Hopewell Football Coach John Rosa Introduces Members of his 2024 Coaching Staff

Tuesday was an eventful day for the Hopewell High School football team as assistant coaches were officially added for the 2024 team.

Last night at the Hopewell School Board Meeting, nine assistant coaches were hired to become part of head coach John Rosa’s first coaching staff at Hopewell.

The nine assistants coaches are: Matt Mottes, Zachary Rosa, Tim Morgan, Guy Martini, Jon Baldwin, Tom Pipkins, Reiker Welling, Craedel Kimbrough and Paul Mann.

Hopewell Sports Nation was able to speak with Rosa, who gave us some insight on these nine men and what they’ll be adding to the Hopewell Football Program.

By the way, earlier in the day, Rosa made his way to the Hopewell Junior High in order to watch the big 8th grade basketball game with South Fayette. He was able to introduce himself to some of the 8th graders, who will be freshman on his team next season and to talk to some people in the community.

Matt Mottes: “Matt played at Aliquippa on some of the really good teams. He was an offensive lineman and linebacker, pretty intense individual. Understands defensive fronts and a lot about offensive line play. I think he’ll be a huge asset to us on the defensive side of the ball and on offense as well. He’ll contribute there too.”

Zach Rosa: “Zach was an All-State player at Freedom. Played quarterback and defensive back. Led them to a section championship in 2018, their first since Jimbo Covert’s senior year. He played with a lot of talented players and did a nice job as a player. He got right into coaching while he was in college. He’s coached our quarterbacks and defensive backs the last few years at Freedom and Western Beaver, where he came with me. He kind of co-coordinated the offense with me last year at Western Beaver. He’s real into the pass game and I think he’ll be real valuable to us on offense.”

Jon Baldwin: “You obviously know about Jon Baldwin. He’s somebody that I’ve known for a long time, he actually was a coach with us at Freedom, actually back when Zach played. He’s someone that I believe has a really good knowledge of the game, someone that I believe will be loyal and trustworthy on our staff. He’s someone that knows a lot of these kids, which I think will be an asset.”

Tim Morgan: “He’s someone that wasn’t with me last year at Western Beaver but was with me at Freedom. Timmy is a guy that’s a coach. He’s never been a head football coach, but he’s been a boys’ basketball coach, an assistant girls’ basketball coach. He’s someone that knows how to help student athletes. He’s really good at getting them in the right frame of mind in order to compete. He’s someone that’s done a lot with our special teams. Once again, he’s a loyal guy that’s been with me. He’ll help with running backs, defensive backs and probably do a lot with the special teams. He’s just a guy that’s real positive influence on kids and I believe he can have a big impact on our players.”

Guy Martini: “Guy was an underclassman on the Hopewell state championship team. Guy has coached at various places, with Zach Heyward at Blackhawk, Guy actually coached at Hopewell for a little bit. I believe he was at Moon as well. He’s a Hopewell alumni and he comes highly recommended. A couple guys on my staff have worked with him in the past. I never worked with Guy, but he seems to have the same philosophies that we have and being a Hopewell alumni, I know that he’s going to care about getting this thing going in the right direction.”

Tom Pipkins: “Tom is another individual that I’ve known for quite a long time. He actually works at Quaker Valley right now. He’s been a football coach, coached at Quaker Valley for a number of years, including the team that went on that state championship run. I believe he was the defensive coordinator or co-coordinator. He’s very knowledgeable of the game and he’s an athlete that’s been there an done it. Recent inductee into the WPIAL Hall of Fame for his great play as a basketball player at Valley High School. He’s another guy that I think is such a positive person and I think he’s someone that can really, really help with the mental side of things with some of these guys and relate to them. He’s someone that I’ve known for a long time, and I trust and wanted a guy like him around.”

Reiker Welling: “Reiker was former athlete at Freedom, who I had the pleasure of coaching. He’s a really strong individual, who wanted to get into coaching. He’s a young coach, coached at Freedom last year (wide receivers and defensive backs). Reiker is someone that I’ve known probably for 12 years. We were sitting down one day having a conversation, when I talked to him about me going to Hopewell and he said he’s welcome the opportunity to come and help me out as well. I think he can be an asset back there with Coach Baldwin and Coach Zach in the defensive backfield. Reiker was a really good wide receiver his senior year and I think he can also teach some of our receivers what they need to know. He understands our pass game because a lot of the concepts that he played in are what we’re going to be incorporating. He’s a young, up and coming coach. He’s still got a lot to learn about the game but as a staff, we’ll be working together and making sure all of our coaches are on the same page.”

Paul Mann: “He’s obviously been with the program. He has a high level of respect from our players. With a lot of our players, he was one of the guys that they really trusted last year. I didn’t really know Paul but some of the guys on our staff knew him. I knew him in passing here and there when we’ve played each other. When I interviewed Paul, a lot of the things he said were again the same philosophies that I have. He seems genuine, wants to help the kids. He lives in Hopewell, I know he played for Aliquippa, but he’s really invested with these kids and has been doing a lot with the weight training in the morning. They call it the 6 AM Club. The kids come in and have been working out. I think it’s important to have a couple of these guys that have been with the program just to have a little bit of knowledge with some of the experiences they’ve had before. It’s just good to be able to know if I want to ask a question like ‘can this person maybe play tight end’ they have a little bit of that knowledge of past experience with some of these players.”

Craedel Kimbrough: “He was helping with the Junior High last year, and he’s been training a lot of these kids. I tell you what, he was in there yesterday, we had about 25 kids in there and boy were they working hard. One of the things about me is that I know the game of football. The weightlifting and stuff, I can be in there to supervise and stuff but that’s really not my expertise area. So, my job as leader of this program is to find guys and put them on the right seats on the bus. Craedel knows what he’s doing with strength training, conditioning and speed training. Boy they had a great workout yesterday. The kids really respond to him. We had 25 kids; I challenged the kids yesterday to come back on Wednesday and bring somebody with them that wasn’t here. That’s how we’re going to build this culture. It’s great that the kids are coming but we have over 70 names of kids that showed some possible interest in playing football and we had 25 there last night (Monday). A lot of them might be at other sports but some aren’t in other sports and those are the kids that we need to get into the weight room right now. I’m real excited about having Craedel involved with the program. Right now, he’s helping with our strength training and time permitting he’ll also help with running backs and things like that. Right now, he’s doing a super job with weight training and speed training.”