New Viking in town

MOSES LAKE – New Big Bend Head Coach Jason Hopkins comes to Moses Lake looking to bring excitement back to the Vikings on the basketball court.

“I was really attracted to the history and tradition of the program,” Hopkins said. “I’m from Washington, from Edmonds, and I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of coming back home and coaching, being a head coach in the state.”

Hopkins brings a myriad of experience to Big Bend, including; being a junior college assistant, an assistant coach at Idaho State, a head high school coach in Hawaii and a club coach in Seattle, as well as a playing career collegiately at Lipscomb and professionally in Mexico and China. The new Big Bend head coach said his playing and coaching careers have helped him identify which types of players can help a program.

“A few of the things that are really important to me are high-character, hard-working guys that want to sacrifice for the greater good,” Hopkins said. “To represent the community in a positive way. I think when you have a group of people that care and are more concerned about the good as a whole, it almost always leads to good things.”

His lessons from being an assistant coach under Jerry Carrillo at Cochise College in southern Arizona, where the Apaches recently put together 29-3 and 29-4 seasons over the past two years, have played a significant role in his coaching career.

“We didn’t always have significantly better or even better talent than everybody, but what we had was the desire for our team to outwork everybody and to do whatever was needed in order to be successful,” Hopkins said. “That type of mindset, blue-collar mentality is something that I hope to bring to Big Bend.”

The coaching and playing career is what caught the attention of Big Bend’s Athletic Director John Meeks.

“Jason is a tremendous addition to our staff and rich men’s basketball tradition,” Meeks said in an e-mail to the Herald. “Jason comes to Big Bend with significant playing and coaching experience at one of the most well-recognized Hispanic-serving institutions in the country in Cochise College, bringing with that experience an instant appreciation for the mission of Big Bend as a Hispanic-serving institution.”

When it comes to recruiting, Hopkins said his philosophy is to look at local players first, then fill in the remaining roles to complement the local talent. Hopkins also added that this being his first year at Big Bend, this will “probably” be his season with the “least” amount of local players due to the timeframe of his arrival.

“I think (this year) you’ll see some players from all over, but going forward the objective is to look at what the local talent is, and as long as it meets the talent threshold that’s required to be successful, to attempt to sign it,” Hopkins said. “Whatever holes there are that are missing so to speak, filling that in from wherever I can.”

While Hopkins said he doesn’t have momentous goals for the upcoming 2023-24 season, he prefers to let the work on the court speak for itself.

“I don’t want to do anything too drastic, other than making sure we're approaching every day and attacking every day with the right mindset and letting the results speak for how they are and how we work,” Hopkins said. “I would say that I think we’re going to bring a pretty exciting and up-tempo style – that we’ve been known for at Cochise – to Big Bend.”

Connecting with fans and the community is another focus for Hopkins, he said.

“We want to be really invested in the community,” Hopkins said. “We want to invite the local folks around the county and make the program theirs, we want them to feel this is a representation of you. We want to invite them in, really reach out and restore that connection.”

The Vikings will be looking to improve on their 4-21 mark in the 2022-23 season.

“We’re going to get up and down the floor, we’re going to be pretty relentless in our pressure and how we go about attacking the game,” Hopkins said. “I think it’s a very fun style and way to play, and I think it’s going to be exciting for people to watch.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.