Senior Alex Hopper originally began playing football in order to spend more time with friends while participating in a sport. He began playing on the freshman A team during his first year, JV sophomore year, and played on varsity his junior and senior year. Hopper’s growing passion for the sport and connections within football at McCallum convinced him to pursue the sport further into college. Hopper plans to attend Washington University in St. Louis, MO where he will continue to play the tight end position in football and pursue a major in business finance.
The first time Tom Gammerdinger, McCallum’s head football coach and athletic coordinator, saw Hopper, he noticed his size and ability to be coached.
“He’s a hard worker, listens really well and takes instructions,” Gammerdinger said. “He’s coachable, dependable, and a good teammate.”
Since then, Gammerdinger believes that Hopper has grown physically, which helps greatly in his position of tight end, where he must block players and catch the ball. But most of all, according to Gammerdinger, Hopper has always been a team player. While most tight ends seek out stats, Hopper has always done what it takes to win.
“He wants to see the team win,” Gammerdinger said. “Well, most players like catching the ball because you get your stats and you’re the ‘hero’ and everything. Typically, tight ends prefer to catch than they would to block. But Alex never complained if he needed to throw the ball or anything like that. It was always just whatever the team needed to win.”
Originally, Hopper joined the sport to already have an established friend group going into freshman year at McCallum. In his junior year, Hopper realized his love for football and decided that he wanted to continue his career at the collegiate level.
“My love for football just kind of became a reality as I started to really appreciate all the little things that go into having a good team,” Hopper said. “I decided that this is a way that I could be successful.”
According to Gammerdinger, the recruitment process for Hopper wasn’t as extensive as it is for other players. However, there were still a few bumps in the road with Hopper breaking his ankle twice during his career and getting no replies from some colleges.
“You kind of gotta put yourself out there,” Hopper said. “ People are gonna act like they like you, and they might not just reply. It’s definitely a tough process, but I just kind of just kept to it.”
With these kinds of losses in football and in academics, Hopper believes in the power of reflection.
“I like to reflect on my mistakes first and see how I can fix them,” Hopper said. “Then I just let it sit if it needs to sit, and if it needs to go away fast, it’ll go away fast.”
After visiting the campus and receiving an offer to play, Hopper settled on Washington University in St. Louis. Hopper and Gammerdinger were both excited but not entirely surprised by his acceptance into the university.
“I kind of did expect it because the coach told me that it was likely that I was going to get in there,” Hopper said. “So I did expect it, but I was [still] super excited about the opportunity.”
One of Hopper’s long-time friends, senior Noah Friedman, was also not surprised by the acceptance. According to Friedman, Hopper is a good student and meets the athletic standards to play in college.
“[He’s] hard working, extremely hardworking and disciplined,” Friedman said. “He’s [also] 6’ 2”. He’s a big kid. He can move. He has a great IQ for football and a great motivator to all the people around him.”
In addition to his physicality and dedication to the team, Hopper has also matured a lot emotionally, according to Friedman.
“He’s definitely gotten a lot more mature,” Friedman said. “He used to be a pretty squiggly guy, like in middle school, freshman year.”
Gammerdinger agrees with Friedman and also believes that his calm demeanor is the key to his success both on and off the field.
“I’m going to miss just his calm, his steadiness,” Gammerdinger said. “He’ll say things when it needs to be said, but I think it’s just his general demeanor and the way he kind of carries himself, it’s a calming effect for everybody around them. He just has a great attitude and a positive outlook.”
While football has taught Hopper many lessons, the most important one, in his opinion, would be not to take shortcuts. Hopper learned this mostly through holding the position of captain his junior year on varsity.
“There’s no real shortcuts to take to become an acceptable player,” Hopper said. “Being a captain, you hold a great responsibility for my team and just being truthful and really accountable. That means on time to stuff [and] not taking a shortcut.”
Hopper looks forward to learning more about everything Washington University has to offer. However, as a future business major and member of the university’s football team, Hopper’s main focus is to build a network with the people around him.
“I’m always looking forward to learning all the cool things that they have to offer,” Hopper said. “I’m also interested, looking forward to building relationships. Having a football team in college will help me build connections with people that I can maybe get a job with in the future.”