POTSDAM -- Jedidiah Hammill is one of many North Country natives to excel in athletics while wearing a SUNY Potsdam jersey. At first he didn't seem destined to play for the Bears, but when he graduated in 2003, Hammill ranked third in scoring in Potsdam men's lacrosse history.

The Winthrop native and St. Lawrence Central standout originally had his sights set to play lacrosse farther away from home at LeMoyne College. He was heavily recruited by former Bear Shane Lynch '92 who was then the coach of the Dolphins. Sadly, Lynch lost his battle with skin cancer in 1997 at age 28, just before Hammill was set to head to Central New York.

"I met Coach Lynch and I had all my interviews and Le Moyne was where I wanted to go," said Hammill. "I had some friends that played lacrosse there. They had an up and coming program. I was headed there and unfortunately before it was time to leave, he passed away. Not a lot of people knew about his cancer and he went downhill fast."

Having lost a potential mentor, Hammill was unsure what to do next at first. However, another connection with a coach swayed him.

"I had also applied to SUNY Potsdam because I knew Coach Berkman for years." Hammill said. "He was always at all my lacrosse games in high school. I also used to play in a pickup league they used to have every Sunday morning at Maxcy Hall and I developed a relationship with him. I didn't know what was going to happen at Le Moyne. I didn't know who their coach was going to be and my main attraction to Le Moyne was Coach Lynch. So I decided to stay home and play for Coach Berkman and go to school here."

When he arrived on campus in the fall of 1998, Hammill didn't take long to realize he could play at the college level.

"I was actually pretty nervous," said Hammill. "Coming from a pretty small high school I didn't really know what to expect. The first day of fall ball I think I scored two goals in practice. I thought it was fast and very different from high school, but it didn't take long to pick up playing at that level. There was a transition, but it took maybe a day or two to figure out that I belonged here with the rest of the guys."

On March 20, Hammill and the 1999 Bears opened the season against Mercyhurst University in the first round of Alfred University's Terrance O'Connor Tournament. The Lakers halted Potsdam 18-10, but it was a brief setback. The next day, the Bears routed Endicott College 28-5, beginning a five-game winning streak where they averaged 21.8 goals-per-game.

Hammill's confidence grew as the season progressed, but Berkman's trust in his freshman was immediate and was evident in overtime of Potsdam's 13-12 victory against SUNY Cortland on April 28.

"I'll always remember when we beat Cortland at home, in overtime Coach Berkman handed me the ball," Hammill said. "We got the ball. We took a timeout. He said you're going to start with the ball and if you can beat your guy, go for it and end this game. I didn't end up scoring the goal, but I did get the assist."

Potsdam lost the regular season finale at St. Lawrence University on May 1. However, a 6-5 record earned them an ECAC Tournament Berth and a rematch with the Saints two weeks later. The fourth-seeded Bears knocked off top seed SLU 17-11 to earn a championship matchup with RPI. Hammill scored during the contest, but took a hard shot to the quad and was questionable for the title game. Fortunately for Potsdam he was able to go. Hammill scored four goals and added an assist, but the Bears were edged by the Engineers 18-17.

Hammill finished the season third in scoring with 28 goals and 20 assists for 48 points. In an era when the SUNYAC wasn't sponsoring lacrosse, Hammill was named the Empire Lacrosse League's Rookie of the Year.

With one very successful season under his belt, Hammill was fired up for his sophomore year, but during the summer a construction accident nearly ended his career.

"I worked construction in the summer time for money to go to school and pay bills," said Hammill. "I just about amputated my thumb. We were roofing and a piece of sheet metal came up and went through my hand. So I had a bunch of surgeries. When I came back as a sophomore I didn't even get to play fall ball. I was still in a cast."

Hammill was healthy and ready to go by the start of the 2000 season. The Bears rolled to a 10-6 record, including a 4-2 mark in the reconstituted SUNYAC, just one win shy of the program record. The season concluded with a 16-10 loss to Elmira College in the ECAC Tournament. Hammill lit up opponents for a career-high 35 goals to go with eight assists for 43 points.

On April 1, he scored seven goals and assisted on one as Potsdam crushed SUNY Geneseo 21-10. For his efforts, Hammill was named second team All-SUNYAC.

Hammill continued to perform at a high level, including a four-goal, two assist effort in a 20-4 win at SUNY Poly. Potsdam struggled down the stretch to finish with a 6-5 overall record, but still managed a 4-2 mark in the conference. Hammill matched his previous season's point total of 43 on 33 goals and 10 assists. He was named first team All-SUNYAC and a second team ECAC Upstate All-Star.

As the 2002 campaign began, Hammill was focused on putting an exclamation mark on his already brilliant career. He registered five goals and three assists in the first four contests of his senior season before a serious shoulder injury against Plattsburgh State knocked him out of action for the rest of the year. The Bears struggled to just a 4-8 mark without Hammill and some of their other big guns lost to graduation.

With the help of Bears Athletic Director Jim Zalacca, Hammill was granted a medical redshirt by the NCAA and he was able to return healthy for a full 2003 season. Again Potsdam started quickly, opening the year with a 6-2 record. The Bears finished the regular season at 6-6, 3-4 SUNYAC, and qualified for the conference playoffs for the first time. Hammill and his teammates headed to Cortland for the semifinals. The contest left a big impression on him.

"It was definitely a different atmosphere once the SUNYAC started having its end of the year tournament," Hammill said. "You walk into the Cortland Stadium and it's something else. You have the banners up on the sidelines that say NCAA and SUNYAC. People are paying to get in to watch you play. It's kind of neat feeling. You feel 'This is legit. We did something here.' That was the last game I played. It was a pretty awesome experience."

Despite two goals and two assists from Hammill, the Bears bowed to the Red Dragons 15-9. He finished the season with 21 goals and 21 assists for 42 points. After another appearance on the All-SUNYAC second team, Hammill was selected to play in the USILA Division III North-South All-Star game.

Hammill credits much of his success to Berkman, who has just started his 23rd season as head coach of the Bears.

"When I was in high school it was more like who's the best player," Hammill said. "Give them the ball and let them go score and see if we could win that way. When you come to the collegiate level, you've got guys that are there for a reason. You learn a lot more intricacies of the game. When to go to goal. Where to be in certain situations. Just little things like that. Coach Berkman knows these things and could teach us. We had our moments like every player and coach does when we don't agree on things, but I was never the guy who was 'I hate my lacrosse coach.' I always loved Coach Berkman, but you get yelled at sometimes for doing dumb things on the field."

Berkman also looked after Hammill off the field.

"I remember he sat me down in my junior year to talk about life in general," Hammill said. "I was having a rough week and practicing horribly. He asked me what are some of things I should be doing now. 'You're coming out of your junior year and life's just around the corner. It's not just lacrosse, girls and partying. People look up to you on this team and you have to come with a better attitude because it's going to transfer over into life. Everything you do now is going to teach you about life later.' That meant a lot to me for him to sit me down and spend a little time with me as a person other than a coach. (Our relationship) continued to develop after that. I see him all the time at the golf course. I'm still close with him and his family. I'll go over to his house and have a beer. During hunting season, I see him quite a bit too."

In 56 career games at Potsdam, Hammill scored 122 goals and recorded 62 assists for 184 points. He ranks third in all-time scoring and goals and seventh in assists.

Hammill graduated in 2003 with a degree in speech communication. After Potsdam he spent a year as an independent contractor for Niagara Mohawk, installing digital meters on homes and camps around the area. Hammill then became an advocate for troubled youth where he was on call 24-7 for children with tough family lives. He was responsible for ensuring their safety and trying to find them jobs. The experience helped him with the next step in his professional career.

"With those two positions I learned how to work independently and with the contracting company I learned how to work a sales route," said Hammill. "So I applied for a job in pharmaceutical sales I saw in the paper. They had an open house in Watertown. I threw on my suit, grabbed my resume and went down there for the day and ended up getting the job."

He has worked for several companies since he first entered the field, covering territories from Vermont to Syracuse, while winning multiple awards along the way.

Looking back on his whole Potsdam experience, he found it very personal.

"I liked that even though there were over 3,000 students, you felt like you knew every one of them because you either had a class with them at some point or saw them at a party or downtown," Hammill said. "Everybody knew everybody. It wasn't like being at SUNY Buffalo where there were 30,000 students. I look at Facebook and I must have 500-600 friends on there from SUNY Potsdam. There's so many people you know from being there since the school is small. It was also kind of neat going to a school that was local. I had a lot of local support from people in Brasher. They'd come to the games."

Hammill will have more local support on Saturday night as his parents Nancy and Jeremiah will be present to watch their son enter the Hall of Fame.