As a girl, Samantha Hiller loved playing hockey. At age 12, her mother said she could earn extra money being a referee.
More time on the ice sounded better to Hiller than being a babysitter. After officiating many youth games in Boulder, Colo., four years later Hiller departed her home state for a refereeing camp in Utah, where she could learn how to administer high-level games.
She would have preferred sitting in a penalty box. One time, she left the ice after a game and started to tear up.
"I was in over my head," Hiller said. "I didn't know where to stand. I was overwhelmed by the play.
"Being yelled at by grown adults when I'm 16 years old, it was terrifying. I didn't know to respond."
Fortunately, a mentor named Butch Mousseau – who has since passed away -- arrived at her side.
"He said, 'What's up, Pumpkin? Look, this is a whole process. I looked absolutely silly the first time I came out as referee.' To have someone like him there was everything for me."
Today, the thirtysomething – whose full-time job is as a Lake Forest Fire Department firefighter and medic – is slated to referee the biggest games of her career through Feb. 19 during the women's hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
"It's something I've been dreaming of since I was 18. It's a pinnacle of my career for sure," said Hiller, who noted the most exciting part will be having her mother Deb, stepfather Steve, father Danny and stepmother Jona in the stands.
Hiller will be one of 22 hockey officials (12 referees and 10 linesmen) from the United States. Selected by the International Ice Hockey Federation, they have all worked together the past four years.
Hiller – who referees about 100 games a year -- is thankful her fellow firefighters embrace her passion.
"When I got hired full-time in 2020, I told them I love refereeing. They said the schedule was conducive to moving things around," Hiller noted. "I tell them I so appreciate their support. I couldn't have made it happen without them."
Becoming a firefighter wasn't Hiller's original plan. When she was 18, she decided she wanted to join the medical field. She attended an Emergency Medical Technician school in Boulder.
"I didn't know that fire departments had the crossover with medics," Hiller said. "I'm an odd one out. I wanted to be a medic first then a firefighter; most people want to be a firefighter than are forced to be medics."
Hiller sees plenty of similarities between her disparate roles on ice and at fires.
"You get first and foremost the brotherhood or sisterhood. I don't want to call it a trauma bond, but in the two fields you will do things most people couldn't handle," she said.
"As a referee, you have to be just as fit as the athletes – you're on the ice for the whole game, not just a shift. There's an adrenaline factor – you have to be ready for when the game turns in a split second or when you're pouring a bowl of flour before needing to respond to a cardiac arrest."
Hiller refereed her first pro game in 2022, when the Chicago Wolves and Milwaukee Admirals faced off at Allstate Arena in Chicago.
"It was electric. I never thought I would make it into men's pro hockey," she said. "I had been preparing my whole life for this moment. All the traveling, and all the people yelling at me, everything was coming to a head.
"It was scary and nerve-racking. But I had to believe in myself. I had done the work. Pretty much no noticed I was there, and that's what you hope for as a referee."
Hiller said many fans don't understand how much referees care.
"There's a perfectionist mentality in what we do," she noted. "It can go from a fine-print rule to your hand signals to how you handle a stoppage or how you communicate with a player.
"I used to be harder on myself. As I get older, it's like 'Mistakes happen.' Though some nights I go to my hotel room and shut down and don't talk with anyone."
Hiller – who has been told she seems to dance as she skates around the ice -- said working as an NHL referee is not a realistic goal at this point, but she would like to work men's Division I games and men's international hockey contests in the future.
Whatever happens, when she's not battling fires, she wants to be on the ice.
"What's not to love about hockey? It's one of the rawest sports out there. It's fast-paced, physical, violent, emotional. It moves you.
"If you don't speak the language of another country, if you watch hockey, you speak the same language."
This article first appeared on Lake Forest Love.
The Sporting Life Columnist David A. F. Sweet can be reached at dafsweet@aol.com.