By Heavyn Hilton
Senior, Hamzah Hashmi, follows in his dad’s footsteps and leaves a remarkable footprint on the field hockey turf. Hashmi found passion in a sport that traces back to Ancient Greece, became an official Olympic sport in 1928, and is the third most popular sport in the world. Although, field hockey lacks popularity here in the U.S, it is Hashmi’s sport of choice.
The major difference between ice hockey (which is very popular in the U.S.) and field hockey is that field hockey requires turf as its surface rather than ice. The game is played with a high density wooden ball with an inch of rubber on the outside and gear is not a necessity while playing.
Physically, the sport requires endurance, sharp reflexes, higher body tempo, intensity, and patience.
Patience is a necessity because the game lasts for 70 minutes with only 11 players participating in the game on the field. There are six substitutes who have to patiently wait to be called into the game.
Hashmi’s father once tried to pursue further into this unfamiliar sport when he was younger, but when he decided to change his plans, Hashmi was enrolled into every field hockey season possible. The potential Hashmi’s father saw in him encouraged Hashmi to continue playing the sport. With time, Hashmi made it to Field Hockey Nationals.
Out of 98 players competing for Nationals, Hashmi and his team made the Top 30. Hashmi was chosen to compete in the top 17 for a Goal Keeper spot, and he later transitioned into the top 11 as a starting goal keeper.
However, he was not done playing yet. Hashmi had to compete one last time- and this time only two people were to be chosen for official Goal Keeper for the Junior National Team.
After a heated competition against for other individuals from different teams, Hashmi made the top two and was officially competing in the National’s Team. With his team, Hashmi played for 70 minutes,
It was the last match and the time was quickly running out when his team received a five-second penalty and all hope seemed to be lost.
A plan was executed and when one of Hashmi’s team member decided to take a chance on a hit since the plan failed and he turned it all around.
“When you’re standing on the other side of the pitch, and you don’t know what’s going on cause’ you can’t see and you hear the clack of the ball hitting the backboard, hairs stand up at the back of your neck. There’s a split second of silence because you’re like, did we just make the goal? Did we just win Nationals?” Hashmi said.
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