Hammoud Chasing Fame One Nation at a Time : Soccer: Sophomore standout at Los Alamitos will play on the Egyptian national 21-under team.

Like many young soccer standouts, Sommer Hammoud has the dream. She is only 15, a sophomore at Los Alamitos High, so it’s still hard for her to imagine, but she hopes to play for the U.S. women’s national team one day.

Coaches have told her she has the potential. Blessed with skill, speed and a desire to improve her game, Hammoud might beat the long odds and become one of the best female players in the United States.

But Hammoud, whose parents are from Egypt, soon will get to prove that she is among the best in that country. Egypt is putting together its first women’s national team--an under-21 squad--and next month is playing host to a tournament in Cairo that is billed as the first women’s soccer competition in the Middle East.

Hammoud and two other North American players with Egyptian ancestry will join the team and lead it against junior teams from Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands.

Hammoud is excited, if a bit wary of the unknown. “I don’t know how good the other teams are going to be,” she said. “I don’t know if we are going to get humiliated.”

It could happen, but Hammoud seems the type to be able to bounce back quickly and learn from the experience. Says Rich Manning, her coach at Los Alamitos: “She’s 15 years old going on 30.”

That maturity has helped her thrive in high school soccer. A two-year starter on the varsity, last year she was the Griffins’ second-leading scorer behind two-time Empire League player of the year Elizabeth Willemse. Hammoud is one of the reasons Los Alamitos finished second in the Sunset League behind top-ranked Marina.

Today, the Griffins will find out who they will play Saturday in the first round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs. Hammoud is confident.

“I really think we can make it to the final and win because we have the potential to do it,” she said. “We just have to play our best game every day in the playoffs.”

Hammoud, an offensive catalyst who has six goals and two assists this season, tied with fellow sophomore Cyndi Tredway as the Griffins’ third-leading goal-scorer this season.

From her outside forward position, she uses her speed--she won the league freshman-sophomore 100 and 330 hurdles titles last year--to blow past defenders and then launch crossing passes into the middle.

“She keeps the ball close to her body and gets by people even when they are bumping and pushing her,” Manning said.

Hammoud also is one of the rare forwards who is an asset on defense.

“She’s really a good two-way player,” Manning said. “She gets up and down the field tremendously. Like a 400-meter runner, you have to have the speed and the endurance to hold it.”

Hammoud’s endurance has suffered a bit this month. She is observing the Islamic practice of fasting from dawn to dusk during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.

Each morning during Ramadan, Hammoud rises before sunrise with her family to eat. On a recent morning, a bowl of cereal and a grilled cheese sandwich composed her last meal before sundown.

The fasting makes it difficult to concentrate in class, said Hammoud, a straight-A student, but soccer helps take her mind off the hunger. However, she tires more easily than usual.

“It will hit me suddenly,” she said. “I’ll be making a run and after the play is over, I bend over and try to catch my breath.”

Manning has been understanding and pulls her from the game more often than usual.

Hammoud will be at full strength in Egypt. The tournament offers Hammoud another chance to visit her parents’ hometown. Her father, Ahmed Hammoud, grew up playing soccer in Cairo before coming to the United States to study engineering at UC Berkeley.

Last summer when Hammoud first learned there was a possibility of joining an Egyptian national team, she was skeptical. Then, when she found out she was going this year, she was shocked. “I certainly didn’t expect it to happen any time soon, if it ever was going to happen,” she said.

But to Ossama Khalil, a former captain of the Egyptian national team now residing in Anaheim Hills, it’s a natural solution. The United States is the world leader in women’s soccer, so why not help Egypt’s fledgling women’s program with a few experienced players of Egyptian descent?

Khalil settled in the county after playing two seasons with the California Surf of the North American Soccer League. He is a consultant to the Egyptian soccer federation and will help coach the team next month.

Khalil, whose daughter, Jasmine, a freshman playing on the junior varsity at Canyon High, also will play in Egypt. Ossama Khalil met Hammoud last summer during a soccer training camp he was running.

Khalil said Hammoud is a natural. “I think if she keeps going this way, keeps developing her power, she could be one of the best players in the United States,” he said.

Hammoud has heard that before and admits to be a bit scared by such talk. She and her family are still getting used to the honor of the moment.

“My mom sometimes will randomly come up to me and say, ‘I’m so proud of you,’ and hug me,” Hammoud said. “My dad is probably more excited than he shows. I think I’m sort of like the son he never had.”