Hammond is from Pembroke Pines, Fla., about 25 miles north of Miami, and he attended two schools with storied football programs: Chaminade-Madonna College Prep and St. Thomas Aquinas High. Hammond transferred to St. Thomas Aquinas after his sophomore year and immediately attracted the interest of FBS programs, including Iowa State.
He committed to the Cyclones in March 2022, as an 11th-grader. He had a change of heart, though, after visiting UVA in December 2022. It helped that two St. Thomas Aquinas graduates were already in head coach Tony Elliott’s program—Dawson Alters and Blake Steen—and that one of Hammond’s classmates at the Fort Lauderdale school, tight end TeKai Kirby, was committed to the Cavaliers.
Moreover, Chaminade-Madonna graduate Anthony Johnson, an All-ACC cornerback for the Hoos in 2022, was one of Hammond’s hosts on his visit to Charlottesville.
“He helped recruit me, too,” Hammond said.
So did Steen, who recommended Hammond to the coaching staff. Downing was already aware of Hammond but wanted to “see him live and get to know him to make sure he was a really good fit for this university, because I didn’t know him as well.”
In the fall of 2022, impressed by new game film he’d seen of Hammond, Downing met him. “Of course, Steen knew him, so that was big,” Downing said, “but we had a chance to see him, see his family, meet his family, and they were a good fit. For me, that’s really important.”
Hammond is an excellent student who made the ACC’s All-Academic team as a freshman, and he’s a natural fit at UVA.
“You gotta have the talent. You gotta have size,” Downing said. “But for me, you gotta be a champion man, what Coach E is trying to build. You gotta be a Virginia man. And for me, he’s a Virginia man. So any guy we take on the interior D-line, I’m gonna get a chance to see him before we extend [a scholarship offer].”
That Hammond, who lives with defensive end Mekhi Buchanan and safety Caleb Hardy, came to UVA from a high-profile high school program eased his transition to college football. ESPN carried the first game of his senior year, St. Thomas Aquinas’ 48-37 win over St. Joseph’s Prep (Pa.) in Fort Lauderdale.
“It was something special,” Hammond said of the experience. “For me, I think that’s what really showed that I could take it where I want to take it.”
Britton starred at Lake Taylor High in Norfolk, another perennially successful program, and that’s…