Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Jules Hamer (29) hits the ball during a match against Jefferson Davis High School on Aug. 30 at Chelsea High School. The Lady Hornets won the first two sets to win the match.
Jules Hamer is going to go down as one of the best volleyball players in the history of Chelsea High School.
In the summer, she became the first Chelsea player to participate in the North-South All-Star Game, held in Montgomery for the state’s top rising seniors. If things go according to plan, she is likely to eclipse 1,000 career kills this season as well.
She’d throw those things away in a heartbeat for a ring, though.
“I want to win state really bad,” Hamer said. “I will do everything I can to win state.”
In Hamer’s career — she’s played on the varsity team since her days as a freshman — that possibility has risen from a far-fetched wish to one that doesn’t seem too far out of reach.
Last fall, Chelsea was arguably one of the top teams in the state, but Helena and Pelham prevented the Hornets from getting out of the area. Pelham went on to win state and Helena also advanced to the state tournament.
So how does Hamer help Chelsea get over that hump and on the road to reaching that ultimate goal? That starts with the camaraderie within the locker room.
“We’re all very cooperative and we’re all friends with each other and we have no drama,” Hamer said. “We are friends off the court, so it makes our on-the-court [play] so much better.”
Hamer will need to lead with her play and with the way she carries herself this fall if the Hornets are to reach their potential. Her teammate and fellow senior, Sara Swee, believes she can do both.
“It’s just great because she can make something good out of a bad set,” Swee said. “She’ll make me look good even if I’m playing bad, and she’s always helping us and encouraging us and telling us not to worry about our mistakes. She’s always been a really good team player.”
Sixth-year head coach Jessica Pickett said Hamer has come a long way since her days as a freshman, improving into an all-around player capable of doing anything on the court.
“She’ll be playing all the way around,” said Pickett. “Freshman year, if you’d have told her that, she would have said no. But as it went along, it was like, ‘Jules, you’re going to be playing all the way around very soon.’”
Hamer said she has gotten a little better each year. She only played in the middle as a freshman, then added serving to her game, then became confident on the back row and as an outside hitter.
“I always try to work for everything,” she said.
Hamer believes she still has some work to do as a leader because of her “passive” nature, but she is adjusting to the role. It helps that she can vividly remember the days of playing on varsity as a freshman, so she was able to encourage Amaya Rudolph and Hope Wright last fall. Both played as freshman in 2017 and will be critical parts of the rotation this season.
“They were nervous and I tried to make them feel welcome because when I was a freshman, I was so scared,” Hamer said.
Hamer said she hopes to play volleyball in college and aspires to be a veterinarian in the future. But for now, she wants a pair of rings for her final high school year: one from state and one from graduation.
“It’s going by so fast, so I’m just kind of living in the moment,” she said.
