One dream, one family

She’s a girl who just feels better on the ice. And no, she isn’t wearing a sparkly leotard and dainty white skates doing neat twists and turns.

Grace Murphy spends her time on the ice in full hockey gear. Oversized pads, jersey and skates meant for business cover her slim frame, her long, curly ponytail peeking out from under a giant helmet.

“I just feel like I’m where I should be when I’m out there on the ice,” Grace, 16, said.

And just because the gear isn’t pretty, doesn’t mean a girl can’t like her accessories. It’s one reason she was drawn to the sport, her dad, Steve Murphy, an Orlando architect, said.

Playing with the boys

Grace has been at home in a skating rink since she was 6. While watching her first live hockey game, the Orlando Solar Bears, little Grace asked her dad, “Do girls play hockey?” The next weekend, she was signed up for lessons.

But it hasn’t always been easy. Hockey is thought of as a guys’ sport, and Grace has had to work to prove herself. When she first started, she had to play with boys. But when they all got a bit older, the boys resented her because she was a girl.

“She had to work hard just to keep gaining the respect of the people on her team,” Steve said.

Forced out-of-state

She knew she had to move on, so she started playing on girls’ teams. She played on a traveling Florida team, but then outgrew that. Florida’s palm trees and sunny weather haven’t made it a prime hockey state, and Grace had to join out-of-state teams just to keep playing.

She’s played on teams based in Atlanta, Ohio and Pennsylvania. She’s traveled the country with her dad playing the sport, spending most weekends away from home and her friends.

“A free weekend was a commodity,” she said. “Hockey, school, homework and food … that’s pretty much all I do.”

But she said she doesn’t mind spending her time absorbed in the sport. And sometimes while a sore body might make her want to stop, her mind is always in the game.

“It’s her personality to be focused and committed,” Steve said.

Following her dream

That’s one reason the Murphy family has sacrificed so much to make Grace’s hockey dreams come true. The weekend trips were costing them about $18,000 a year, and lots of time away from home for the pair. Steve jokes that her hockey habit could’ve been his boat. But her constant passion is what keeps the family committed to keeping her in the sport.

“It makes all the decisions so easy — there are no second thoughts,” he said. “It’s our commitment to her, telling her, we’re not going to be the reason she won’t reach her dreams.”

And that’s something a lot of people have come to admire about the Murphys.

“Grace’s level of dedication, not just Grace, but also from a family standpoint, is probably well beyond anything I could ever imagine,” said Bobby Hayes, Grace’s Orlando hockey instructor.

Boarding school

While her local friends are in their sophomore year at Winter Park High School, the next level in Grace’s hockey plan is boarding school at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. The school boasts a great hockey team, which she’s joined this year, and a science program to suit her other passion: astrobiology.

It sounds expensive, and it is. Tuition is $35,000 a year after Grace’s $15,000 scholarship. The Murphys don’t spend their extra money on new fancy cars or exciting vacations — it all goes to their kids. But her parents know this is what she needs to fulfill her dreams, and Grace said she’s thankful every day.

“I feel very grateful, because they’re giving all that up just for my dream.”

Hockey for life

And she’s got a bright future, her Brewster hockey coach said.

“She found something she really loves and she’s pursued it with passion,” Coach Jonathan Fouser said. “She has tremendous potential.”

After Brewster, Grace hopes to play Division I hockey in college, and in the future show others a passion for hockey through coaching. Her love for the sport is lifelong, and a future without hockey isn’t an option.

“There’d just be a big hole in my life,” she said.