Sports

Tara Wheeler: Miss Virginia 2009 and Penn State Hockey Goalie

by Jon Azpiri | January 25, 2009 at 02:19 pm

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Last night's Miss America Pageant 2009 featured a contestant with one unique talent. Miss Virginia Tara Wheeler is the former starting goalie for the Penn State women's hockey team.

Since graduating from Penn State, Wheeler plays pickup hockey and takes part in charity hockey shootouts. She has also tried out for the US Women's Olympic Hockey Team. Wheeler says she was inspired to play hockey after watching the Disney film The Mighty Ducks about a rag-tag youth hockey team that featured a female goalie.

Wheeler says that her duties as Miss Virginia have taken away from her ice time, but she still finds strap on the pads and play, often against men.

I've had a couple of different reactions from the charity shootouts that I did. The guys at Virginia Tech, they went all-out on me and that was a lot of fun. But I see that I put these guys in a really rough spot because if they try to score on me, then it looks like they're trying to get less money raised for charity and they don't to be the jerk that hurts Miss Virginia. But if they try really hard to score on me and I block it, then they're going to be embarrassed. But they've all been really excited to get on the ice with me and it's been cool for them to be so accepting and think that's it's awesome that Miss Virginia plays hockey and we get to compete with her.

Tara Wheeler didn't end up winning the 2009 Miss America Pageant. That honor went to Miss Inidana Katie Stam.

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