Athlete of the Week: Daniel Hammond

Photo by Aislinn Menke

Q: How long have you been playing baseball?
A: I’ve been playing baseball for 12 years, since I was five.

Q: Why did you start playing?
A: I tried out every sport. I tried out soccer, football, basketball, baseball, and just stuck with baseball eventually. When I was 11 I started playing just baseball. I just started playing because all of my friends were.

Q: Did baseball have anything to do with your switch from Rockhurst High School to East?
A: Yeah, baseball had quite a bit to do with the transfer. I just wanted a more competitive program, a better coaching staff, better facilities, and that’s what I was getting from a transfer to East. So I decided to make the move.

Q: When did you start pitching?
A: I started pitching when I was 11 or 12, and that’s when I started trying out that position. Usually I was just a middle infielder. I got serious about it when I was in eighth grade. That’s when I realized that I was pretty good at pitching and I wanted to do that for a while.

Q: Do you have plans to play baseball in college?
A: Yeah, I’m talking to college coaches right now, trying to get recruited as much as I can. The hope is to play in a D1 college, and if not, somewhere where I can play quite a bit. But yeah, I do have plans to play in the future.

Q: What about baseball is so important to you? What has made you want to keep playing?
A: I’ve always had this passion for sports. When I was little I played every sport there was, and then I just realized that I was the best at baseball. Ever since then, it’s just been like, every day, I motivate myself to just get a little bit better. So I think what keeps me coming back is that I just want to get a little bit better every day. I keep challenging myself day by day just to improve. I think the love for improving and just a love for the game in general, is what keeps me coming back.

Q: Who has been your biggest supporter?
A: I think my mom and my dad.

Q: How do the teams work? Is there a varsity team, a JV team?
A: There’s four teams, D, C, JV and Varsity. We all practice as a team, so D team up through varsity practices as a team on the baseball field, as like a big squad. Then for games we break up into our individual teams that we’ve been put into by our coach.

Q: How’s the Varsity team looking this year? Do you think you guys will make it to state?
A: State-bound, baby! Do I think we’ll make it to state? Yeah, and I think we’re going to give it our best shot. Just based off of what I saw tonight, and just seeing all these kids playing together for the first time. It was so cool to see all the teams come together tonight as one squad. You really don’t know until you hop into a game type situation how a group of guys are going to play together. But we look really good, we’ve got a lot of energy out there, and we’re going to give state a run for its money this year.