2008 BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Year in the life of Hopkins

Being a star on the athletic field is one thing. Being a star once, then again, then once again is quite another.

Especially when your star shines brighter for nearly a whole school year than anyone can remember any other shining for a very long time.

While many high school athletes would consider the football season of recent Waltham High graduate Steve Hopkins a great way to cap a great high school career, it turned out the three-year varsity gridiron veteran was only just beginning his nine-month tour de force. After playing receiver, running back and defensive back for the Hawks, earning Tribune All-Star honors on the football field, he jumped to the hockey rink and had a season in net that people write books about as Tribune Hockey Player of the Year.

But Hopkins still wasn't done. Not by a long shot. With his college football sights already set with a signed Letter of Intent to Bentley College, and his hockey legacy secure in being ranked as one of the top 30 draft-eligible goaltenders in North America according to NHL.com, he completed the nearly unfathomable trifecta of athletic success on the baseball field this spring.

Hopkins went 6-0 during the regular season with a 2.15 earned run average and had a 17-inning scoreless streak. He also hit .364 in the wood-bat Greater Boston League with a team-high 19 RBI, 18 runs scored and eight stolen bases.

Following the season, he played in a Massachusetts all-star game, from which he was selected to play in a second all-star game against a team of all-stars from Connecticut. For good measure, he was named Most Valuable Player of that game after driving in two runs and stealing a base.

``I don't think any athlete like Stevie has come along in the last 10 years at Waltham High, if not longer,'' determined Waltham High football coach Paul Mayberry. ``The word for Steve is that he is a tremendous `competitor.' He competes at everything and works for everything. Give him an opportunity to compete, and he is going to win.''

``I think the biggest thing is that he is such a competitor,'' Waltham High baseball coach Steve LaForest nearly mimicked. ``He gets mad at himself, but when you talk to him about it, it is about letting the team down. Everything is about not wanting to let the team down. He really looks at himself needing to be a perfectionist.''

Now the rarest of athletes has perfected one of the rarest of accomplishments as a Tribune Athlete of the Year in two completely different sports in successive seasons as 2008 Daily News Tribune Baseball Player of the Year.

Athletic instinct
In the wide view, what Hopkins has been able to do in three sports is amazing. But for Hopkins, it is just going from season to season like he has every since he first picked up a football, goalie stick and a glove.

``I've been kind of playing three sports my whole life,'' he said. ``I don't really see it as anything big. I am kind of used to having it be where after football is over, going to hockey. Then after hockey is over, I am going to baseball.

``Then in the summer I am playing all three. It's just kind of what I do. I don't like to focus on one sport. I like to do everything I can.''

He made varsity in all three sports by his sophomore year and even beat his brother, 2007 Tribune Player of the Year Don Hopkins, to the varsity huddle in football.

``Even as a sophomore,'' Mayberry said, ``you could see it in the way he saw the field. He would just see something and react. And 95 percent of the time, or at least 90 percent of the time, he was right.''

His reaction skills were never more important than when he was on the ice this winter as he had a shutout string of more than 87 minutes in the Super 8, and was generally considered the standout performer in the tournament even though his team went 0-3 in the main draw.

``He's been one of the best players on three teams since his sophomore year,'' Mayberry said. ``So to see him excel in all three as a senior was not surprising. But it was great to watch. I don't usually watch hockey that closely, but I followed him this year and it was awesome.''

Landing on the NHL.com draft watch list had to qualify as awesome as well for a player who'd already all but decided he wasn't playing the sport in college.

``My friend told me about it and I thought he was joking,'' Hopkins said. ``I talked to an NHL scouting guy and he told me I was going to be on some list, but I didn't know what it was. I just kind of let it breeze by.

``Then I heard about it and went on the computer to check it out. It was kind of shock because a lot of those goalies are really good. I guess being on there is pretty good.''

Pitching in
Anyone wondering what Hopkins would do for an encore this baseball season quickly found out as he took the ball as Waltham's ace and led the Hawks to their first GBL title in their final season in the league.

``I had hoped that he would be my No. 1 because he threw pretty well for us last year,'' LaForest said. ``The only thing I was concerned about was that because he was so successful in hockey, he isn't picking up a baseball much before baseball started. It showed what type of an athlete and competitor he is to still be our No. 1 and be one of the best pitchers in the league.''

After playing mostly the outfield as a junior, Hopkins said he was eyeing a spot on the mound as soon as the ice thawed on Yetten Diamond.

``Coming into the season,'' he said, ``I kind of wanted to pitch a little bit more. I definitely wanted to buckle down in that area. Coach gave me a start in the first game and I took it from there.''

Hopkins credited his coaching and his defense for his shutout string: ``I don't get many strikeouts, so they have to make the plays behind me.'' He said he relied on his curveball early in the season and the ability to spot his fastball late in the campaign.

``He is able to throw a really nice over-the-top curveball with a nice break that he could throw to lefties and righties,'' LaForest said. ``That really became a strikeout pitch when he was going through the scoreless streak. He wasn't throwing 90, but at the same time he did change speeds and could throw more than one pitch for strikes - curveball, fastball and changeup.''

Not surprisingly, Hopkins was on the mound for the biggest victory of the season when he fired a two-hit shutout in the GBL title-clinching triumph over Cambridge.

``It's tough because during baseball time you're graduating and stuff,'' Hopkins said of the baseball season. ``There is a lot going on. But I give a lot of credit to the coaches. They definitely keep your head on straight. The way we were winning definitely kept our minds on it. If we weren't having such a good season, it would have been hard to stay focused.''

Gridiron geared
Though he could have gone many different places and been welcomed with open arms in any of his three sports, Hopkins said he is happy with his decision to focus on football at Bentley College.

After forgoing a chance to play in the Agganis Game in Lynn this week because of a minor muscle tweak sustained while weightlifting, he will begin football practice, along with his brother Don, at the Waltham campus early next month.

``I am a football guy now,'' he affirmed last week. ``I am thinking about baseball maybe a little bit in the spring, but not too much.

``It's going to be weird not playing hockey in the winter - watching the snow come down and not be heading to the rink. It's the same thing with baseball. It's something I am going to have to get used to, just like college, and I am ready for it.''

While LaForest said he wishes Hopkins could have played baseball in college, he understands the desire to focus on football and is sure it will result in success. While Mayberry knows Hopkins easily could have chosen one of his other two sports and been successful as well, he takes some pride in the sport Hopkins ultimately picked.

``I would have been happy for him whichever sport he decided on,'' the football coach said. ``But I am more happy he's chosen football because now I can watch him since he'll be so close.''

At least Hopkins can say, for now, that - just as the case was with hockey - he took off the uniform for final time in baseball on top.

``I am not going to completely stop playing those other sports,'' he offered. ``They will be in my life for at least a couple of more years.''

What he did in all three will live on in Waltham High history for many more.