Vukovcan: Friday Night Was Nice But It’s Just The Start

This past Friday was an exciting evening if you happened to be in attendance for Hopewell Football’s season opener vs. Riverside.

When referring to the excitement, it goes well beyond the Vikings soundly winning the game, 38-25.

In my eyes, the exciting part was seeing what a Friday night at Tony Dorsett Stadium has the opportunity to be in the future.

Many, many people around town and specifically within the Hopewell football program played a part in trying to make the football game night experience an event and making it first class.

Congratulations everyone, mission accomplished!!

I can personally attest to the amount of work that head coach Matt Mottes, assistant coach John Rosa, the Hopewell Football Boosters organization and Hopewell Quarterback Club put in prior to Game night.

When he wasn’t working to prepare his team, Mottes was driven to make the game night a big-time event.

It was very important for this football program to make the product off the field as impressive as the product on the field.

I know I’ll probably miss something but things such as game uniforms, the pre-game music, the PA Announcer, the cheerleaders walking with a player during pre-game introductions, fireworks, the way players entered and exited the field, the band and the home games being broadcast on Hopewell Sports Nation.

While some may brush all this off as not being that important, trust me, that’s the way most big-time programs do things and from the first day this staff was hired, the goal has been to restore Hopewell football to a first-class level.

The work isn’t over because winning the first game was nice but in the grand scheme of things it was only one win.

This program and coaching staff know more than anyone that a lot more needs to be accomplished and proven before they can start patting each other on the backs.

As one Hopewell administrator told me on Friday during the game, it’s our job to put on a nice show and an enjoyable night out for families and hope that they like what they see and return.

The remaining home schedule (Ambridge/Sept 6th, Avonworth/September 20th, Quaker Valley/September 27th, Freeport (October 11th) has some games that Hopewell can win and hopefully put on a good show for the home crowd.

But don’t kid yourself, this schedule and their conference in particular is brutal. Upcoming opponents such as Beaver, Avonworth, Central Valley and North Catholic are all ranked in the Top 10 of AAA teams.

It will no doubt be difficult but no one on that staff is looking for sympathy because it’s their goal to one day turn this program into a team that their opposition doesn’t look forward to playing.

The Riverside game was the start of changing the image of Hopewell Vikings football around and it was a great start.

Doing it for one game is easy being able to do it week after week, year after year, like the great programs such as Aliquippa and Central Valley do is the challenging part.

I’m not going to make an outlandish prediction but if the atmosphere of game one, the off the field work that these coaches are putting in, the commitment of these kids this season and the current talent level that’s in and coming into the program is any indication, the glory of Hopewell football could be returning a lot sooner than many people realize.