A most Minnesota love story: Hockey glory, a Gophers power couple — and a trip to the Olympics?Joe SmithTue, November 25, 2025 at 3:13 PM UTC·11 min readMINNEAPOLIS — When Parker Fox met Taylor Heise, he had no idea who she was.
Or exactly how big she’d become — one of the faces of women’s pro hockey.
Fox came to the University of Minnesota in the summer of 2021 as a touted men’s basketball transfer from Northern State in Aberdeen, South Dakota. The 6-foot-8 forward was rehabbing a torn ACL in the training room, and one of his teammates, Eric Curry, suggested they go across the street to the house where most of the Gophers women’s hockey players lived. They were hosting a little pregame party before a football game. Music. Yard games. Drinks.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFox knew Heise’s younger brother, Nate, who played basketball with his brother. That was the first connection he made when he met Heise.
“I didn’t know Nate Heise had an older sister,” Fox remembers saying.
“I’m like, ‘That’s just wrong,’” Heise recalls, laughing.
The first-team All-American Gophers forward, who was entering her senior season, would typically need no introduction in Dinkytown. Or the state.
The two would go on to partner for wins in games like beer pong. They had good chemistry and competitive banter.
“The rest,” Fox says. “Was history.”
Fox and Heise, engaged in June at the White Bear Yacht Club, will get married in late August of 2026.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut before they became a Twin Cities sports power couple, they started as friends. Heise, 25, helped Fox, 26, through what he called “dark days” as he rehabbed from three ACL surgeries, having to eventually move on from pro basketball dreams. He’s now working for the Big Ten Network as a color analyst for Gophers games.
And Fox got a front-row seat for Heise’s rise, from the No. 1 pick of the PWHL draft to a two-time Walter Cup champion with the Minnesota Frost and a likely U.S. Olympian in Milan in February. Heise, who grew up a “country girl” playing hoops in the tiny town of Lake City, Minn., is now an idol for so many.
“I try to relish in that,” Heise says. “Life hits you at some point. But being a cool face of the league opens up so many opportunities to meet young girls — meet idols I always looked up to. It’s not going to be forever, so you try to take advantage of it while you still have it.”
“She’s made it,” Fox says. “It’s kind of spooky. Sometimes I don’t think about it as in-depth as she travels from L.A. to Toronto (for endorsement shoots). She’s just wired differently than the average human. You don’t get to the level she’s gotten to if you’re like everyone else. It’s in her DNA a little bit. It’s who she is.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTheir bond grew easily — both athletes, both understanding the pressure, the adversity, the schedule.
Ironically, Heise and Fox grew up loving what turned out to be their partner’s sport.
Fox’s childhood home was a block from an outdoor rink in Mahtomedi in suburban St. Paul, and his family had Gophers men’s hockey season tickets. He’d proudly wear a throwback jersey from his dad’s closet to games. His passion for the sport gently irked his 6-foot-8, basketball-playing father, but he had ice sports in his blood, too. His mother was a speedskater who competed in the Olympic trials.
“My dad would literally make us say, ‘Hockey bad, basketball good,’ before we went to bed,” Fox says.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHockey was never on TV in Heise’s home in Lake City, southeast of the Twin Cities. Her parents, Amy and Tony, were basketball players, and her brothers, Nate and Ryan, would both go on to play college basketball.
“The NBA never left my TV,” she says.
Heise started playing hockey in first grade. She had a friend whose dad played junior, and he dropped a flyer into Heise’s backpack about a co-ed hockey team in the area. They had an outdoor rink that parents used to shovel.
Heise’s parents had signed her up for most sports, from soccer to softball to volleyball and track. Basketball was her love. After that flyer, hockey became something she’d play with her buddies, just as a hobby. But another parent watching Heise practice that first year suggested to her parents that they “should probably sign her up for something more legit than this.” They signed her up for an all-girls team in nearby Red Wing, where she eventually starred in high school, before being recruited to Minnesota. Her jersey is retired at her old arena in Red Wing.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementDid Heise ever envision a world where she was a basketball star instead?
“I could have been Caitlin Clark or her No. 2,” Heise jokes. “But I haven’t really had to think about it because it was a seventh-grade decision. I feel so removed from that. I feel, in those years, I did have those thoughts, ‘If (hockey) doesn’t work out for me, I really screwed myself.’ If I didn’t go to Red Wing, I would have been playing basketball in Lake City, and I don’t know where that would have led me.
“Obviously being competitive, I would have figured out a way to be good at what I was doing. I’m glad that hockey was brought to me at a young age, because if not, I definitely wouldn’t be here.”
Fox figured he’d be playing pro basketball somewhere right now, like his brother, Brody, who is in Estonia after a college career at the Citadel. But his body just wasn’t up for it. Beyond the three surgeries, he’s had six meniscus tears.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe first couple of years that Fox and Heise knew each other, they mostly just supported each other as peers. Fox and his buddies would hang out at Heise’s hockey house. Heise is a good baker, and they’d rush over for cinnamon rolls.
After Fox’s second ACL surgery, he says he was “in a dark place, mentally,” and Heise connected him with the director of sports psychology at the school, Dr. Carly Anderson. Heise had worked with her for years.
“(Anderson) made a huge difference in my recovery,” Fox says.
Heise remembers telling Anderson, “It’s important for you to figure his s— out.” Now she tells her, “Me and Parker might not be together had it not been for you.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I thought my whole life I’d do basketball forever,” Fox says. “Coming from my old school, I was a top-five-ranked transfer in the portal. … I had overseas offers for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“I would have loved to carve out an NBA career. Got hurt twice, and that shifted my focus. It centered me in a way.”
Part of that was forming new connections at the school, and Heise became the most important. They started officially dating in February of 2023. They felt like they were cut from the same cloth — blown away by how alike their families were. Now, they do biweekly dinners with Fox’s parents, Neal and Heather, and Fox is part of the “NCFC” (“No Choice Friends Club”) Snapchat group chat with Heise’s family and friends. Heise says it’s like hitting the “in-law lottery.”
“It felt meant to be,” Heise says.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFox was with Heise when they found out in 2023 that the PWHL was being formed.
They were watching a movie, and she flipped over her phone and had “like 65” text messages. The timing worked out well for Heise. She’d received a fifth year of eligibility at Minnesota due to COVID-19, so her college career was ending just as the pro league was starting. Then Minnesota got the No. 1 pick, and then-GM Natalie Darwitz said it was a no-brainer to pick Heise, the homegrown star.
“I didn’t understand she would become the MVP of it — the best player in the world,” Fox says. “And be able to win championships and make endorsement money. She loved to play hockey, and that’s what she wanted to do with her life. We went from freaking out (over) which city she was going to live in, to, ‘Are we going to be able to continue our relationship somewhere else?’ to, boom, Minnesota getting the first pick.
“I remember, like, ‘No way,'” Heise says. “Looking back, I don’t think things could have worked out any better.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHeise embraced becoming the face of the franchise, taking pride in talking to so many young hockey players. She has a platform now — and endorsement deals, including Xfinity Comcast, Alliance, Waggle, Chipotle, EA Sports, Upper Deck and CCM.
Heise is working on helping CCM design a women’s line of under-equipment clothing.
The PWHL doesn’t pay salaries like the NHL’s. Heise says most of what she brings in — less than $500,000, she says — is from sponsorships.
“We live a very good life,” she says.
One item left on Heise’s bucket list is making the U.S. Olympic team. She seems like a shoo-in, and not just because of her highlight-reel fake-shot assists during the U.S.-Canada Rivalry Series.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut Heise isn’t taking anything for granted — not after the sting of getting cut from the 2022 team.
“It was probably the best thing that happened to me,” she says.
At first, it wasn’t. She went to her childhood home in Lake City for a couple of days and sulked on the couch. This had been her dream since she was 14 and watched Hillary Knight & Co. at the 2014 Olympics.
Missing the 2022 Games gave Heise a better understanding of how hard she needed to work and what she needed to improve on to make the team.
“The (Olympic) camp I had wasn’t my best, and I know that,” Heise says. “I had to eat that. But at the end of the day, you don’t just make it because of one week. It’s a puzzle piece. You didn’t do this, you didn’t do that. I had to take a hard look in the mirror and say, ‘I need to get faster, I need to get better, I need to get better at my stickhandling.’ After last time, I said, ‘If this comes along again, I want to make sure the next time, I don’t even give it a thought — my spot is on that team.’
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It’s amazing to think about the possibility of being there.”
Fox and Heise, who bought a house in the Como area of St. Paul together last year, are back on Minnesota’s campus on this October day, visiting old haunts.
The two pop into one of their favorite spots, Tony’s Diner. “They have the best French toast,” says Heise, who hugs the owner, Tony, like he’s family. Tony has helped cater both Gophers and Frost events.
He takes a peek at Heise’s new jewelry: the silver engagement ring.
“This is probably the first time you’ve seen us together since,” Heise says.
‘We should get the Champagne going!” Tony replies.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFox asked Heise’s parents’ permission to marry their daughter during a Christmas-time visit, then worked with the White Bear club for a special surprise. He had them reach out to Heise and their families for a “new member dinner” and photo shoot.
“Completely made up,” Fox quips.
Heise could tell Fox was nervous. He couldn’t make eye contact in the days before the proposal and was stress-cleaning. But she was still shocked when Fox dropped to one knee by the dock under a flower arch his mother had made. Fox was sweating from nerves and teared up. Heise, known to laugh when she’s surprised, went right into “smiling and laughing.”
“It just made sense,” she says.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I feel like we’ve known each other forever,” Fox says.
They’ve already made their rebuilt 1918-style home their own. Their families helped with the landscaping. Heise’s Christmas gift for Fox was a setup to watch games in the backyard. He just has to water her flowers when she’s out of town for hockey.
Fox gets on the ice with Heise occasionally, passing her the puck for light drills. He beat her in a shooting drill once, and she, in turn, beat him in a basketball game of “P-I-G.” They also compete in pickleball and golf.
Eventually, they hope, there will be kids. Heise has seen teammates like Kendall Coyne-Schofield play high-level hockey as moms. But there’s no rush.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I’d say I’ve got at least three, four, five more years before we start looking at that route,” Heise says.
“She’s at the top of her game, just doing everything she wanted to do, achieving all her dreams,” Fox adds.
Fox is Heise’s biggest fan. On this day, he’s wearing the new Heise line of hats from Waggle.
He may not have known who Heise was when they met, but he’s proud that she’s become “a household name.”
“While Taylor is playing hockey still,” he says, “I’ll be wherever she is.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Minnesota Wild, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Minnesota Frost, Olympics, Women's Hockey
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