On April 3, a cold spring Minnesota night, Laura Hillman and her mother, Marilyn, climbed into their SUV and began driving to St. Cloud for a Minnesota Select hockey tournament.

The drive would change the Hillman family forever.

Gary Hillman, Marilyn’s husband and Laura’s father, remembers the night.

&uot;It was 29 degrees,&uot; he said. &uot;The road was shiny with moisture.&uot;

As Marilyn and Laura passed by the Northfield exit on I-35, the vehicle slid out of control, tumbling over the side of the highway down the embankment past the bridge. The accident killed Marilyn immediately, Laura was in critical condition, and was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in an ambulance.

Laura had a &uot;brain shear,&uot; a traumatic brain injury. Doctors decided it would be best to induce a coma to relieve the pressure in her head and to prevent further damage. She spent 10 days in the coma.

Laura, 16, has faced many challenges in her life. Each one she’s taken on at full stride and mastered.

As the youngest in her family, and sibling of two brothers, she’d always taken a part in pick up games of anything her two, bigger, male counterparts played.

Gary remembers his sons putting her in net and taking hard shots at her and her determination to stop them. She is always active, always competitive, he said.

&uot;David and Peter (Laura’s brothers) were both on local soccer teams,&uot; Gary remembered. &uot;If the team was short and needed someone to fill in at practice, they’d ask Laura to come in and play. Pretty soon they were asking her to fill in at their games.&uot;

That undaunted willingness to face challenges has been a constant for Laura. Recovery from her accident proved to be one of the toughest she would face.

Doctors at St. Mary’s hospital in Rochester told Laura to expect a long recovery period.

&uot;At first my doctors said I couldn’t play for a year,&uot; she said. &uot;They said they wouldn’t be surprised if I were in the hospital for three months.&uot;

Laura spent a little more than a month in two hospitals. Two days after she began walking again, she was running.

At the pace she’s set, she expects to be fully recovered within a few months.

&uot;I’m really hard on myself,&uot; Laura said. &uot;I push myself a lot.&uot;

Mike Miller, who has watched Laura work resolutely on her hockey skills during the past three years as her hockey coach at ALHS, hasn’t been surprised at all by the speed at which Laura has recovered.

&uot;She’s a tough girl,&uot; he said. &uot;You can see it in the speed of her recovery and how quickly she’s rebounded. It shows the kind of person she is.&uot;

Laura is a prolific goal scorer, so much so that she’s dominated as a center on the Albert Lea girls hockey team since she was in seventh grade. In her three years on the team she’s scored 139 goals.

&uot;I like scoring,&uot; she said. &uot;It may sound cocky but it’s the best feeling in the world.&uot;

She doesn’t just score, but inspires fear in opposing goalies in every sport she plays.

In soccer last year, her first year playing for the high school, she ranked 20th in the state in scoring.

Her athleticism amazes everyone, especially coaches.

&uot;She has a drive that sets her apart from most athletes in this town,&uot; Miller said. &uot;She’s one of those athletes you run across once or twice in your coaching career.&uot;

She’s taken home all state honorable mention awards in both hockey and soccer.

But it’s not about trophies as much as it is about love of sport.

Laura plays hockey year round for different clubs and teams. She’s on the Minnesota Edge and the Junior Stars, both comprised of some of the highest skilled players in the state.

Her work ethic, which put her on those teams, has also shone brightly in the classroom. She ranks in the top fifteen in her class and has kept up on her education through her recovery.

Laura made the decision, along with her father, to return to school in early May.

&uot;I wanted to go so that I wouldn’t have to make it up in the summer,&uot; Laura said. &uot;I didn’t find myself having any problems with paying attention. It wasn’t too difficult.&uot;

Gary also said that her attendance would help her and her classmates to get re-acclimated after her ordeal.

&uot;I think it was just important to get back,&uot; Gary said. &uot;A lot of people were wondering about her.&uot;

Gary said the school, the community, and even those who didn’t know the family were more supportive than he’d ever imagined.

&uot;The community was unbelievable,&uot; he said.

Laura was inundated with cards, flowers and letters from family, friends and community. Her supporters stretched far into the hockey world as well.

World famous figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi sent her a vase of tulips, nine National Hockey League teams sent her autographed photos. She even got a poster signed by the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team, the team she aspires to play for.

Miller says that goal is well within reach.

&uot;If she keeps going at the pace she has, that work ethic, the desire and the focus, the sky is the limit,&uot; Miller said.

Laura hopes she’ll recover quickly and regain her skills for the ice and the field.

She’s been getting ready to return to her loves of soccer and hockey. Gary said she will skate over the summer to build up strength.

&uot;She’s lost a lot of weight in the process,&uot; he said. &uot;She’ll have to build her muscles back up and get some of that weight back.&uot;

Laura has hopped right back into the swing of things. This week, she flies to Washington D.C. with her classmates for the post-freshman year trip.

After that she’s off to Calgary to act as a bench coach for one of her Minneapolis club hockey teams.

Gary, Laura, Peter and David think daily of Marilyn, who provided so much strength for the family.

Marilyn had worked as a media specialist at Southwest Middle School for many years before moving to the high school to become a special education teacher.

As a mother, she was more than dedicated to her children. All of the children in the family were heavily involved in sports, and she’d drive everywhere and anywhere for the events.

Her devotion and heart cannot be replaced.

&uot;We’ve all changed our lifestyle,&uot; Gary said. &uot;We’re all kicking in where we need to, we all have our duties. Marilyn left a good work ethic for us.&uot;