Field hockey is a tradition in the Hamel family. Her mother, Jennifer, the athletic director at West Bridgewater, played at the University of Connecticut. Allie Hamel was a multi-sport athlete at Duxbury High School and made a name for herself in field and ice hockey before taking a graduate course at Loomis Chaffee.
She joined BU’s field hockey team as a forward and recorded seven goals and one assist her rookie year. After the season ended, coaches Sally Starr and Tracy Paul had an idea.
“I felt she could be a really good defender,” Starr recalled. “She was open to the discussion.
“She gave the analogy that in ice hockey, she was more of a defenseman, a blue lineman. I was impressed by her saying, 'OK, if that's the position where I can be the best for the team, then I'll play there.'”
Starr said in his 42 years as a college field hockey coach, it was extremely rare for him to make such a request of a player, but Hamel accepted, and it changed her career.
During her collegiate career, she was a two-time Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year, a league Finals MVP and a two-time NFHCA First Team All-American. The switch paid off, with Hamel attributing her success with the U.S. team to playing both positions.
“It's helped me develop a lot of different skills,” Hamel said. “It's really helped me push myself to be a player that can get through any situation.”
The sport is popular in the United States, and Massachusetts is one of them. Forty years ago, the United States won its first and only Olympic medal in the sport, a bronze medal, with three Massachusetts athletes winning: Beth Anders, Leslie Milne and Judy Strong.
The Netherlands, Australia and Germany have been the most successful Olympic teams, while the USA still holds its lone medal from 1984. The USA has the worst record in 2022.
“There were a lot of changes to the program and we missed one Olympic cycle,” said Starr, a former national team player and coach. “We struggled a little bit until Dave Passmore was hired.”
Passmore, who was hired in October 2022, is a former Ireland and Great Britain team coach who joined the team at the same time the U.S. program was flocking players to Charlotte, N.C. Passmore noticed the national team had few players who stayed committed to the sport after college, and he needed to change that and make field hockey a full-time activity for the players as much as possible, allowing them to train and play together frequently.
For the past five years, the United States has had teams compete in the FIH Pro League, giving players more opportunities to compete in international tournaments than ever before.
“We have a lot of good players, but we have always been a young team in terms of the number of international appearances we've had,” Hamel said. “Playing in the FIH Pro League for the past five years has given us the opportunity to play against some of the best teams and players in the world. With every match we learn something new about ourselves and the team as a whole.”
“The hiring of Passmore means so much to our country,” Starr said. “We've got a group of athletes who are willing to show the kind of dedication that Allie Hamel did, living in Charlotte and training together. They're getting better physically, they're getting better culture, they're getting better hockey.”
Despite the apparent changes, many still had doubts about the U.S.'s chances of competing in this year's Olympics.
“The only people who really felt like they had a chance to advance to Olympic qualifying were probably the team itself,” Starr said.
In the FIH Qualifiers held in India in January, the U.S. unexpectedly ran its course, defeating the top three teams, including a semifinal comeback win over Japan to secure an Olympic berth. Hamel's brilliant defense in the Japanese corner was one of the key plays of the match.
“We owe our success to game management,” Hamel said. “We weren't perfect and we didn't perform to our potential at times, but our preparation and playing in key moments throughout the tournament allowed us to achieve our goal of qualifying.”
Two weeks ago, the official team was announced. The team was aging, with only four active college players. USA Field Hockey revealed that it believes older players, not current college players or coaches, are the key to putting the team back on the map. The team is preparing to face Olympic silver medalists Argentina in the opening game on July 27.
But Hamel and her teammates aren't thinking about the struggles of the past few years. Their eyes are always on the next three seconds.
“Sometimes you can't control what has happened in the past or what may happen in the future,” Hamel says. “By staying in the present moment and focusing on what's in front of you, you can influence what will happen.”
Kat Cornetta can be contacted at sportsgirlkat@gmail.com.
