Vukovcan: Will Matt Mottes Be Coaching Hopewell Football in 2025?

With the start of a new year, I was starting to examine some of the sports teams at Hopewell High School and what’s ahead for 2025.

The five teams that come to mind were the baseball, Boys soccer, Girls volleyball, Track and Field and the football team.

2024 was a season all about developing young players on the roster for Morgan Singletary and the baseball team. After a season with some ups and downs, yet still qualifying for the playoffs, 2025 will be exciting with returning ‘veterans’ David Medich, Kingston Krotec, Charlie Smetana, Ben McDonald, Drew Donovan and Zach Gigliotti.

After making it to the championship match, the volleyball team will graduate a few talented players but still have a talented roster and will always be competitive. Plus, some of the younger players on the roster will have a chance to earn a spot in Coach Terry Borkovic’s rotation.

The Boys soccer team qualified for the playoffs in 2024 and will return a very talented roster led by Tommy Armour, Rocco Marcantonio, Alex Alvarado, John Sakson, Tallon Coleman, Nykyeron Leonora and Aaden Gonzalez.

This could be a special season for HC Jeff Brunton and the Hopewell Track and Field program, actually it could be their best season ever with plenty of new school records within reach.

Some of the athletes to keep and eye on are:

• Zach Kovell, Sr. Sprints
  Connor Progar, Sr. Pole vault
  Josh Brunton, Jr. Sprints
  Nick Adams, Jr, Jumps
  Julian Baldwin, Jr Sprints
  Bryce Ray, Jr Jumps
  Vinny Boris, Jr Javelin
  Antony Flitcraft, Jr. Distance
• Emma Palmieri, Sr. Sprints
  Maya Richburg, Jr. Sprints
  Nevaeh Persi-Jones, Sr. Sprints
  Avery Boyd, So. Hurdles, jumps, relays
  Madison Inderelst, Jr. mid-distance
  Emily Bauknight, Jr. pole vault
  Reese Murray, Sr. Hurdles
  Marlee Page, So. Throws

As I started to think about the Vikings football program, it immediately came to mind that as of today, they don’t officially have a head coach.

In case you weren’t aware, following the unexpected resignation of John Rosa before the season, Matt Mottes was hired just on an interim basis.

Despite taking over at the last minute, despite it being his first head coaching job and despite having a very young roster, Mottes led Hopewell to their most wins in 7 seasons.

This effort was recognized by fellow coaches as Mottes was named conference Co-Coach of the Year.

After that, you’d just assume that naming Mottes the full-time head coach was just a formality, right? I guess not, which for the life of me I can’t understand.

The job was publicly opened, which by law, is something that the district was required to do. But since then, we’ve heard nothing.

Keep in mind, football season has been over for two months. I’ve heard that interviews have been done with various candidates.

Because of it being a personnel matter, no one from the district is going to speak on the record about this matter, which I understand.

However, what I don’t understand is why Mottes isn’t officially the head coach as we start 2025? Didn’t he do enough last year to earn the job?

During his ‘on the job interview’ last season, Mottes restored pride back into the Vikings program which is no small task considering the depths in which it had fallen.

As an outsider but someone that attended practice and games, the other major component that Mottes restored was structure. The pace of practice, drills being done in practice and the instruction given by the staff was impressive.

The players obviously took to the coaching as they continued to get better throughout the season.

The team had structure and discipline to their practices and to their pregame warmups. The players on this team were held accountable for their actions, which is something they learned very early on.

This team was very well behaved as there were no discipline problems, which I’ll repeat, shouldn’t be overlooked. I was also told by a school employee that the team GPA was over 3.2, which means the players were getting it done in the classroom as well.

With all of this being said, can you see why I’m confused as to what the holdup is? Could the district actually be serious about making a coaching change? If so, why? I’m not saying they are but the longer this takes, it just makes you wonder.

If you’ve been paying attention, throughout the WPIAL, there have been a number of bizarre football coaching changes this offseason. Considering what he showed last season and his passion for coaching; I’m sure Mottes would be a coveted coaching candidate.

Hopewell football has a guy in Mottes that loves this team and loves coaching at Hopewell High School. He has the program headed in the right direction and next season the expectation will be making the playoffs.

The one thing that these players don’t need is a coaching change, which means learning a new system, establishing new relationships and unfortunately could lead to player turnover.

As I started this column by saying, a number of  Hopewell teams have bright futures, that will no doubt be the case with football, assuming Mottes is coaching them in 2025.