Many athletes never have the opportunity to decide between playing for their father or for Keene State College. However, for one KSC basketball player, freshman point guard Lucas Hammel, it was about where he was going to get the chance to play right away.

Hammel would have loved to be playing this season for Merrimack College, where for the last 34 years his father, Bert Hammel, has been the head basketball coach.

It would have also marked the third time he would have been playing for his father, Lucas said.

“He coached my AAU [Amateur Athletic Union] team, I always like playing for my dad. Those two years were a great experience for me,” Lucas said. When growing up, Merrimack College was Lucas’ second home. “I knew every nook and cranny of it,” Lucas said.  However, when weighing his options, Hammel decided on KSC because he had the chance to play right away.

Brian Cantore / Photo Editor:
Men’s basketball guard Lucas Hammel draws contact during a home game against UMass Boston on Jan. 25.

According to Bert, Lucas said to him he needed to go to Division III. “He was the one who came to me and he said I want to play right away. I want to be a starting point guard. There’s not a lot of kids nowadays that understand the level that they have to play at,” Bert said.

“Obviously playing for my father was a lifetime goal of mine. But the only time I wanted to go to Merrimack was if I knew I would have had a chance to play right away as a freshman,” Lucas said.

Bert said the talk about colleges began when he and Lucas sat down at the end of Lucas’s junior year of high school. Hammel said he wanted to be there as a father and only as a coach in the beginning of the recruiting process.

“I made it very plain to him that I would be there absolutely one hundred percent as a father and as a parent. But as a coach I would give him some guidance in the beginning,” Bert said.

However, the elder Hammel didn’t want to give Lucas too much feedback about a coach or a program. “I was not going to tell him, ‘Jeez I know that guy and I don’t think he’s a good coach. That program is going down hill.’ That’s something he needed to grow as an individual and find out for himself,” he said.

Lucas said his father really helped him find his way during the process. “He did a great job of just letting me feel my way through it. He really just wanted me to find the school that would be the best fit for me,” Lucas said.

As the season has progressed this year the elder Hammel has continued to be there as a father for Lucas, but not as a coach.  As  Bert said, he never interferes with Owls’ head coach Rob Colbert’s ways. “I might say I think you should do this or that, but absolutely nothing to interfere with defensive or offensive philosophies of coach Colbert,” he said.

According to the father, KSC fell in love with Lucas when Owls assistant coach, Steve Boudreau, found Lucas at a fall ball league. “He’s the one who really believed in Lucas from the beginning, even when he had a couple of bad fall games. Steve saw something in him and stayed with him.”

Boudreau said the Owls stuck with Lucas because of his work ethic on the basketball court. “We stuck with Lucas because of the way he competed,” Boudreau said. In addition, Boudreau loved three things about Lucas, “his effort, energy and attitude.”

Colbert said the Owls coaching staff believes in Lucas because of his incredible passion and energy. “You know, that is something that you can’t teach. You can correct mistakes but you can’t create passion,” Colbert said.

Brian Cantore / Photo Editor: Freshman Lucas Hammel drives to the rim in a home game against UMass Boston Jan. 25.

One thing that both Lucas and his father attribute to helping Lucas get to the college level were practices back when Lucas was in high school with the ‘big boys’ at Merrimack. “His sophomore year he started playing with my guys in the summer and getting his ass kicked,” Hammel’s dad said.

His son’s shots would be blocked and he would turn the ball over as well when playing with and against the Division II scholarship players, according to Bert. However, Bert said he kept saying to his son, “That’s how you get better. You’ve got to play against better players.”

Lucas also attributes his success to one of his dad’s former point guards, Darren Duncan. “A lot of players hated me playing because I really wasn’t that good. He was the kid who would pull me aside and make me shoot and I was always on his team. He kind of took me under his wing which I really appreciated,” Hammel said. According to Hammel, Duncan is currently playing basketball out of the country in Canada and is unavailable for comment.

The Owl’s point guard said those practices helped him along the way and they better prepared him for KSC. He said it helped himself toughen up mentally and physically. “I was a little high school kid going against these Division two full scholarship athletes. Obviously I was getting my butt kicked day in and day out. It just really helped me develop my edge,” Lucas Hammel said.

As for his experience at KSC, so far Lucas said it’s been a positive one. He highly praises Colbert and the coaching staff. “I really respect coach Colbert and the coaching staff too much to transfer on them. I’m definitely here at Keene [State College] for four years,” Hammel said.

Brian Clemmenson can be contacted at bclemmenson@keene-equinox.com