Football, Basketball
By Mary Jane Souder
Byron Hopkins is a difference maker.
And not only because the Upper Moreland senior is blessed with some serious athletic talent.
Roll back the calendar to Upper Moreland’s game against Archbishop Ryan earlier this season. The situation looked bleak with the Golden Bears trailing by 14 heading into the fourth quarter and still down by two scores with less than four minutes remaining.
Morale was low on the sidelines, and in the middle of that despair was a scene that caught the eye of UM athletic director Sean Feeley.
“We’re not playing good football, everything is going wrong,” Feeley said. “On our sideline – they’re down in the dumps, miserable, and Byron is picking kids up, saying ‘This is only a two-score game, get your heads up,’ a positive attitude.
“It’s a cool moment for me as a coach – those are the things you preach, and to see Byron, he’s really maturing, and he’s just a fantastic young man. I would never tell that kid he can’t do something because he’s going to find a way.”
Hopkins and his teammates did find a way, pulling off a miracle finish to notch a you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it 34-29 victory.
“I was confident in what I was telling everybody and what I was going to do,” the senior quarterback said. “We were down, it was the fourth quarter, a lot of people started to look at me, and if I’m pouting and all mad, they’re going to get down, so I have to make sure I keep them up.
“Seeing from my sophomore year the seniors that were there – Dai-Jahn Dukes, TJ Troxell, all those fellows - and my junior year seeing Jahaire Johnson and Ant Broderick, all the older kids – I’ve had a lot of experience with seeing leaders lead. I know being a quarterback I have to be the vocal leader. I knew my sophomore and junior years they might not need me to say too much, but my senior year I knew I was going to have to be that guy because a lot of people look up to me.”
And with good reason. Hopkins has been the Golden Bears’ starting quarterback since he was a sophomore and gave glimpses early on that he was a fearless field general.
“He doesn’t panic,” UM football coach CJ Szydlik said. “There was a play last year where we’re on our one-yard line. The snap to him was low, he picked it up, rolled to his right and threw a 99-yard touchdown pass.
“He’s just one of those kids that actually in those crazy moments – it’s probably going the slowest for him. He just has that intangible. He’s a competitor. He’ll do anything you ask him to do, play anywhere you ask him to play. Honestly, kids as talented as he is – you don’t get that often. He’ll do whatever you ask him to do.”
It’s pretty much the same story on the basketball court where Hopkins stepped into the starting point guard role early in his freshman season after transferring back to UM from La Salle.
“He came in as a sixth man off the bench but found himself in the starting lineup in the first couple of weeks,” UM basketball coach Dan Heiland said. “It’s just a testament to his work ethic and the type of competitor he is.
“He’s not a kid that I don’t think has ever come off the bench in any role or on any team he’s ever played on. I think that put a little chip on his shoulder – ‘I know I have to show up, and I know I have to put the work in,’ and he’s done that.”
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Hopkins came by his love of football – and sports in general – from his father, who played football at Bishop McDevitt and later at Millersville University.
“My father was always a good athlete,” Hopkins said. “He knew when he had me – his only son – I was going to be an athlete because he was an athlete. From the gate, he had me in all the sports.
“When I first started sports, I was six. I started young, so I had a lot of practice. I used to run track too, but I was just a basketball and football guy. I always loved sports.”
In basketball, Hopkins played in rec leagues before joining Triple Threat on the AAU circuit. His football career began with pound football with the Mount Airy Bantams before eventually playing CYO for Visitation BVM where he caught the eye of more than a few coaches.
“Different high schools would look at kids from that team,” said Hopkins, who made the decision to attend La Salle College High School as a freshman. “I was at Upper Moreland for seventh and eighth grade, and I was used to Upper Moreland.
“After those two years and then going to La Salle, it was a big change for me. I wasn’t going to be happy there. My family didn’t want me to be at La Salle and be miserable, and they wound up letting me go back to Upper Moreland. As a kid going through school, I’ve been to a couple of different schools. If I had to say the place that is home the most, it’s Upper Moreland.”
To say Hopkins was welcomed back with open arms would be an understatement, and he was back at UM in time for the basketball season.
“Oh yeah, it was great because I already knew everyone,” he said. “They were so surprised I was coming back.”
“Coach Feeley already knew me because he had watched me in seventh and eighth grade in middle school for basketball. I knew all I really needed to do was come out there and show I could play with the older kids. I wasn’t really worried about proving myself. I just wanted to show them I’m good enough to play with anyone.”
Hopkins had already caught Feeley’s eye when he was in middle school.
“It goes back to when I started coaching,” said Feeley. “We were in a rebuild phase for basketball. I did a lot of things with the eighth grade team, getting those guys to come up to the high school practice. I noticed Byron right away. He was a kid that was one of the best on the court.”
It wasn’t long before Hopkins stepped into the starting point guard role.
“He came up, he was never afraid of the moment,” Feeley said. “But something he needed to work on was something most ninth graders need to work on – he was dealing with immaturity at times.
“I’m so proud of Byron – I put him right into the fire as a ninth grader, going up against Cheltenham, PW, and the kid never asked to come out. He had zero fear and just got better as a basketball player and a young man.
“The kid is an unbelievably hard worker. He’s a kid who would message me on Sunday and say, ‘Can I get some extra shots up?’ He’s a kid that when basketball games start at 5:30 and 7, he usually doesn’t go home. I’d make sure he got something in his stomach because he would stay and work out until the games. He’s just an extremely hard worker to say the least.”
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On the football field, Hopkins had been playing quarterback since his first year with Visitation.
“I really like it because I get the ball on every play,” he said. “I get to throw it, run it. You can do so many things at quarterback.
“After my eighth grade year, that’s when I started to really love playing quarterback. That’s when I decided I wanted to take this serious, and I got a trainer and stuff like that.”
As a sophomore, Hopkins – in his first year of football at UM - found himself in a battle with the incumbent quarterback.
“He ended up winning out,” Szydlik said of Hopkins. “Like every other sophomore he was a little skinnier, a lot less mature and probably thought he knew more than he really did, but he was one of the most hardworking, easy to coach kids you’re going to find. He’s ‘Yes, coach,’ ‘How about this coach?’ He’s really, really a team player and really cherished by all of his teammates. He puts in all the work – he goes to camps, combines. He goes to a personal trainer. He’s one of those kids you pull for.”
In last year’s COVID-shortened season, the Golden Bears won the SOL American Conference title and went on to win the program’s first ever state playoff game.
Heiland has had a front row seat to Hopkins high school career in both football and basketball, taking over the basketball program last winter when Feeley stepped down after being named athletic director. He is also an assistant for the football team.
“The one thing I knew from the first time meeting Byron and seeing him on the football field or the basketball court was that he’s a competitor,” Heiland said. “It wasn’t his spot on the football team to be the quarterback right away. We had a guy step in the previous year and took the reins, and he knew it would be a battle, but I think he knew ultimately if he put the work in he would become the guy, and he’s become the guy. On the basketball court, the same thing.
“He really has grown. Like any 14- or 15-year old, they’re kids, they’re still growing. The one thing I’ve seen from his junior to senior year is leadership. He’s holding guys accountable, he’s holding himself accountable, which is big. If you want people to follow suit, you have to hold yourself accountable. If you’re not making the plays and doing the right things, why would people listen to you. He’s definitely doing that. It’s something I’ve seen him really make an effort to do better. We’re really seeing it, especially in football right now.”
The Golden Bears recently suffered their first loss of the season to Cheltenham after opening up a 21-0 first half lead.
“All week we were really preparing well, and I thought we had a great week of practice,” Hopkins said. “We were clicking, we weren’t messing up, but then we lost Thursday because it was raining, and I think that really hurt us.
“A lot of things didn’t go our way in that game. I definitely think that game is going to be a learning experience. That game really showed us how we can’t take any of these games for granted because anything can happen, and that showed us right there.”
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Hopkins has his sights set on playing collegiate football with an interest in possibly pursuing a criminal justice major.
“When I was a little bit younger, I was leaning on the basketball side,” he said. “I loved basketball a little more, but now, seeing where I want to go to school and who’s interested in me – I’m more swayed to football.”
Hopkins would like to play quarterback, but that’s not a deal breaker.
“I want to make it places, so if they feel I’m best at a different place, I’ll deal with it and do what I have to do for the team,” he said. “I’ve been talking to some schools, and I went to some schools for camps. I’m still trying to decide.”
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the recruiting journey for all student-athletes.
“I guess you could say it had a bad impact, but to be honest, it taught me a lot at the same time,” Hopkins said. “You learn from it, and if anything happens again, we’ll be better at it.
“I feel the most you can do is just follow the rules. Wear your mask when you’ve got to wear your mask, and deal with the punches that are coming. With COVID, you never know, anything can pop up out of nowhere, and that’s what I learned most about it.”
Hopkins points to his family for providing a positive influence.
“My dad was really on the sports side, but my grandmother and grandpop and my mom were more the school side because you can’t go anywhere if you don’t have the grades,” he said. “My family has definitely had a big impact when it comes to sports and school.”
Based on his coaches, they’ve done a remarkably good job.
“No matter where he goes or what he does, he’ll be successful at it,” Szydlik said. “He’s just one of those kids that he’ll rise to the top of whatever he needs to be. We have one of those teams that’s never out of anything, and it’s because of kids like Byron.”
“He’s a great kid,” Feeley said. “We’re always trying to keep Upper Moreland kids. To talk to Byron about his experience here, he’ll tell you he loves Upper Moreland.
“He has lifelong friends here. I guarantee you if you polled all his teachers, they’d say the same thing. He is just respectful, he has a radiant smile that lights up the room, and he’ll run through a brick wall for you. He’s just a fantastic young man, a young man who’s going to go places.”
