From 6-9 years old, on Friday nights, Lily Andreassi (11) always looked forward to free time after her Ice Hockey practice at the San Diego Ice Arena. There Andreassi and her friends  Andreassi donning a  red helmet–her signature identifier on the ice. It garnered her the nickname ‘the girl in the red helmet’ because she was the only girl on the San Diego Ice Arena’s Oilers (SDIA), an otherwise all-boys team, who matured early and towered over all the boys. Andreassi used to play a game with her Dad on these nights where he would hold her jersey as she tried to skate away and then when he would finally let go she shoot forward faster than all the other skaters.

Andreassi’s career in ice hockey started when she was 3, with a chore all too familiar to many younger siblings everywhere: being dragged along to sit around, twidle her thumbs, and watch her older sibling do some activity that seemed, to her, about as interesting as watching paint dry.

For Andreassi, that activity was ice hockey. Hockey was ingrained in Andreassi’s family. Her father grew up in Montreal playing hockey. Once Andreassi’s father came to the U.S., he picked up a job at the San Diego Ice Arena, where he worked and played. Three times a week Andreassi would be dragged there, sometimes crying, by her father while her older brother practiced.

All these hours in the cold watching this fast-paced game slowly transformed from something Andreassi loathed into something she enjoyed. She began playing recreationally with some of the other younger siblings of players on the team in the corner of the rink and quickly discovered that playing, rather than watching, made hockey something she enjoyed. From there, Andreassi joined her brother’s house league—the more recreational beginner league that plays only at the San Diego Ice Arena—and began playing with boys four years older than her. She excelled in part due to her father’s relationship with the head of the rink.

“I was so gifted to get as much ice time as I wanted,” Andreassi said. “I could practically skate with almost any team I wanted, because [my father] was really close with the hockey director at my rink ( Craig Sterling).  He’s like a second father to me, and he allows me to go out [on the ice] whenever I want and play with teams I’m not even rostered on.”

She was eventually crowned captain of the SDIA Oilers by coach Sterling.

“What is special about [Andreassi] is that she always looked after everyone on the team:  from the worst player just starting out to the best player, no matter how good they were—from refilling other players’ waters when they were thirsty to getting her dad to sharpen their skates,” Sterling said. “I chose her to be captain because she was always the hardest working and toughest on the team, and I wanted to show all the players that that is what it takes to be the captain and successful at the sport.”

The extra responsibility of being captain pushed Andreassi to work harder and hold herself more accountable. Because she was the only girl, she also felt that being at an age where girls had developed further than boys, she had a significant advantage over them.

Eventually, she progressed well beyond her house league teammates and joined the more prestigious competitive Southern California Amateur Hockey League. The intensity of play and nerves increased for Andreassi in this league.

“Games became a little more intense,” Andreassi said. “I would get so excited, and we’d get to wear polo shirts and feel all fancy. We traveled to Anaheim and stuff. It was just a great experience and also really nerve-wracking because I thought I was on ESPN or something.”

Along with this SCAHA league, once high school started she joined the Central Cathedral Ice Hockey team, which combines many of the high school players in the North County San Diego area into one high school team. Once in high school, Andreassi found the boys game to sharply diverge from the girls game, but she continued to play in both.

“The boys try to hit and lay you out, and they’re not thinking much about the plays,” Andreassi said. “They’re just kind of shoving the puck up the rink. The girls game is a lot more thinking and it’s a lot more intense on your brain, which I find more fun. The boys game is a lot more scary to me because one hit and you’re out for the rest of the season.”

As Andreassi became older, her competition amongst boys became tougher as they caught up and surpassed her in size and strength. She had to wrestle with the fact that she could no longer easily dominate. This was a blow to her confidence.

“It’s hard to stay confident when the people that you have been better than for so long become better than you,” Andreassi said. “That’s what I struggle with right now, but I think it gives me something to work up to. Eventually, I want to be at their level. I look forward to going every day and working on myself.”

Andreassi has channeled this yearning to improve to all aspects of her training and gameplay. She focuses herself before games on what she wants to improve from the last game by tuning everything else out.

“I don’t think about if colleges are coming to my games or something,” Andreassi said. “I just focus on myself, try to be in tune with what I know how to do, and just go out there and try to do it. I remember my mistakes. I watch films [of my past self during past games] a lot before my games in the car to try to correct myself.”

Andreassi’s point of taking her attention off immediate results gives her a unique mindset within her games.

“Sometimes, I don’t even know what the score is because I just don’t look,” she said. “Or, [at times] I’ll get scored on, I try to brush it off and tell the goalie ‘don’t worry about it. It really helps me slow down in the moment and think only on what I can control, my next shift in position on the ice. Then after games I am able to reflect on what I can do better with a clear head instead of beating up on myself.”

Playing ice hockey in sunny Southern California, Andreassi associates the crisp rink air with escapism and a feeling of calm that helps her lock in before games.

“It’s kind of freeing and it’s something to look forward to at the end of the day,” Andreassi said. “Before a game, that familiar feeling of cold that you don’t feel in a lot of the rest of your life, it kind of calms me down. I like having cold weather because it just makes me feel better. It makes me skate harder and have something to look forward to on the bench.”

This cold helps Andreassi focus on the incredibly fast-paced nature of hockey, where she must be hyper-focused and prepared for the puck to come to her.

“The puck could be down in the other zone, and then two seconds later it could be on your stick,” Andreassi said. “You have to be aware. It’s a game of awareness. You have to know what you are supposed to be doing. Even when you’re on the bench, you have to see who [which player on your team] you will change for [substitute onto the ice for .”

She has ice hockey as a constant in her life in times of instability and hardship helps Andreassi to remain confident in herself.

“The feeling of being able to go onto the ice and just not think about anything else but ice hockey is freeing,” Andreassi said. “It gives you something to push through to at the end of the day. It makes me remember that I am better than the grade that I get on math, and it reminds me of my purpose.”