The 13-year-old is the goalkeeper for the South Shore United Under-14 Tier 1 team. Hamm says the win was unexpected as the team was in fourth place out of the four teams accepted into the final games.
The 13-year-old is the goalkeeper for the South Shore United Under-14 Tier 1 team. Hamm says the win was unexpected as the team was in fourth place out of the four teams accepted into the final games.
“I don’t think anyone expected that… it was a really good feeling,” he says.
Hamm said he was pleased his team not only rose to the occasion, but also became the first South Shore United team since 2002 to advance to the national championships.
The team advanced to the gold game after a shoot out against the Halifax Dunbrack team. Hamm says he was excited to outplay the teams from Halifax.
“You hear so much about Halifax teams going and then you hear one from South Shore and it’s like ‘what?’” he says.
Hamm says he loves playing goalkeeper.
“It’s more action, it’s more nervous but I find it more fun… you get to see the whole field, it’s a lot more different, you get to see all the action going on,” he says.
When asked if he had any hobbies outside of sports, Hamm laughs. He plays volleyball, basketball, competes in track and field and is even a part of the South Shore Seahawks football team. He says soccer is his favourite.
When moving up to junior high, he chose not to attend South Queens Middle School as their soccer field wasn’t finished being constructed yet. He now goes to Hebbville Academy and plays on the school team. After Grade 9 he intends to go Parkview Education Centre.
Hamm is also a part of the provincial soccer team, but he hasn’t been chosen to compete nationally. Now he’ll get to play nationally with his home team and go on his first flight.
That has made Hamm both excited and nervous. He says part of that is because his team is made up of a mix of 13- and 14-year-olds but most of the other province’s teams will only have one set age. His team will have to play a team made up of only 14-year-olds.
However, he is excited to learn more about the other players.
“It’ll be cool to hear about how they train and how we train will probably be different, they’ll probably train a lot more than we do because we don’t have as much time,” he says.
Hamm plays in the National Tournament from Oct. 6 to 12.
