This is the ninth of a series of nine stories on award winners from the 2015 Seattle University Athletics Awards Show. Visit GoSeattleU.com for the entire series of stories.
In the 2013 Western Athletic Conference men’s soccer tournament championship game, the Redhawks found themselves down a goal and, much like they had during the entire historic season, they knew they would have to find a way to come back. A pair of second half goals, the game-winner by Hamza Haddadi, and Seattle U punched their ticket to the program’s first NCAA Division I tournament.
“That was a crazy year,” Haddadi remembers looking back. “My freshman year, we weren’t too good and then things started out again bad my sophomore year. But then we went 11 games unbeaten after that and won the WAC Tournament. By winning, the team was getting closer and closer and that led to playing really well.”
The Redhawks’ crazy ride was far from over as they traveled to Omaha, Neb. to face Creighton, a previous NCAA championship contender, on a sub-freezing snowy night.
“We were there to win.”
And win, they did. Coming from behind, again, for a 2-1 victory and a historic feat for the Redhawks.
“Other people might’ve thought we wouldn’t win but we never thought we were going to lose. We went into the game to win, we were confident, and we proved some people wrong. That was cool. I’ll remember that for the rest of my life.”
To think such a large historic milestone started with something as simple as a summer soccer camp. After starting soccer when he was six or seven and also playing basketball growing up, Haddadi started to focus on soccer in high school.
“The beginning of my senior year was when I really started to think about playing soccer in college. I actually came to the college ID camp [at Seattle U] going into my senior year of high school. The coach then was interested in me and I liked it here, so we kept in constant communication. My oldest sister also went here and always talks about it because she had a great experience here and I’m having a similarly great experience as well.”
It’s an experience, an opportunity, and a privilege he doesn’t take for granted.
As a student-athlete, “you get the best of both worlds. You get to keep doing what you love, playing the sport you’ve always played while still getting to go to school. In a lot of other countries, you can’t do that kind of thing, so it’s cool to have the option to do both.”
Winning the award for student-athlete of the year, “doing both” is something Haddadi has learned to balance and excel in over the past three years.
“[It comes down to] just balancing my time. I don’t write anything down, I’m not that kind of scheduler, but I know what I have to do. I keep everything in my head and I know how long things will take. I just always have a list of tasks in the back of my head, so it’s all about time management.”
True to the form that his head coach, Pete Fewing, has taught him, one of his biggest lessons learned at Seattle U is to remember the minutiae.
One of his biggest takeaways is to “always do the right thing down to the little details. A lot of times, it’ll be easy to skip something or cut a corner because it’s the easiest thing to do. But if you always focus on doing the right things down to the little details, it’ll pay off.”
I’ve learned to “enjoy your time here, it goes by really fast. I remember I was just a freshman and now I’m going into my senior year. Make the most of every opportunity, meet new people.”
After reaching the NCAA tournament in 2013 and just missing the tournament in 2014, Haddadi plans nothing less than a return trip for his team during his senior season.
“I want to do whatever it takes. It was the best experience. Once you get a taste of it, you want to do more and want to go further. It’s something all the guys want and I think we’re going to do it next year.”