The Valley News will profile an area high school head coach weekly during the summer. It’s a chance to better know some of the people guiding the area’s student-athletes. Today, we meet 20-year Woodstock High girls tennis boss Tom Hopewell, a 63-year old who’s somewhat of a bionic man.
Cat gut?: “I grew up in South Hadley, Mass., not far from Mount Holyoke College, during the 1960s. My dad, William, was at sea for 44 years. My mom, Louise, had four boys within five years of each other. She had help with our care from her sister, who had a connection at the Spalding sporting goods company, so there were always cat-gut, wooden tennis rackets around our house.”
Lifetime sport: “I never played tennis competitively, but a game was always there, or you’d go hit against this 60-foot wooden backboard at the college. You’d dig a tennis ball out of the woods. My brothers and I still play tennis together. There aren’t many 80-year old football players on the field, but you can find a bunch on a tennis court.”
Strong seaman: “My father was a master mariner, meaning he could take any vessel from A to B in any water. He was gone for six to eight months of the year. We’d see him for three or four days and then he’d be back out. His last five years, he did a regular route from San Diego to Kobe, Japan. He was a tough cookie who taught us a lot about respect and work ethic and there was no whining or arguing. It was ‘Yes, sir,’ ‘No, sir’ with him.”
Bum to burgers: Hopewell graduated from South Hadley High in 1973 and after a couple of years of being a “ski bum” at Killington, he went into cooking and worked his way from flipping burgers to becoming a chef. In 1984, he attended La Varenne E’Cole de Cuisine in Paris for 4½ months to polish his French cooking skills. He then worked at chef’s jobs in Lennox, Mass., Killington and Woodstock’s Kedron Valley Inn.
Under the knife: “One day, I pulled up on a prep table to try and move it and felt two discs rupture in my neck. I’ve had four knee surgeries, including a replacement, four foot surgeries and four back surgeries and I’m about to have a fifth. I’m 6-foot-3 and dealing with the breakdown of my skeletal system. I can ski better than I can walk.”
Wasps for the win: Hopewell has taught tennis in Woodstock for the last 20 years and began coaching his daughter’s team when she was in junior high before following her to the high school level. The Wasps won state titles in 2000, 2017 and 2018 and Hopewell’s record is 265-36.
Family: Hopewell’s wife, Norine, was an investment banker and restaurant manager before recently completing a teaching career in Barnard. Their twins, Sarah and Matt, are 35. “She’s in international development in (Washington) D.C. and is out to save the world and he’s a landscaper in Burlington,” Tom Hopewell said. “He studied plant soils and sciences at UVM and plays in the dirt.”
Old man and the seat: Hopewell figures he can manage at least one more season with the Wasps, but the travel wears him out. “God, those bus rides are brutal,” he said. “Can’t this old, beat-up coach ride in his car? I’m stretched out with a couple of pillows and that’s not a good look.” Woodstock returns five seniors next year and will be a serious threat to three-peat.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.