Ashley Hatch sits in the backseat of her car. Her three-month old son Leo sleeps beside her in his car-seat as her husband, Jeff Van Buren, drives the trio from their West Virginia farmhouse to the home of Hatch’s teammate Casey Krueger.
Baby Leo only makes a peep once before settling in for a nap.
It will be the first time Hatch meets Krueger’s baby daughter Calla, whom she gave birth to at the end of March. Hatch has relied on Krueger and fellow mom and teammate Andi Sullivan while navigating her first pregnancy and preparing to return to the pitch for the Washington Spirit.
Hatch — a former No. 2 overall draft pick, an NWSL champion and a Golden Boot winner — hasn’t played for the Washington Spirit in 11 months, but she’s living out her dream.
“I feel like just being a mom has been something that I’ve always wanted and hoped for and dreamed for,” she told the Deseret News.
For Hatch, who will celebrate her first Mother’s Day as a mom on Sunday, motherhood “is truly a dream come true,” she said.
Ashley Hatch holds her son, Leo, for a photoshoot in the Washington Spirit’s new kit on Feb. 19, 2026. Hatch gave birth to Leo, her first child, in January and is preparing to return to soccer. | Washington Spirit
Hatch has always wanted to be a mom, but for most of her career, she didn’t think it was possible to be both a mom and professional soccer player. Now, the soccer star experiences little “pinch me” moments throughout the day, where she is reminded that her dream of having a family is finally a reality.
“I’ve wanted this for so long, and now that it’s actually a reality, it’s like, ‘Oh wow, this is what living your dream really looks like,’” she said. “So I really enjoy those little moments with my family, whether we’re going on a walk or whether it’s just holding Leo in the rocking chair. My heart is just so full in those moments.”
Navigating motherhood as a professional athlete
On a typical day, Hatch wakes up between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. when Leo wakes (she’s also likely already woken up to calm down a teething Leo at 1 a.m. and 3 a.m.). She’ll then feed and play with him before getting ready for training.
If Leo is coming to training with her, her husband will make her breakfast while she gets ready. Then the three of them — in addition to being Leo’s dad, Van Buren also serves as his NWSL “childcare provider” — will make the trek from their West Virginia home to the training facility in Leesburg, Virginia.
Once at the training facility, she’ll feed Leo. If he isn’t with her, Hatch will pump breast milk in the mother’s room, often at the same time as Sullivan. Together, they’ll discuss their babies’ milestones and Hatch will pick Sullivan’s brain.
Afterwards, she’ll get ready and head to the team meeting before training begins.
Hatch’s training currently consists of ball work off to the side alone — like she did for most of her pregnancy — or with goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury, who is expecting her first child, or any injured players.
She’ll then go inside to the gym for strength training and conditioning on either the treadmill or the field. Before she heads back home, she’ll pump again and grab lunch.
“If he’s not with me, I speed home and then hang out with Leo the rest of the day,” Hatch said.
Hatch, who gave birth to Leo in January, was overwhelmed when she held her son for the first time, she said. After all, it was a moment she had dreamed about.
“It was super overwhelming in so many different ways. Obviously, birth itself is overwhelming and exciting all at once, and I think just that first moment of actually holding your child that you’ve been obviously dreaming about, but then for the past nine months carrying, imagining what he’ll look like or what it will feel like to hold him for the first time. I think there was a lot of sense of relief that he was finally here, and hearing his cry for the first time was just, I don’t know, it was just a really cool moment and a very special moment.”
Motherhood has come with changes, mainly in how much Hatch needs to plan ahead. But the biggest change she’s experienced since becoming a mother is her perspective.
“I feel like no matter what’s happening in life and no matter how stressful it is, I feel like I always have a reason to be excited and happy when I’m with Leo,” she said.
The forward has enjoyed introducing Leo to her soccer world, taking him to training and home matches at Audi Field.
“It’s been so fun,” Hatch said. “I think all of the girls have been great … the staff at the Spirit, and just everyone that’s around us is so welcoming and kind and understanding.”
When Hatch, Van Buren and Leo all go to training together, Hatch and Van Buren will take turns eating lunch while the other holds Leo. But it doesn’t take long for someone to offer to hold the baby.
“There’s no shortage of help around us when we’re at the soccer facility or at games and whatnot,” she said. “It just warms my heart to be surrounded by so many people who are just so loving and who love Leo already, even though he’s only three months old.”
As Hatch’s training days get longer as she works her way back, Leo stays home more often, where Van Buren takes care of him.
Van Buren’s role as Leo’s “childcare provider” will increase once Hatch is playing again, especially on match days and away trips, which Van Buren will be allowed to travel with the team for.
“He’s going to be a lot more involved on the road this year with Leo, and I think it’ll be a lot of fun just to have us all together,” Hatch said.
The family will do a trial run when the Spirit head to San Diego to face the San Diego Wave on May 15.
Gaining a greater understanding of divine love
Hatch, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said she has leaned on her faith while navigating her new role as a mother.
The “many unknowns” that come with raising a child for the first time “could be very scary and intimidating” for a first-time mom, Hatch said. But in those moments, she turns to God for help and inspiration.
“I’m always praying for that. Just to be in a spot where I can receive that guidance as a mother to do what’s best for my child, I think has really been important,” she said. “I’ve been able to kind of connect to my Heavenly Father on a new level of just faith and hope and trust and like, ‘OK, you’ve blessed me with this child. Now, please help me take care of this child to the best of my ability.’”
That has served as a “huge blessing” for Hatch as she combats the “many inadequacies that you can feel as a new mother,” she said.
Hatch enjoys taking her son to church, where she’s had several of what she described as “tender moments” sitting together as a family in sacrament meeting while Leo sleeps.
At church, Hatch now listens to the sacrament meeting talks or Sunday School and Relief Society lessons from the perspective of a new mom, wondering to herself, “How can I teach this to Leo in a way that he’ll learn to understand it, but also choose it for himself?”
Just last month for Easter, Hatch was drawn to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, as she studied Christ’s final days before his death and resurrection.
“Even this past Easter was really special because I feel like I connected to Mary on a whole new level of having a son now myself and just the Easter story of Christ being resurrected,” she said.
Now with a child of her own, Hatch has come to better understand the love her Heavenly Father has for her and all of his children.
“It was hard to comprehend that love before having Leo, but I think now having Leo and caring so much about him and caring about every little detail of his life has helped me kind of understand more that our Father in heaven cares about us that way on a whole other level that’s really, really hard to explain,” she said.
Returning to soccer
When Hatch returned to training for the first time in the second week of March — two months after giving birth — she felt like she was on “a different planet.” That feeling persisted for her first two weeks back.
“It definitely felt weird at first,” she said. “I felt like my brain and my body just weren’t connected. My brain was like, ‘Yeah, you know what you’re doing. Like go out and play,’ and then my body’s like ‘Whoa, what are you doing? We haven’t done this in a long time.’”
Hatch started training every other day, then slowly transitioned to two days of training with one day off. Now, she’s training almost every day. Hatch expects to ramp up her training and be cleared for contact during the NWSL’s June break.
She said she is on track to return to the pitch in July, which would make her available for the Spirit’s July 29 match in Utah against the Utah Royals, but she’s “also just trying to be patient with myself as I work back,” she said.
Hatch is both excited and anxious to return to the pitch. When she was training while pregnant, she described it as feeling as if she was “training to get injured.”
“You are training just for your overall general health and mental clarity and all that kind of stuff, but you know that you’re going to have this big injury that you’re going to have to recover from before you’re even actually back on the pitch,” she said.
Now, she’s training with a different purpose that excites her: to play again.
Hatch’s time away from playing as given her a glimpse of what life after soccer will look like, and it’s not too bad.
“There’s been moments where I’m like, ‘OK, life will not be so bad when I’m finished playing soccer because I can be with him 24/7,’” she said.
Hatch understands why some players have chosen to walk away from soccer after starting families, but the 10-year NWSL veteran isn’t ready to do that just yet. She credits her husband for helping her feel like she can pursue both dreams simultaneously.
“I think for me to be the best version of myself, I’m not ready also to just give up soccer, and so, I think figuring out a way to do both is going to help me be my best self and help me show up best for him as well,” she said.
