{"id":22370,"date":"2014-01-03T13:23:33","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T21:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=22370"},"modified":"2014-01-08T10:58:40","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T18:58:40","slug":"hopkins-leading-usa-jr-men-to-softball-championships-at-whitehorse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=22370","title":{"rendered":"Hopkins leading USA Jr. Men to softball championships at Whitehorse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>
Click logo to view original news story and photo at the Herald Review.<\/figcaption><\/figure>WARRENSBURG \u2013 Collin Hopkins said he doesn\u2019t know if his friends would believe him if he told them he was one of the best softball players in the United States.<\/p>\n

Maybe they will if he sends a postcard from Canada.<\/p>\n

The Warrensburg-Latham senior, who wowed opposing Okaw Valley Conference hitters in baseball this past spring, has another talent up his jersey — fastpitch softball pitching.<\/p>\n

And Hopkins not only can do it well, his talent landed him on the 2014 Junior Men’s National Team that will travel to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada this summer to compete for a world championship.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s been a curious and very long trip to get there.<\/p>\n

Hopkins isn\u2019t new to fastpitch softball by any means — by now it\u2019s a long-standing family tradition. His grandfather coached and his father, Mike, was elected to the Illinois Hall of Fame for his abilities as a third baseman and a catcher. Collin was there nearly every step of the way across Illinois and beyond to soak in the atmosphere of the softball field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically grew up at the field, watching him and my grandpa, too,\u201d Collin said. \u201cI just followed him and my dad around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s a little surreal to follow in his dad\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, because me and my friends always played on the bases after the game, and now I actually get to play in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Collin<\/a>
Collin Hopkins, USA Jr. Men (click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>Spending enough time around the diamond paid off. Former Decatur Pride team manager Scott Standerfer saw Collin, envisioned him a pitcher and started molding him into a dominant starter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the one that basically got Collin the opportunity and got his foot in the door,\u201d Mike said. \u201cHe came to pitch with us that summer, and him and Collin hit it off and started pitching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with the Hall of Fame credentials, Mike, a shortstop\/third baseman\/catcher, couldn\u2019t quite teach the nuances of pitching well enough to get Collin a spot on the Junior National team. And that\u2019s where the Hopkins started getting creative.<\/p>\n

Through some connections, Collin and Mike found a pitching coach in California, Gary Mulligan, and started a collaboration in 2010. Every month Collin would videotape himself playing, send a 10-minute segment to Mulligan and wait for the critique.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty stressful,\u201d Collin said. \u201cMy first video was pretty nerve-wracking because I had never made a video before. It took me about a few videos until where I started to notice a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lack of a coach didn\u2019t deter his dedication. When he wasn\u2019t at the Medalist Athletic Center in Warrensburg, Collin took an hour or so out in the garage to make his practice a daily routine. Early on, Collin said the toughest part was finding accuracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe release point really,\u201d Collin said. \u201cI\u2019m a baseball pitcher, too, and it\u2019s basically just the release point that\u2019s the toughest part. I can\u2019t tell you how many times I tossed it 20 feet over the backstop. Now, I don\u2019t need that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

In between sending in video segments, there were tryouts that slowly whittled down the national team\u2019s prospects. One by one, Collin passed each checkpoint during the last couple of years. Finally, after two long years of wondering if all that work would translate into a spot on the national team, he got the call saying he made one of the 17 roster spots.<\/p>\n

Still, even if it hadn\u2019t worked out, softball has become a way for Collin and Mike to bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords can\u2019t express it,\u201d Mike said. \u201cI\u2019m a catcher, so to play on the same field and be a catcher, and being able to catch him for those last few years of Decatur Pride was really special. My dad always coached, and I always played.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s basically a little cool club that we all have,\u201d Collin added. \u201cThat\u2019s the one thing that we share. And my little brother Parker, he\u2019s 11, and he tries to pitch too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coaching him as well?<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to, but you know brothers. You can\u2019t tell them what to do,” Collin said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, after a two-year long tryout session, there\u2019s still a little more waiting left to do. The national team will get together in late June for about a week to train before heading off to Whitehorse from July 11-20 to play teams from Europe, South America, Asia and Australia for the X International Softball Federation (ISF) Junior Men\u2019s World Championship (Under-19).<\/p>\n

And if anyone still doesn\u2019t quite believe Collin\u2019s accomplishments, he has the jersey with USA plastered across it for proof.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something, I don\u2019t how to describe it,\u201d Collin said of making the team. \u201cIt was stressful not knowing for two years. But it feels great now, especially getting to wear those three letters across my chest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WARRENSBURG \u2013 Collin Hopkins said he doesn\u2019t know if his friends would believe him if he told them he was one of the best softball players in the United States. Maybe they will if he sends a postcard from Canada. The Warrensburg-Latham senior, who wowed opposing Okaw Valley Conference hitters in baseball this past spring, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asa","8":"category-isf","9":"category-youth","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22375,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22370\/revisions\/22375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}