Prep Baseball Report

Become a Member

More +

2015 Matt Hopkins' academics opening more options

November 30, 2013

By Steve Nielsen
Scouting Director – Wisconsin/Illinois

Matt Hopkins (Alton, 2015) went into the Midwest Future Games this past August as an under the radar left handed hitter with incredible bat speed. Since then the 6-foot-2, 190-pound corner infielder has been contacted by schools across the country.

According to Hopkins he has been contacted by a laundry list of schools that include Air Force, Akron, Alabama St., Army, Bradley, Brown, Central Michigan, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Elon, Florida Gulf Coast, Harvard, Holy Cross, Illinois State, Kansas State, Kentucky, Liberty, Marshall, Memphis, Miami Ohio, Michigan State, Missouri State, Northwestern, Oakland, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Purdue, South Alabama, South Florida, Southern California, Southern Illinois Carbondale, Tennessee, Valparaiso, Virginia Tech, Western Illinois, Western Kentucky, Western Michigan, Winthrop and Wright State.

With all the emails and letters to sift through it would seem hard for Hopkins to figure out where to start. However, Hopkins has his head on straight and knows the game of baseball isn’t going to last forever.

“I'm looking for the best academic institution to prepare me for when baseball inevitably comes to an end. I want to help a baseball program compete for a conference championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament,” he said.Matt Hopkins

It’s refreshing to see a young prospect such as Hopkins with such a high upside in the game of baseball as well as in the classroom. Most young athletes can get overcome with their sport and aspirations of “the show” but not Hopkins, he’s keeping it all in perspective.

According to Hopkins his current GPA is a 4.625 on a weighted 4.0 scale and his class rank is 2 out of 435. He also just learned the results of first ACT attempt and scored a cumulative 31.

Obviously Hopkins is taking his academics seriously and it shows by the visits he has taken.

“Since the Midwest Futures Games I have visited Harvard University, Purdue University, Air Force Academy and Northwestern University,” he said.

It’s no surprise that Hopkins’ academic standards and left handed power potential has opened so many doors and he seems to be on the right track to making all his hard work pay off.

More Illinois News