2023 Grand Marshal Lyndsey Fry
Parade & Faire President Jeff Aspland, 2023 Grand Marshal Lyndsey Fry, and 2023 Arizona Colleen Mackenzie Shane at the Arizona Coyotes game
Written By Kathleen Sweeney
The Saint Patrick’s Day Parade and Faire Committee has selected Lyndsey Fry as its 2023 Parade Grand Marshal. Lyndsey grew up in Chandler. Her parents Lynne and Doug worked for Wells Fargo throughout their careers. What Lyndsey admires most about their parenting style and most wants to emulate when she herself becomes a parent was their willingness to go all in to support whatever their kids were passionate about. For Lyndsey and her brother Wesley, that was ice hockey. They were Disney kids, and they became interested in ice hockey by watching the Disney “Mighty Ducks” movies. Doug worked in Southern California then, and the kids’ interest in the Mighty Ducks movie characters soon became an interest in the actual Anaheim Ducks ice hockey team.
“Some parents would have laughed if their family lived in the desert and their little girl told them that she wanted to play ice hockey,” Lyndsey says, “but not my parents.” Lyndsey began playing when she was five. There were limited opportunities for girls to play ice hockey in Arizona then, so Lyndsey played on boys’ teams until she was fourteen. That experience has served her well. “I learned some very colorful language,” she laughs. “I was one of the stronger players, which made me a target. I’ve always enjoyed proving people wrong, so I learned to be tough, hold my own, and let things roll off my back. But I also learned to be confident and comfortable working with boys and men.” Those qualities have proven to be very useful in Lyndsey’s subsequent endeavors.
When Lyndsey switched to girls’ hockey, there were still limited opportunities in Arizona for girls, so she played for the Colorado Selects team in Denver for four years. She played the right wing forward position, which meant that her job was offense. “I’ve always thought of myself as a power forward,” she says, “because I’m tall and I could drive to the net and score.” She attended Corona del Sol High School for two years, and after making the U.S. national women’s ice hockey team, she attended Arizona Connections online high school for her last two years. She helped the under-eighteen U.S. team win the 2009 World Championship gold medal and the 2010 World Championship silver medal.
She then attended Harvard and played for its varsity ice hockey team, the Harvard Crimson. “Most people think of academics when they think of Harvard,” she says, “but Harvard also has one of the oldest women’s ice hockey teams in the country. I was very fortunate to be a Division One athlete at an Ivy League school.” She took a year off from playing for Harvard to help the U.S. women’s national ice hockey team win the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics silver medal. That made her the first male or female athlete from Arizona to compete in Olympic ice hockey for the United States and the first Arizona native to win a Winter Olympics medal. “We were of course all proud to represent our country,” she says, “but I also knew how much it meant to have someone from Arizona doing that. I was glad to be able to show other girls that living in the desert doesn’t keep you from successfully competing in ice hockey at the highest levels.”
Lyndsey initially studied mechanical engineering at Harvard, hoping to someday build Disneyland rides. But the rigors of doing so while competing as a Division One athlete led her to switch to studying the history and philosophy of science and technology, in which she earned a B.A. degree in 2015. That same year, she started Lyndsey Fry Hockey, LLC. She didn’t understand what a business degree entailed when she started the company, and she had no intention of pursuing one. But when Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business announced a promotion through which anyone admitted to the school would receive a full scholarship, she applied, was admitted, and learned that she loved business and entrepreneurship. She earned a master’s degree in business administration and management with a marketing concentration in 2018. “I really think of myself as an entrepreneur first and everything else second,” she says.
Lyndsey’s company runs youth ice hockey camps in other Southwest cities during the summer. She acts as camp director, runs on-ice instruction and off-ice drills, gives motivational talks, and runs nutrition, fitness, and leadership workshops. She also offers private coaching and is a certified mental performance mastery coach as well as a motivational speaker on topics such as overcoming adversity, teamwork, goal setting and achievement, motivation and commitment, and elite mindset. Lyndsey’s wife, Emily Fry, whom she married in 2021, is a registered dietician who provides nutrition consulting for athletes. The company’s website is fryhockey.com.
Lyndsey notes that the mental toughness aspect of ice hockey is one of her favorite things to teach because only a small percentage of training time was devoted to it in the past. “Athletes training to play ice hockey do the physical drills over and over,” she says, “but no one was talking much about the mental aspect, so when athletes got into high-pressure situations, they really struggled.” She’s glad that this area is receiving more attention now.
Lyndsey has worked for the Arizona Coyotes ice hockey team since 2018, serving in various positions including Manager of Marketing Strategy and Special Projects, Director of Female Hockey, Director of Public Affairs, and Senior Director of Hockey Development Business Strategy. Since 2019, she has been president of the Arizona Kachinas Girls’ Hockey Association, which is an Arizona Coyotes affiliate. She is also an Arizona Coyotes Female Hockey Ambassador and a color analyst for the Arizona Coyotes radio broadcast team. She added to her string of “firsts” by becoming the first woman on that broadcast team.
“My favorite thing about running the girls’ program is that I get to be an entrepreneur while at the same time receiving support from the Arizona Coyotes’ larger business organization,” Lyndsey says. “We’ve gone from zero to sixteen teams in four years. It’s been challenging, but I love it. I’ve always known that I wanted to build things, be creative, and work with kids, and I get to do all of those things in running the girls’ program.” She also loves her color analyst job because “it’s so much fun to be on the air talking about my hometown team.”
The desire to inspire girls to reach their dreams as she has reached hers permeates Lyndsey’s activities. “Everything good in my life—my relationships with my family members, including my wife, my education, and my job—came directly or indirectly from hockey,” she explains. “I’ve reached my dreams, so if I can help even one other girl to reach hers, I’ll be happy.” Her color analyst job provides one opportunity to do so. “There are girls on the Kachinas teams who now want to be broadcasters because they’ve seen me being one,” she says.
Lyndsey may someday help girls to fulfill their dreams of playing professional ice hockey by fulfilling one of her own dreams for the future. She would love to own an Arizona women’s professional ice hockey team at some point. “I may be old and gray by then,” she laughs, “but the landscape of women’s hockey is continually evolving and owning a professional women’s team here would be incredible.”
Lyndsey is not sure whether she has any Irish ancestry. Her mother was adopted, so she’s uncertain about that side of her family. “It’s definitely possible, though,” she says, “because when I had my DNA tested, I was 81.7% Northern and Central European.” She’s very excited, flattered, and honored to have been chosen this year’s Grand Marshal, and she’s looking forward to having lots of fun at the parade. She hopes that Emily and her parents will be able to ride with her in it. “I’ll try to act as Irish as possible,” she promises. Emily may be able to give her some pointers about doing so because she has Irish ancestry and has been to Ireland.
