Concord hockey legend Tara Mounsey got a call in July congratulating her for being selected as a 2025 inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Despite her illustrious high school, collegiate and Olympic career, and multiple Hall of Fame inductions elsewhere, her first reaction was “Why me?”
She first became a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame when the 1998 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team was inducted in 2009; however, her 2025 induction is an individual honor. This time around, it triggered tremendous reflection, Mounsey said.
“It’s an incredible honor,” she remarked.
Mounsey thought about her parents, her brother Michael, friends and Concord. She thought about how much the women’s side of hockey has grown, and she sees the profound impact that she and her team’s win of the gold medal had on the sport.
She played on Concord High School’s boys hockey team before the NHIAA had a girls division and became the first female player to win the Player of the Year award after winning the 1996 State Championship.
“I don’t think you can compare the opportunity that was there for me versus what the players have nowadays,” Mounsey said. “And I was incredibly thankful for what I had. But when I see what the players have today, it’s special.”
She reminisced on her time playing at Everett Arena as a senior on the defensive line with her brother in front of a packed hometown crowd. She was picked as a captain while in high school, which, looking back, she still feels honored to have been picked to lead the team by a group of teenage boys.
Concord boys hockey head coach, Dunc Walsh, still remembers those years and knew then she was a special player — it was undeniable.
Walsh and his coaching staff had a strong feeling she was going to be good before she even got to high school, and once she played varsity, they knew she was going to play Division I and that she’d have a good shot at the Olympic team.
“I’m sure when she was playing at Concord High, and, you know, little girls would go to the game to watch her,” he said. “And I’m sure that had a big impact on kids who decided, especially girls, ‘I want to play hockey.’ Then obviously, in the Olympics, that was even greater.”
She’s received all the accolades an individual hockey player could get. She’s a member of the NHIAA, Brown University, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic and U.S. Hockey Hall of Fames, twice now.
Even though she’s won it all, she still enjoys competing out on the ice in a local women’s league in Boston on Sundays.
“I play in a division which comprises kids coming right out of college and still playing, so I’m still challenging myself,” Mounsey said.
A full-time nurse who is not working directly in the hockey world anymore, Mounsey enjoys sharing her story through speaking engagements and inspiring the next generation of hockey talent whenever she can.
She’s aware that this accolade is to honor her, but she believes it would not have been possible without the entire hockey-loving Concord community behind her.
Walsh ran hard practices, which forged her into a player with strong fundamentals, but it took a village, as they say, to get her to the heights she reached.
Youth sports have become very serious at younger ages, Mounsey reflected, but she hopes her story continues to reverberate through the hockey world to entice children to participate in hockey.
“I think it’s on us leaders in the game to make sure that these kids are still having fun,” she said.
Mounsey’s legacy will be enshrined at the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony taking place on Dec. 10 in the Grand Ballroom of RiverCentre in Saint Paul, Minn.