Wheels or ice, guys or girls; it doesn’t matter to Sarah Mullen. Whether she’s tearing up State Wars, the Junior Olympics or even the driveway with her brother, hockey is hockey. Her attitude is carefree, like a 14-year-old who just wants to play the game and have fun doing so. Maybe that’s because she is 14, but you’d never know it until the helmet comes off.

Often playing with older girls or a guy’s team, Sarah is usually the odd girl out. And it started from the moment she put on pads and hit the driveway with her older brother.

“My brother and his friends needed someone to shoot on,” she says, “and if I wanted to play with them I had to play goalie.”

But Sarah didn’t go straight from the driveway to playing games with the guys and older girls. The driveway sparked her interest and it took some time thereafter.

“I remember when Sarah didn’t know she was supposed to stop the puck,” says her first roller coach Mark Dalton, with a laugh. “If you ever saw her play her first game, you would’ve thought she had no idea how to play goal. But that’s what happens to most people.”

Games proved to be a bit different that getting shot on by her brother and his friends. Even so, that’s where it started, as an 11-year-old playing with guys three years older. Pretty soon they took notice and Sarah wasn’t just someone to shoot on.

“It was really fun after a while,” Sarah says reminiscing. 

She kept playing both in games and with the older guys. No matter the type of game she had, it was back at it the next day.

“One thing’s for sure, says Dalton, “she has worked very hard for everything she has accomplished. Nothing has ever been handed to her and she’s 10 times the goalie she used to be.”

Sarah realized she wasn’t just someone to shoot on, she was someone the guys (amongst others) requested to mind their net. That speaks volumes to Sarah’s talent. Guys, that age and in general, are typically very dominant (without being sexist) when it comes to sports. In other words, they’d rather show off for girls than play with them.

“My teams love it,” Sarah says. “And the other team hates it. When I’m playing (with and against guys) my teammates always make me take my helmet off at the end to show the other team they lost to a girl.”

Sarah says that with a sense of pride because she knows the rarity that she is apart of. In here voice she knows the importance of her teammates and their respect. In fact, it’s what motivates her to play hard. Other than that the only difference is that the “boys shoot harder”.

Hockey has always been around the Mullen family household. Both parents, as well as Sarah’s brother, are active in roller hockey but Sarah has taken the family sport and one-uped everyone incorporating her game to include ice as well. But the transition wasn’t as easy as one would think.

“She knew how to play goal,” Sarah’s father David says. “It was just getting there with the legs because the motions are very different from roller.”

Last year was her first on the ice and it didn’t take long for teams to take notice. The Colorado Select Girls U16-19 invited her to come play for them.

Though hesitant to let her play with girls up to six years her elder, Sarah’s parents reluctantly agreed.
So far, everything has gone off without a hitch.  

She loves playing with the older girls, who have kind of taken Sarah under their wing often acting as her protector. Other than that, she’s just a 14-yea-old girl enjoying hockey.

“The best thing about all of this is that Sarah hasn’t changed one bit from all of this,” says her father. “She is still a young happy girl at heart.”

That may explain why she was the only one during a winter hockey trip to go outside and build make snow angels.
It’s exactly what you want to see in a young kid ascending the sport on wheels and ice. Sarah Mullen refuses to let the sport or the pressure get to her and most importantly plays the game like a kid, even if she is among men and women.

For the full feature on Sarah and some other girls that go under the radar check back with CHI is the September issue.