Well, according to Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland girls’ hockey coach Shon Collins, Hammond took on the biggest challenge of all.

A year ago at this time, Hammond was lacing up her basketball shoes and stepping onto the hardwood.

Nowadays, the Edward Little senior is lacing up skates and stepping onto the ice, as the Red Hornets’ starting goalie.

Oh, and Hammond had never played hockey before Nov. 2 — the first day of preseason practices.

“I skated on a pond a couple times, used to skate when I was little, but never hockey,” Hammond said. “I knew there was an open competition for the goalie position, and I wanted to challenge myself as a player and a person. So I decided to take that challenge, and it’s been fun.”

Collins emphasized how much of a challenge playing goalie really is.

“You come out here and you’re trying a brand, new sport, arguably the toughest sport there is, and probably the toughest position there is in that sport,” Collins said of being a hockey goalie.

Hammond said the “nerves were pretty real” that first day of practice, and called the first shots she faced in net “pretty scary.”

“It’s quite unexplainable, to be honest,” Hammond said.

The greenhorn goalie said she got used to the shots after a couple days, even the ones that came right at her head.

Hammond got her first taste of game action less than two weeks into her hockey career, as she manned the crease during a preseason round robin tournament that the Red Hornets hosted. Again, Hammond called the experience “scary.”

The feeling was the same when Hammond took the net for her first regular-season game against Winslow/Erskine Academy on Nov. 20. But the Red Hornets won, and Hammond allowed just two goals in her debut.

Then came another challenge, as Hammond and the Red Hornets faced last year’s state championship runner-up Falmouth in their second game. The Red Hornets earned a draw, with Hammond giving up three goals in a game that went to overtime.

Collins said the game against Falmouth is when he started noticing that Hammond could be more than just a serviceable goalie.

“She was facing quality shots, and coming up with big saves,” Collins said. “And it looked repeatable. It wasn’t just players hitting her, or her getting lucky. It was she was in the right position, made an athletic move, and made the save.”

Hammond followed that up with a shutout against Mt. Ararat/Morse. She needed to make just six saves to earn her first career clean sheet, but Collins said it was important for Hammond to see the hard work pay off.

“She’s a strong kid, and I think she would have overcome if she didn’t have the success,” Collins said. “But I think it’s just really helped her get there that much quicker.”

Hammond hasn’t been perfect. She allowed five goals in back-to-back games against Greely and Scarborough, and gave up a season-high seven against Brunswick on Tuesday. Yet, Collins said she has progressed further than he could have ever hoped this soon into the season.

Hammond said she has embarrassed herself at times, but she hasn’t been an embarrassment in net for the Red Hornets.

Maybe more like an embarrassment of riches for Collins, who had no fear in naming Hammond one of the team’s captains.

“Every time she steps on the ice she lays it all on the line because she doesn’t want to let her teammates down,” Collins said. “And to me, that resonates with me as to what a leader is.”

Hammond said she wishes she had tried hockey sooner, but her ascendance couldn’t have come at a better time for Collins. The team graduated a pair of goalies, Savannah Shaw and Tori Sanford. Collins had no others left from last year, so he turned to Hammond and freshman Kristen Jordan. The latter has yet to play (Collins said she will at some point), but has been helped along by the former.

Collins said he hoped his goaltending could keep his team in enough games to get into the playoffs, and go from there. Hammond has sped up the process.

“The saves she’s been making, and the things she’s been doing out there, have just put us that much further ahead of where I thought we would be,” Collins said.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com