Former BU star Ally Hammel chases Olympic dream
Makes bid to make US team
West Bridgewater athletic director Jenn Hammel might not normally wake up before sunrise to stream international field hockey. But for one week in the middle of January, she made every effort to watch the United States Women’s National Team play across the globe in the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier in Ranchi, India.
Why? Daughter Ally Hammel — a former field hockey star at Duxbury (2014), Loomis Chaffee (CT) and Boston University — competed with the USWNT to punch its ticket to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. It was USA’s last chance to qualify. And when their bid was locked with a 2-1 win over Japan in the semifinal round, the 27-year-old defender fulfilled a dream she told her mom about years ago as a kid.
Whether games were at 9 a.m., 6:30 a.m. or 6 a.m. in local time, Jenn wasn’t going to miss what Ally’s been working toward for so long.
“To see her step out on the field and to see her attain a goal that she has had for her life, and to see her playing for her country — the pride I have and being so happy for her is just enormous,” Jenn said. “Gosh, it’s hard to put into words. (It’s) pretty emotional.”
Yet, “emotional” almost doesn’t begin to cover the journey this has been for both Ally and her USA teammates.
Early in her athletic career, Ally knew what she wanted. She first thought reaching the Olympics would come in ice hockey, but it didn’t take very long after picking up a field hockey stick in the 7h grade for her to realize where her true gift and joy lied. Ally was on the legendary Duxbury girls hockey teams that won four straight state titles from 2011-2014, though it was field hockey she went on to play at Boston University after a post-grad year at Loomis Chaffee.
While Massachusetts produces many quality collegiate players, not many go further than that in their playing careers — at least not compared to the likes of Pennsylvania. Anything more than BU was more of a dream than anything. But after conversations with her club coach, and then Terriers head coach Sally Starr, Ally got the confidence boost she needed to go for it.
“I remember my club coach being like, ‘Hey, you could really do this. If you want it, you could go,’” Ally said. “(Starr) said the same thing. … That was the kind of the push that I needed to go try out.”
Not making the USWNT on her first tryout was a bit crushing. But Ally, who was BU’s first two-time NFHCA All-American First Team recipient and a twotime Patriot League defensive player of the year, tried out again the next year and cracked the development squad. She recorded her first international cap in 2020 and has 61 more ever since — the sixth-most on the team. That includes helping USA take fourth place in 2022 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, and then the silver medal the following year.
Doing so from Massachusetts is something she has thought a lot about.
“I think field hockey is still growing in our area,” Ally said. “It’s been such an honor to represent New England and Massachusetts, and I know my teammate (Beth Yeager), who is from Connecticut, feels very similarly. Our goal is to continue to grow this sport, it’s the most important thing.”
Up until January, though, none of it meant a trip to the Olympics. She nor the rest of the players on the USWNT roster know if they’ll make the trip yet — only 16 of them will be selected.
But qualifying, for right now, has been an incredible fulfillment after rigorous, seemingly round-the-clock training on top of some players working remote secondary jobs or coaching. Especially doing so on the team’s very last chance after USA’s last appearance came in 2016.
“It was so just rewarding to feel all the work that we’ve put in over the last six months or so, even in the last year, to have it come to that moment where we qualified,” Ally said. “I’m not just so grateful for me, and of course this has been my goal for so long. But seeing my teammates and that excitement, and feeling their energy of them wanting this for so long. There’s been girls on the team for almost eight years that haven’t seen an Olympics. It’s incredibly rewarding. It makes my heart swell, it’s so emotional.”
The USWNT fell short of Germany, 2-0, in the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier final, but just needed a topthree finish to crack the field. Defense dominated the way to make that happen.
Within a clean sweep in pool play, USA didn’t allow a single goal. It started with a 1-0 shutout of India, which spoiled the American’s last chance to qualify in 2020. A 2-0 win over Italy and a 1-0 win over New Zealand sent USA to the semifinal, in which it needed to rally past a 1-0 deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Japan. Preparation was key. “We spent days going over each team that we were going to play,” Ally said. “We strive to not be the best, but to out-smart every team and I totally think we did that.”
The United States will be in Group B of pool play alongside Australia, Argentina, England, Spain and South Africa. Play starts on July 27.