A lifelong dream has now become a reality for a Hopewell High School athlete.
Congratulations to Hopewell boys’ soccer standout Tommy Armour on his decision to commit to Westminster. Armour had other opportunities to attend Allegheny, Geneva, Chatham and others but in the end, Westminster was the perfect fit for many reasons.
It’s been Armour’s dream to play soccer beyond high school since he started playing 14 years ago and it wasn’t just lip service; he made this happen through a ton of hard work.
“For me, I realized around my freshman or sophomore year that I wanted to go to college for soccer and my goal has always been to make it past college on to the next level, which is professional,” Armour tells Vikings Sports Now. “So, ever since my freshman year is when I started like really focusing on that (playing soccer past high school).
In order to make that happen, Armour has put in the time not only training but also playing on several other club teams over the years.
“Three or four days a week, I’ll do my own workouts at home, then I’m with Cup, which is 2 practices a week, which is another way I keep my touches on the ball and improve. Then with all the games with Cup and everything that keeps me active. Doing this for as long as I do it throughout the year is a lot of time and effort and a lot of mental work.”
“When I’m referring to the mental work, in order to put in the hard work, you have to push yourself and make yourself totally commit to it,” said Armour. “Most of the time, people say they want to do things, but they never actually do. So, the mental part is pushing yourself through it stay dedicated so that you can reach your goal.”
Armour has no doubt done that and is a big reason why he’s in the position he is today. While with the Hopewell soccer team, he was able to achieve the following milestones:
Armour’s Accomplishments:
*Four-year starter
*Offensive player of the year during his sophomore season
*All-section player and team MVP during senior season
*All-section player during senior season
“I’d like to thank my high school coach Nate Richter, who’s helped me a lot with a lot of different aspects of soccer,” said Armour. “He’s really done a lot for me. Also, my parents have been a huge help to me. My mom helped me looking at the colleges and has always been a huge source of encouragement. Then of course my dad, obviously for reaching out to all of the colleges, doing all my videos and helping me get my name out there a bit.”
With the transfer portal, NIL and other things, college sports is a changing business, which has hurt high school athletes in many ways. Less and less colleges at all levels are looking at the high school athletes with their initial instinct being to look through the transfer portal or possibly for players overseas.
This is impacting high school recruiting in all sports, not just football and basketball. The other thing that athletes now have to keep in mind is how secure is their offer. By that I mean, although it’s not verbally conveyed, many of these scholarships/athletic opportunities are year-to-year. If you go to a bigger school and don’t play or show a lot, the program can either pull your scholarship or ‘encourage’ you to move on.
Armour took all of this into consideration and made a smart long-term decision when choosing Westminster. He’s going to a great school that he’ll have the opportunity to have an impact at as a freshman.
“The Westminster coach reminded me a lot of Coach Nate, my high school coach,” said Armour. “He was very energetic and showed me that he really wanted me to be there. Whenever I visited and he showed me the locker room, he already had my name up and a jersey with my jersey number (#21).”
“That told me that he’s paid attention to me. Even when we had our meeting, he listed all of the positions that I played, so once again, he knew about me and showed me that he cares.”
“As a school, Westminster really takes care of their athletes. Then, outside of soccer, the Westminster campus is amazing. I’m going to school for criminal justice, and they just spent a lot of money upgrading that building, so it’ll be a whole new building and a really good building for me to proceed with for my education. As far as the campus, everything is in one general location, and you won’t get lost. The soccer field is very beautiful; they just built a new press box. The dorm rooms, they have dorms specific for soccer players and they’re right by the field. Overall, Westminster is just a great environment to be around.”
My final question to Tommy is how does it feel knowing that your dream of playing college soccer is now a reality?
“I’d say that I’m very proud of myself for how far I’ve come. I’ve been playing soccer for a long time so to see that I’m truly going somewhere is a very big accomplishment for me. Now, it’s all about focusing on getting better and doing what I can to get my name out there even more in order to reach my next goal of getting to the next level.”
