playoff position. With less than half of the season left to turn things around, leaning on the veteran leadership became a major key to the overall success. “I think once the coaching change happened, as a team, we welcomed the reset to figure out our dynamic and why we were dropping points,” Ashley explained. “Our championship and ‘point hunting’ missions weren't over, and we actually got more intense and more aggressive about it because we realized time was ticking. There was no Plan B anymore. We simply needed to win.”
Largely in part due to Ashley’s stellar work on the front line, the Spirit were able to get out of their midseason funk and earn back those lost points, finishing in third place at the end of the regular season with 39 points. After defeating the Courage and OL Reign, the Spirit were set to play in the NWSL Final against the Chicago Red Stars.
This final was an exceptionally exciting way to not just end the season but for the Spirit to firmly re-establish themselves as the league’s best after the rebuild and the organizational changes they had experienced midseason. After O’Hara scored in extra time off a cross-field assist from Trinity Rodman, the Spirit clinched the title just minutes later, and the bench spilled out onto the field at Lynn Family Stadium.
Ashley Sanchez. Andi Sullivan. Tara McKeown. Rodman. Hatch. All young players who were thrown straight into the fire and were key starters and contributors to Washington’s rebuild that was manifested, and successfully so, into a championship trophy. Hatch has remained humble through it all, though, and recognized that she had just done what she had set out to do since initially arriving to the DMV. “I’m just trying to contribute to my team as much as I can,” she said. “I need to be my best self as a player so that when opportunities do come my way, I can put my best foot forward. While winning the title was very fun, I know that the standard for our team has gone up ten notches now that we have a championship under our belt. I'm looking forward to pushing that level standard this upcoming season, not only for myself but also for my teammates.”
She couldn’t celebrate for too long, though, as an opportunity to push her own standard quickly arose: a call-up into the USWNT camp for two friendly matches in Australia. And while Ashley recognized the honor of representing her country on the world stage, she finally had a chance to prove herself as one of the best strikers in the American women’s soccer pool — strategically as the pool is assessed as the team moves into the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2024 Summer Olympic cycle.
It was an uncharacteristically cold and cloudy November day in Sydney. Nearly forty thousand fans, a record for an Australian women’s soccer match, had shown up to Stadium Australia — which will host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final that the USWNT was beginning to build towards. In an environment where nerves were running high for many players, Hatch stood out as composed in her first-ever national team start. “Since I had been to Australia before, I think that really helped calm a lot of nerves,” she explained. “Even though I was so far away from home, I felt familiar with where I was, and I think that helped me focus on playing.”
Ashley took that focus into the match, where she had earned a starting role. She knew a goal or an assist against one of the world’s top teams would mean a lot for her career and would help her bring smiles to the faces of millions watching back home in the United States, including her family. Just less than a minute into the match, she found herself in a position she knows all too well.
Lynn Williams won an aerial duel after a near turnover and sent the ball towards goal in the direction of Hatch. “The ball was bouncing my way, and then it bounced in the box. I was just thinking, ‘is this really happening? Is the ball really bouncing right here,’” she said. After settling the ball with her chest, Ashley’s powerful blast off her left foot soared past the Australian goalkeeper into the back of the net. “Putting it in the back of the net was a huge relief, and I was just so happy to have finished it.”
Since that initial start, Hatch has played in three more national team games and added two more goals and an assist. Several question marks still hang around the national team as they prepare for World Cup qualifying, but if one thing was proven in Australia, it’s that Hatch is an absolute offensive force. “After my experience in Australia, I was able to take a deep breath and tell myself, ‘I can do this, I can play here with this team.”
Currently, Ashley is hard at work with the Spirit, preparing for the 2022 NWSL regular season. But, with the free time she does have, she decided to start her own initiative, Boots from Pros, to help deliver quality soccer boots to young players in need. She collects new or lightly used boots from her teammates and reboxes them for young girls, and in each box, there’s a note from the player whom the boots came from. Players like Sullivan, Tegan McGrady, and Jordan DiBiasi have contributed to the new initiative.
“When I started Boots from Pros, I envisioned being able to connect professional players with youth players in a more intimate and personal way, in a way traditional donations don’t achieve,” Ashley elaborated. “I never knew a professional soccer player or had any connection to any growing up, so I always thought it would be cool to bridge that gap and help inspire young kids.”
“I was finally able to get some pictures of the girls opening the boots and actually putting them on, and they were so happy,” she said. “I sent these photos to my teammates who donated boots and said, ‘Look at what you did, look at the smile you put on these girls' faces.’” These smiles were genuine because not only were these young players getting to play with quality soccer equipment, but they were indirectly able to share their love of the game with someone who plays it professionally. “One time, Andi Sullivan got these boots with her name and an American flag on them from one of her camps with the National Team. Andi never wore them, but they fit one of the girls in the organization perfectly. So now, there’s a girl in DC running around wearing Andi Sullivan’s boots, which is so motivating for her,” Ashley recounted through a smile.
With the regular season quickly approaching, Ashley knows there is a difficult road ahead. “I know we're not going to be able to just pick up where we left off,” she said. “We have to go through preseason and rebuild and continue to make those connections on the field with the new players.” Despite the difficulty of playing on a team with a target on its back, Ashley is battle-tested and ready to deliver her all for club and country. Yet, when things go wrong, Ashley knows exactly what she has to do: lean on her family.
Photography by Diana Hernandez.
