Young fan finds hope meeting soccer role model with limb difference

Nine-year-old Hayden Stine arrived at Denver Summit FC’s inaugural home opener and saw more than a soccer player. She saw a version of herself on the field, in front of 63,004 fans at Empower Field at Mile High.

Hayden was born without most of her right arm, and she told 9NEWS that soccer has always made sense for her. She has played for years at home with her mother and with her team, the Dill Pickles, because, as she put it, “It’s a very fun sport for me since having one hand in some sports would be very hard, but in soccer, the literally one rule is don’t use your hands.” When she met Denver defender Carson Pickett on March 28, Hayden said, “She’s a lot like me.”

For Hayden, the moment landed immediately. She said meeting Pickett “filled me with hope that I could like become a soccer player when I grow up, and there’s nothing stopping me.” Her mother, Christina Stine, said the scene was emotional and that you could hear it in her voice because she was basically crying. The family said the experience made them lifelong Carson Pickett fans, and Christina said it meant a lot that the crowd around them knew the players and understood what was happening.

That crowd was part of the story, too. Denver Summit FC drew 63,004 fans for a 0-0 draw with the Washington Spirit, setting a new National Women’s Soccer League single-game attendance record and a U.S. record for a stand-alone women’s soccer match. Jordan Angeli, a Summit part owner and NWSL original, announced the crowd size and the record before halftime. The previous NWSL mark had belonged to Bay FC’s 2025 match against the Washington Spirit at Oracle Park, and Boston Legacy FC had recently set the record for an inaugural club home opener with 30,207 fans on March 14.

Pickett arrived in Denver ahead of the club’s first season on a multi-year deal through 2027, bringing a résumé built on 185 NWSL appearances, six goals and 16 assists. She led the league with six assists in 2022, won both the NWSL Championship and Shield with Orlando Pride in 2024, and debuted for the U.S. Women’s National Team on June 28, 2022, becoming the first player with a limb difference to appear for the senior squad. Denver’s debut as the NWSL’s 16th franchise, announced in January 2025, was already a milestone. For Hayden, it became something more personal: proof that the game can widen belonging, one visible role model at a time.