Looking back: Hopkins reflects on thirty years of coaching, teaching

Jim Hopkins' 30-plus years in coaching covered parts of four decades, a variety of sports and the consolidation of six county high schools down to two.

The Westside basketball coach, who was named principal of Oceana Middle School last week, reflected on his career in a recent interview.

A bit of advice from Oceana coaching legend Paul Greer helped light the way.

"Coach Greer told me to remember, you're a teacher first," he remarked. "I've always tried to conduct myself in a classroom in a way I think he would be proud of. A lot of things I do are based on things I learned from him."

He got the coaching bug early, when he got a chance to be student coach under Darrell Adams in eighth grade. "That's all I ever wanted to do since then," he noted.

He played for Greer and Gene Gilliland in high school hoops. "I picked up a little from everybody (I played for)," Hopkins said. "They always emphasized to tell the truth, be honest and work hard, and that went along with what my Mom and Dad were telling me."

OHS football coach John Beckelheimer taught him "a lot about game preparation," he pointed out.

He got his coaching start as an assistant hoops coach to Tom Brooks at Glen Rogers High School in 1975.

"I also coached baseball and track there," he recalled.

"It was a great place to start," Hopkins said. "The kids were good, and the people treated me really well."

He moved on to his alma mater, Oceana High, in 1980, coaching junior high teams and assisting with varsity football and basketball for years.

He and Larry Mathis, his predecessor as the OHS boys coach, also started the school's first golf team.

"It's been my life," Hopkins said. "You name it, and we tried to play it."

While his years as an assistant to Brooks and Mathis had taught him a lot, moving up to the head coach's job at Oceana in 1988 "made a big difference," he learned. "When I first took over we had a terrible season and went 5-15 or something. I questioned if it was the right way to go, but I had a fine group of kids and they helped me turn things around. Then the next year we won 14 and then 15…"

Hopkins made Oceana a fixture in the AA top five, capped by the 1994 state crown. "Winning the state championship was the icing on the cake," he said. "John Harris and I and the boys on that team have a special bond. That was just a great experience."

The disappointment of losing in the finals the year before had been "overwhelming," he noted. "They were determined to come back the next year and win."

He would coach at OHS until its doors closed in 2002. But the Indians went out in fairy tale style, beating AA No. 1 Tug Valley, 60-59, on a last second shot by the team's only senior, Matt Price, in the Indians final home game. "Walt Disney couldn't make it any better," he said.

The move to Westside went well. "The kids blended right away," commented Hopkins. "If the kids mesh, the parents will, too."

"The facility down there just blows you away," he added. "The first time I walked in there, I thought man alive, what a place."

Success continued with the Renegades making three state tourney trips in their first four years.

It was a reunion of sorts at WHS. Several former classmates and pupils were teachers there. The principal, Deborah Marsh, had taught at Glen Rogers years earlier when Hopkins did.

"I haven't had the emotional letdown I did when I left Oceana, because it was just four years," he said. "I really enjoyed working there."

Hopkins thoughts on a few roundball topics:

Practice: "People who practice four or five hours (a day) are kidding themselves. If you organize yourself, I found things went quicker and you can jump from one thing to another quicker."

Player development: "The way you develop them is important. I always tried to get a freshman or a sophomore involved, so I always had some experience coming back. The longer they're with you, the more they what you want."

Pressure defense: "You can't match the jitters at the beginning of a big game, so that's the time to press. If you keep the pressure on, if there's a weakness in that player, it will show."

Changes in the game: "They all lift weights and it's more like a skill person in football playing than a basketball player. There's not a lot of finesse any more."

On coaching his son, Matthew: "He loved playing basketball and he and my oldest, Nick, used to practice all the time. He was one of the best point guards I've ever had. He wanted to win, and he didn't care if he scored. I always wanted him to shoot more. He finished with over 500 assists."

On the relationships he made through coaching: "I'm blessed to have gotten to know a lot of these people."

Hopkins by the numbers

• Win-loss record: 328-106 (.755)
• State championships: Oceana 1994 (AA)
• Championship game appearances: Four (1993, 1994 and 2001 at Oceana, 2005 at Westside)
• State tournament appearances: Eight (1993-94-99-01-02-03-04-05)
• Sectional championships: Thirteen (1992-93-94-96-97-98-99-01-02-03-04-05-06)