Toowoomba and Rangeville star Tatum Stewart leads Hockeyroos to victory in Olympics opener

Young Toowoomba star Tatum Stewart was the hero for the Hockeyroos in their opening clash at the Paris Olympics on Sunday night. Her junior coach reveals what it was like to help develop one of the country’s most promising talents.

Tatum Stewart (right) defends for Australia against South Africa’s Kayla de Waal in the Women’s Pool B match at the Paris Olympics. Photo: Elsa/Getty Images.

It was the moment in which time seemingly stood still for Toowoomba hockey fans.

As the Hockeyroos faced off with South Africa in the opening group game of the Paris Olympics, scores were tied at 1-1 in the third quarter with Australia holding out for a hero to break the deadlock.

That hero was 22-year-old Toowoomba sensation Tatum Stewart, who showed her class on her Olympics debut to score what proved to be the winning goal from a penalty corner in Australia’s 2-1 win.

The impact of the goal was felt at its greatest more than 16,000km away from the action, where Stewart’s former junior coach Ian Pohlman was a proud figure eagerly tuning in to watch the diamond he helped form.

Pohlman coached Stewart at Rangeville Hockey Club from when she was 10 years old through to when she was 17 and was choked up with emotion seeing her make her mark on the grandest of stages.

“It was definitely pretty emotional,” he said.

“It is pretty hard to put into words, it does sort of choke you up a bit I guess when you think about it.

Rangeville junior hockey coach Ian Pohlman with Tatum Stewart

“You knew she was going to get there, you knew it was only a matter of time because the amount of work she has put in to get there is pretty incredible.

“That first half (of the Hockeyroos’ opening game) she looked pretty nervous, just the body language of her and a few of the passes she was throwing.

“But that second half, she really, really dominated and probably ended up in the top four players I reckon.”

When he first took on the reigns of developing what would turn into one of Australia’s brightest hockey prospects more than a decade ago, Pohlman said it was clear Stewart would be something special.

“When we met her as a 10 or 11 year old, she was a natural athlete, it was just a matter of her choosing the path that she wanted to take and the career that she wanted,” he said.

“When she was 13 and 14, you’d do a training session or a drill and she’d want it all broken down into why and how this affects the game, how you use it in the game.

“And if she never got it, she’d go home and she’d come back the next week and she’d have the drill down to perfection.

Hockeyroos players Grace Young, Amy Lawton, Rebecca Greener, Tatum Stewart and Brooke Paris visit the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur in Paris. Picture: Adam Head

“She was just a perfectionist and all the work she would have put in at home, in the house or the backyard is pretty insane.

“It really blew my mind, you never really had a kid ask so many questions of breaking the drills down the way she did, it was unbelievable.”

With Stewart’s desire to be the best version of herself she could possibly be, Pohlman knew he would need to lift his game as a coach if he was going to help her reach her goals.

“I owe her everything to my coaching career really,” he said.

“The questions she’d ask and how much further she’d push me to be the better coach was incredible.

“It was so hard for me as a coach to stay ahead of her, but it was great too, she kept on raising the bar which was awesome.

“We had no choice, we had to better ourselves.”

It wasn’t just the coaches who had their work cut out trying to keep up with Stewart, as the Rangeville junior lifted the game of the Darling Downs players around her as well.

“When she was a 13, 14, 15 year-old, everyone wanted to be better than her or up to her standards so they had to raise their bar too,” Pohlman said.

Hockeyroos player Tatum Stewart poses during the Australian 2024 Paris Olympic Games Hockey Squad Announcement. Photo: Will Russell/Getty Images

“She pushed them to their limit so they had to better themselves if they were defending her or playing with her, it was incredible.”

Despite her meteoric rise in recent years where she has now asserted herself as a pivotal member of the Hockeyroos, Stewart has remained as humble as she was during her days as a young gun competing under Pohlman.

“Some of the messages she sent, when she’s made a team or a squad and you haven’t spoken to her for three or four months, she’ll still send a message back to say thank you and appreciate the time and the people she has been through,” he said.

“For that kid to come back on grand final day last year and spend it with all the Toowoomba people again, a lot of those kids look up to her and it is going be a massive lift and a massive boost for everyone.

“Even of us older people, to watch her go all the way through and come back to donate time, it is fantastic.”

Originally published as Toowoomba and Rangeville star Tatum Stewart leads Hockeyroos to victory in Olympics opener