Kara Violette can sleep just about anywhere.

With all of the miles she’s logged, sleeping in the car has become a normal part of life.

The hard work, the thousands of car-miles and the dedication to her Massachusetts-based hockey team all paid off this month, though.

At 12 years old, Violette is a national hockey champion.

“Not everybody gets a chance to say that,” Violette said. “It feels special.”

“It’s something they’ll remember the rest of their lives,” said her coach, Dennis Laing.

And not only did this humble sprite of a seventh-grader, who still finds time to attend Tripp Middle School in Turner, participate, she was the reason the Assabet Valley Girls’ U-12 ice hockey team won the championship game at USA Hockey’s Girls’ Youth Nationals.

“It was so long,” Violette said. “People were asking me on the bench, ‘Can’t you score? We need the game to end.'”

Violette, the tournament’s leading scorer with 10 points in six games and the team’s regular-season leading point-getter, scored both of Assabet’s goals in a 2-1, eight-overtime thriller over Pittsburgh in West Chester, Pa.

The winner was a beauty.

Violette hopped off the bench, took a feed in the center zone and skated in one-on-one. She snuck by the lone defender, deked to her backhand and lifted the puck past the outstretched glove of the Pittsburgh netminder as she fell to her stomach – 108 minutes and 42 seconds after the game started.

“I didn’t even realize I was falling that bad,” Violette said. “I saw the pictures after the game, and was like, ‘Oh, my God, I fell that much?'”

“She’s a gifted kid like that,” Laing said. “She scored a few big ones for us this season.”

“By the fourth or fifth overtime, we were like, ‘OK, let’s get this done,'” said Kara’s father, Mark Violette. “It was fantastic, though. It was crazy.”

Not likely as crazy, though, as the Violettes’ routine throughout the winter months.

Assabet Valley is 160 miles from Greene. Every week, Kara had to be there for practices and games: three times one week, four the next. For seven months, Kara traveled an average of 1,120 miles per week. That makes 31,360 road miles, all in the name of hockey.

“We had some help doing those miles,” Mark said, “but she was there for all of them.”

Sometimes, Kara’s aunt or grandmother would make the trip. Other times, a teammate’s family from Saco would pitch in.

“It’s really a testament to her family,” Laing said. “When you think about it, it’s almost three hours for them to get down here, the kids have to be at the rink an hour before practice, we have an hour-and-a-half practice and then they drive home.”

But, as Laing pointed out, the drive time can be even more fruitful for family bonding than sitting around the house.

“You talk to the parents, and they talk about having quality time with their kids this way,” Laing said. “To a person, I always get the same answer when I ask if they’d do it again, and it’s always, ‘Absolutely.'”

This summer, Kara will return to Assabet Valley for her third summer camp there. She had been on the team’s radar for some time, but it wasn’t until her team in Maine disbanded that she seized the opportunity to play for the elite squad.

“Her competitive team in Maine did away with her age group,” Mark said. “She enjoyed girls hockey. I had heard of (Assabet), and we knew they were one of the premier girls’ hockey programs in the country. She was able to get a tryout a few years ago. She wasn’t ready for the commute then, but this year, she wanted to go.”

Next fall, she’ll move on to the U-14s. Not that the Assabet Valley program gets any weaker with age: The organization’s U-12, U-14 and U-16 teams all won national titles this spring, and the U-19s and the Senior A teams each advanced into at least the quarterfinals.

For the Violettes, the sacrifice – the miles, the time away from home, and the money for gas – is well worth it.

“As long as Kara wants to do it, we’ll do the miles for her,” Mark said.

“I’m looking at prep schools in Maine for later,” Kara said, “but I really like where I am now, and I’ll probably do that for a few more years.”