Talk With HS Girls Volleyball Coach Terry Borkovic, Entering his 35th Season with Hopewell

HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP– Having the longevity to be able to coach in high school athletics for 35 years is rare and to do so at the same program is unheard of but Terry Borkovic is accomplishing it.

This season, Borkovic is entering his 35th season as head coach of the Hopewell High School Girls Volleyball program.

What an accomplishment! The only coach in Hopewell history with more years as a head coach is the late Joe Colella, who led the Vikings baseball team for 48 seasons.

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To run through the list of Borkovic’s coaching accomplishments would take too long and it’s not something he’s looking for. As I’ve gotten to know him, Coach is a very humble person and isn’t looking for a self-recognition.

However, the Hall of Fame coach has over 400 career wins, 6 WPIAL championships, 1 PIAA Championship and has coached 60 players who went on to play volleyball in college. When listing his biggest career coaching achievement, Coach Bokovic is quick to point out having the opportunity and privilege to coach Hopewell great and Olympic Gold Medal winning volleyball star Christa Harmotto-Dietzen.

With the Vikings volleyball team preparing for the start of the 2024 season next Monday at Central Valley, Hopewell Sports Nation had the opportunity to sit-down and have a lengthy conversation with Hopewell’s legendary head coach about a variety of topics.

The first thing we talked about was what keeps the fire burning after 35 years and the fact that he’s been able to do it the entire time at Hopewell.

“I still want to have an impact on young teenagers’ lives, and I still feel like I can do that,” said Borkovic. “I find great enjoyment in teaching the game. That’s what keeps me going and what still drives me. It’s also the relationships that you develop with the players over the years. I’ll give you an example. Tomorrow evening, I’m going to the Hopewell Sports Hall of Fame and I’m going to be sitting with the Novacek family to honor Becky.

“We developed a relationship over the years, kept in touch with her mother, it’s something that’s important to me. Through the years as you develop those relationships with players, it’s special and it’s a big thing that drives me.”

“I’ve had tremendous support from the administration. I’ve had a lot of success with the girls’ program but there were some down years, and the administration stood by me. I had some lean years in boys’ volleyball and same thing, the administration stood by me and had my back. They’d come in watch me teach the game, watch how I interact with the kids and have been tremendous to me.”

“I was talking about this the other day with a friend of mine. I honestly feel like coaches in my position that have coached 30 or 35+ years we’re dinosaurs. I really don’t think that coaches of the future will last that long. I was talking with a coach the other week at a team camp, OLSH coach who’s been there 38 years, we both feel like dinosaurs. The parental pressure, the idea that you have to be in the gym all year round, it’s very hard but I don’t think you’ll see this type of situation very often in the future.”

You might be surprised to hear that despite having such passion and success in the sport, Borkovic never played volleyball in high school.

Borkovic attended New Brighton High School, which didn’t have a boys’ team. However, after attending Slippery Rock University to play football and that not working out, some of his friends asked him to play on the club team. He did that for a couple of years and loved it, which then led him to start playing in adult leagues throughout the years. As they say, the rest is history.

At one time, Borkovic was coaching 3 sports at one-time at Hopewell High School: assistant swimming coach (10 years), girls’ volleyball coach (35 years) and the boys’ volleyball coach (23 years).

ADJUSTING TO THE TIMES

Having spent this amount of time in the coaching profession, things have changed and of course the athletes have changed. How much has he adapted and changed with the times?

“I do think that you have to change as a coach somewhat with the changing times,” said Borkovic. “For example, today’s student athletes are involved in so many activities and might have to be at practice late because I have this going on or I have to miss because this is going on, you have to adapt to that. It was hard for me at first and I was like ‘No, you need to be in the gym’. But it’s different than it was 10-20 years ago so you have to change in certain ways. 30 years ago, you could sit everyone down and tell them these are my rules, if you don’t like it, there’s the door. It’s not the athlete we’re coaching today, and things are different.

“I think my players would describe me as kind of laid back. I’m energetic in the gym. Our practices are high energy, and I preach the only two things that an athlete can control, your effort and your attitude. Just come into the gym and give your all, all out, every play. Control your attitude, be positive, encourage your teammates. If they do that, then I believe we’ll have an atmosphere where things are fun. Therefore, it’s fun for me to be in that atmosphere coaching, it’s fun for them and as a team, we’re able to accomplish more than having a coach scream at them or running all the time for making mistakes. That’s not how I do things.”

HOPEWELL’S DYNASTY IN THE EARLY 2000’S

One of the fun things for me with doing interviews is finding out things that I didn’t know such as how much success the girls’ volleyball program has had.

I’m not talking winning here and there, I’m talking big-time accomplishments

“Believe me, the last thing I want to do is coming across as being arrogant but from 2002 until 2014, we won 6 WPIAL Championships, played in the championship game 8 times,” said Borkovic.

“2004 we won a state title, and that team was absolutely loaded with talent. We had the Novacek girls, we had Harmotto, Aubrey Smith, just a loaded team. At one time, we had a 104-match win streak, we didn’t lose a match for like 8 years. That type of effort from the kids and cooperation from the parents’ kind of put Hopewell on the map for Volleyball. To be honest, we’re one of the most respected programs in the state of Pennsylvania. We’ve had some down years and also had some good, good teams since but nothing like early years. Regardless, Hopewell volleyball is still respected. Teams know that when they play Hopewell that they’ll be in for a battle.”

CURRENT STATE OF PROGRAM

“This year will be our largest roster in about 30 years, we’re up to 33 players, which is a lot,” said Borkovic. “Most coaches try and have like 24 but I don’t enjoy cutting kids. If they’re a student-athlete, works hard, has a great attitude, we will keep them on the team. We’ve had tremendous camps over the summer. We had like 50-60 kids attend those camps. Same thing for the junior high, 50-60 kids.”

“In terms of this year, we went to a team camp a couple of weeks ago and had a good deal of success. We played 26 sets and ended up 14 and 12. In that Indiana High School team camp, some of the teams at the camp were Phillipsburg (state champs last year), Fort Leboeuf (District 10 Powerhouse), Armstrong (Quad A School), West Branch (played in the state finals), DuBois. So, for us to go 14-12, to me that was a very good sign for the upcoming season. Last year at that camp, we were like 4-22. So that make that jump shows a huge improvement. The kids are coming in every day and are working hard, they’re enthusiastic. I told them this the other day, there’s a vibe with this team that hasn’t been there for like 4-5 years. They get along with each other, they encourage each other. This team wants to win, and they want to be successful. It’s been fun and I’ve really enjoyed going into the gym.”

Borkovic said that the opening week of section play will be a challenge as they take on two of the best teams in all of AA, Quaker Valley and Avonworth. Coach believes that Hopewell will play in the strongest section in AA.

“We have a nice combination of experience and we’re starting to get some good size with the Kurta girl, with Alyssa Spang, Lonna Murray, so we’re starting to get some size. We have a good combination of strong back court defense along with hitters up front. The hitters are very experienced, they’re all letter winners. The backcourt is a little inexperienced but they’re very talented. I think we’ll be fine, and we’ll continue to get better and better and better as these players get used to playing with each other throughout the season.”

HOW LONG DO YOU WANT TO KEEP GOING?

“Fitness is one of my passions. I go to the gym, three days a week, do a weightlifting program and on the off-days I walk,” said Borkovic. “I love outdoor activities; I go hiking and biking. I have no plans to retire as I’m sitting here talking to you, but I do look at things at the end of every year. My health is good. My wife had breast cancer, six or seven years ago and that changes your life. That changes how you think, how you look at things. She’s healthy, she’s now cancer-free so you don’t take your health for granted. I don’t take mine for granted so as long as I’m healthy and as long as I feel as though I’m doing a good job, I plan on continuing to coach.”

HSN wants to thank Coach Borkovic for taking the time to meet to talk and best of the luck to the team this season.

Here are their first few home games of the season in case you want to head over to the high school to watch this exciting team.

Home Opener: August 28th vs. Fort Cherry, 6 PM

September 3rd: vs. Quaker Valley, 6 PM (HUGE MATCH)

September 12th: vs. New Brighton, 6 PM