Hammer Ready to Build Lely Football Program

The Ben Hammer era at Lely High School officially got underway Thursday evening as he unveiled his plan for a successful program with a detailed PowerPoint presentation in the auditorium at Lely High School. By the time he was done, the physically imposing Hammer had the parents, players, and boosters believing he was the man to get the job done at Lely.

Hammer left little to chance in his address to the audience. It’s that kind of attention to detail that can pay dividends on the football field.

"Our goal is to establish a culture,” Ben Hammer said. “To get kids pushed towards whatever their dreams are post-high school, whether that's go to college, play college ball, go to the military, or go straight into the workforce. Whatever the next game, that's going to be our Super Bowl. We're focused on the black and orange scrimmage and then the Estero game."

Hammer just arrived on Lely’s campus last Monday, but he’s hitting the ground running.

"Really busy,” he said. "Really fun. A lot of energy. A lot of buzz. Excitement. Meeting the kids and working on putting together an elite coaching staff. It's really been a blur."

Hammer has met with his players and likes what he sees.

"I think we've got 54 registered for spring ball,” he said. “They're hard-working. They're eager to get started. This is a really close-knit family community. All of them are friends. All of them hang out together. You've almost got to chase them out of the locker room, out of the weight room. They like to hang around and be around. Football is important to them. We'll start doing meetings and setting up equipment and all that stuff next week."

Hammer is goal oriented. That includes Thursday’s meeting.

“Tonight’s community meeting is just to disseminate information,” he said. "Really establish vertical alignment so that people know where to go for information, where to go to join the booster club. Giving out a lot of NCAA recruiting information. Beth Coleman from our counseling department has been tremendous to work with for that. We also got a bunch of pizzas donated by Maria Rodriguez, and that's been great, too. We just really want to put our vision of Lely football out there and have people excited about it."

Hammer comes to Lely following a successful stint in Rock Island, Illinois, where he led his team to four playoff appearances. He is looking forward to spring practice and two key tests that lie ahead for his players.

“Practice starts Monday, April 24th,” Hammer said. "The Black-Orange scrimmage is Thursday, May 11.”

Spring practice concludes with a scrimmage against Estero on May 19.

Mike Lastra, a Lely graduate, has his son Mikey, last year’s starting center, returning for his senior season. He likes what he sees in Hammer.

“We'll see what happens this year,” Lastra said. “Very exciting with the new coach coming in. Sounds very promising for the future of this program. You know, I'm actually an alumni myself from Lely High School back in 1997.

Team mom Brooke Trupiano, whose son is in ninth grade, waited in line to talk to Hammer after his presentation.

"I'm really excited to have him as the new head coach,” Trupiano said. "I really feel like he's going to do a great job, and he already has done a great job of bringing all of our players together for the spring season. He seems like he's got a lot of experience and he seems like he just has a really good handle on having the kids not just thinking about winning, but also about being a team.”

Athletic director Bill Mottola is happy with the school’s hire.

“This meeting was above and beyond,” Mottola said. “Ben Hammer is extremely organized.”

Part of Hammer’s organization is mobilizing the Lely community.

“Right now,” Hammer said, "it's a small, close-knit group of really hard-working individuals, parents and adults. The immediate kind of goal would just be to get as many people in the community involved as possible. A word that I'll use a lot is stakeholders, and I think that everybody in the school, every student, every teacher, custodian, parent, assistant, principal, every member of the community should be a part of the football program. And a lot of that can be done through boosters and helping out in meals and stuff."

Hammer is busy assembling a coaching staff. So far, he has an offensive and defensive coordinator.

"I was working with Coach Hammer at Rock Island High School the last two years,” said Brian Hodge. “Me and Coach Hammer met about 12 years ago through USA Football, and my college roommate and him were coaches together at a high school in North Carolina. We're going to bring some toughness. We're going to bring an attitude with some grit, you know, a workman-like attitude that every day we're going to punch the clock, make sure they understand that when they play Lely football, they understand that it's a workman's attitude.”

Hodge has been coaching football for 18 seasons. He was Hammer’s defensive coordinator at Rock Island.

Offensive coordinator Ross Baker is entering his 14th year of coaching. An Ohio native, Baker assisted Ohio State's coaching staff while attending school there. Most recently, he was the associate head coach and offensive coordinator at Dixie Heights high school in Kentucky.

Key Dates: Practice starts April 24. Black-Orange Scrimmage is on May 11. The Estero scrimmage is on May 19.