Paris calling: Duxbury High grad Ally Hammel helped U.S. clinch Olympic field hockey berth

Growing up, Ally Hammel always imagined herself as a future Olympic ... (fill in the blank).

She saw athletes' villages and medal ceremonies in her future, all right. The particular sport she was playing in those daydreams had yet to be determined, though.

"I played soccer growing up and I always wanted to be like Mia Hamm," Hammel recalled. "I thought she was one of the coolest people ever. Just such an amazing athlete. And then, of course, I started playing ice hockey and I thought it would be so cool to go to the Olympics (for that)."

Turns out it was field hockey that might end up being her ticket to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

Hammel, a 27-year-old central defender, was a big part of the Team USA squad that last month clinched its place in Paris by finishing runner-up to Germany at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Ranchi, India. It was a result – and a reward – that Hammel said "still doesn't feel real."

The U.S. won't lock in its roster until June, so Hammel can't say she's officially an Olympian just yet.

But fingers crossed.

"It would mean so much to me to go to the Olympics," Hammel said by phone this week from India, where the U.S. is competing in the FIH Pro League, a six-month, globe-trotting, round-robin tournament for national teams. "It's been a dream of mine for a long time. My mom played field hockey at UConn. She introduced me to the sport. It's a cool connection between us. It would be a really cool experience for my whole family (to make the team)."

"It would be absolutely incredible," agreed Hammel's mom, Jennifer, the athletic director at West Bridgewater High. "I couldn't be more proud of what she does. To see her step on the field representing the United States of America, knowing how much she's sacrificed ... and to see her reach her goal, I'm speechless."

Hammel has a lot of support among South Shore ADs. Bobbi Moran at Thayer Academy was her field hockey coach during her post-graduate year at Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut and still keeps close tabs on her. "Oh, my gosh, so exciting!" Moran said of Hammel's Olympic quest. "My Instagram account has all these direct messages to Ally, like, 'So proud of you!' 'You're such a freaking rock star!'"

An underdog story

Hammel's favorite Olympic memory is from an Olympics she wasn't even alive to see. She's a big fan of the movie "Miracle" that depicts the U.S. men's hockey team's out-of-nowhere gold medal in Lake Placid, New York, in 1980. That's the one with Kurt Russell as coach Herb Brooks and Eddie Cahill as former Oliver Ames High star goalie Jim Craig. Hammel watched it the night before each of Duxbury High's four girls hockey state finals she played in. It must have worked because the Dragons went 4-for-4 in those games.

"It's such a great movie, very inspirational," Hammel said. "You see the underdog (win). I definitely related a little bit to that (at the Olympic qualifier)."

Team USA was ranked sixth out of the eight teams in the tournament going in but went 3-0 in group play and then rallied to beat Japan, 2-1, in the semifinals to clinch an Olympic berth before losing 2-0 in the final. "We were the underdogs," Hammel said."We understood that the pressure was really on other teams to perform."

Hammel was an offensive contributor at Duxbury High (20 goals as a senior) and at Boston University, where she scored 22 times over her four-year career, including a career-high 7 as a freshman. With the U.S. team she's in a more defensive-minded role, so she appreciated the fact that her squad pitched shutouts in each of the group-stage games – wins over India (1-0), Italy (2-0) and New Zealand (1-0).

"Structure is definitely a big part of our game," Hammel said. "We worked a lot on that, especially in our defensive zone. That was a huge emphasis. Everyone was really excellent. Even in times where maybe we felt we weren't as good as we could have been, we really stuck to our game plan (and got results)."

Back home, Hammel's mom hung on every minute of every game, getting the West Bridgewater community hooked as well. With the 10-and-a-half-hour time difference, Team USA's games kicked off around 6 a.m. every day, but Jennifer Hammel was glued to the CBS Sports Network coverage. "It was super early, but it was super exciting," she said. "I was watching, my school was watching. Everyone (here) has been super supportive."

Although she's hardly an impartial observer, Jennifer Hammel says she likes the way her daughter is "so strong and confident and plays with such poise." Although she played the sport at a high level herself, Jennifer refrains from critiquing Ally's play, instead leaning hard into emotional support.

"I am my harshest critic and she knows that," Ally Hammel said. "She always tells me, 'Ally, you need to be kind to yourself. You need to take a step back and be grateful.' I'm very hard on myself. It's great having her (as a resource)."

Chasing a medal

Hammel has been a part of the U.S. program since her college days. She was hesitant at first to try out, but her parents (dad, David, was a swimmer at UConn) and her BU coaches kept prodding her, and she eventually made it, earning the first of her now 55 caps in a U.S. game at Argentina in 2020.

Hammel said her career arc with the national team "wasn't always pretty," noting, "Adapting to those levels takes time, and it definitely took me time. But I feel like everything I go through (with the U.S. program), everything I experience helps me. You grow from there. Even now."

Team USA is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the U.S. Performance Center. Field hockey is almost a full-time gig, but Hammel also works for Connecticut-based Delta Field Hockey, helping players get recruited to college. She's also one of Delta's coaching directors.

Hammel will be in India for a few more weeks as the U.S. plays the first half of its 16-game FIH Pro League schedule. The other half will be split between Antwerp, Belgium, and London in May and June. After that it will be time to finalize the Olympic roster that the U.S. hopes will bring home a medal for the first time since winning bronze in Los Angeles in 1984.

Hammel would love to be part of the whole Olympic experience, including the parade of athletes that this summer will have a new twist. Instead of marching into a stadium, the athletes will sail through the heart of Paris on the Seine River – a scene that Hammel can picture in her mind already.

"It would be the most amazing thing," she said. "It's truly an honor to represent the USA and the sport of field hockey, and my town and all of Massachusetts and my family (including brothers Matt and Johnny). It's definitely something I think about."

Hammel acknowledges that the days leading up to the Olympic roster announcement will be "nerve-racking," but says, "At the end of the day you trust in the process and your training. I just hope to be on the list. I trust in what I'm doing every day in my process. That's what I'm holding onto."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Former Duxbury High field hockey star Hammel dreaming of Olympic glory