Kiwi goaltender breaks record for shutouts
“Good luck getting an interview.”
That’s what Paul Harrison had to say of his daughter Grace — a 19-year-old Kiwi ice hockey player who has quickly become one of the best Division I college goaltenders in the United States.
And it’s not because she has gone LeBron James on everyone, or that her schedule is sometimes filled with four games in a week.
It’s simply because she is showing “the normal Kiwi reserved humility”, according to her dad. “She is almost embarrassed by her success.”
Harrison started out playing inline hockey with her brothers in Auckland. She quickly found herself as a goalie — for typical family reasons.
“I had two older brothers playing inline hockey,” she said. “They needed someone to shoot on, so that was a natural progression.”
While Canada and the US have thousands of young ice hockey players, New Zealand has just 120 registered female players.
After playing in Auckland, she then went to Canada to play and study.
In between, she was playing for the New Zealand national team and occasionally slotted in for a team in the NZIHL men’s league.
That was all before she was offered a full scholarship to attend St Lawrence University in upstate New York worth $94,000 a year, plus a gear allowance.
Now, in just her second year of college at St Lawrence — a team ranked No 4 in the country — she has broken the record for shutouts, with seven at the halfway mark of the regular season.
Her coach, Chris Wells, has seen a lot of goalies in his time, but agrees Harrison has something special.
“There’s a lot of good goalies out there,” he said. “And you’re speaking to one of the best this year.
“One of the reasons she got herself into the position is her effort. Her work ethic and her attention to detail have given her all the opportunities to be as successful as she has been.”
College ice hockey is one of the most competitive environments in the world for youngsters and the odds of a player making a roster are almost as high as winning Lotto, according to her coach.
For many of them, they’re on skates before they can walk, and it’s 15 years of hard work and dedication before they find out if it’s all been worthwhile.
Being a pioneer is something that gratifies and humbles her.
“I set out to pave a couple more stones for players coming through women’s New Zealand hockey,” she said. “I think I’ve done that but if I can go further with that, it would be incredible.”