Now, she has the chance to represent her country at the world championships in ice hockey.
Last month, Patchett (14) was selected for the New Zealand women's ice hockey team to travel to Newcastle in Australia for a week-long training camp, including four games against Australian opposition.
She had been to three camps in Christchurch over the past couple of months to improve her skills.
Though just 14, she was not the youngest in the team which went across the Tasman and said the camp was hard going.
"It was very intense. We were on and off the ice the whole day. Then we would have to play a game at the end of the day," she said.
The side played four games at the camp, against two Australian selections, winning three of the games, and losing the other.
She performed so well at the camp that she gained selection in the tournament team which then played a couple of games against a junior Canadian side.
Women's ice hockey did not allow body checking, but despite that rule Stephanie said it was still a very physical sport.
When the team returned from Australia, she said members of the team had a few broken bones, though she had managed to stay injury free.
"They say it is check-free but a lot of people still do it."
She was used to checking as she played in the boys grade in Dunedin, and said the boys played hard against her.
Stephanie was attracted to the sport because of its speed.
"It's just really, really fast. It would be the fastest sport I've ever played. You get this really cool feeling and the adrenaline goes through you. It is way harder than a lot of sports I've played."
A forward, she was aiming to be selected for the New Zealand team for the world championships in 2011, though the host country for the championships had not yet been decided. The last championships were in Romania.
Age did not really matter, she said, and the selectors wanted to pick a young side now to build up for the championships. The New Zealand side was in division four of the championships.
She had always been able to skate, and had first played ice hockey when she was dragged along by a friend to see the sport about five years ago, and had never looked back.
