Mike Vukovcan The Hopewell Vikings football program received national attention over the last few weeks as coaches from Pitt, Penn State and Duke all made their way to express their interest in sophomore quarterback James Armstrong.
While Armstrong has been the center of the recruiting attention, this current Hopewell roster has plenty of other players that will also be playing football past high school.
Vikings Sports Now has reported on Nasir Wade and with his dynamic skillset, have little doubt that D-1 offers will start coming in soon. Wade just has to be patient since he’s only a sophomore. It’s really not a matter of it, just when.
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Programs such as Virginia, Virginia Tech, Penn State and Boston College have showed initial interest in Wade.
The other player that is seeing his arrow pointing up is 2027 edge rusher Aris Haniotes.
Haniotes was a huge presence on Hopewell’s 2025 defense as he continually applied pressure on opposing quarterbacks and improved tremendously setting the edge and stopping the opposing teams running attack.
Haniotes finished the season with 14 sacks, 17 tackles for loss and 67 tackles. Want to see improvement, compare those numbers to his sophomore season (at Quaker Valley) when he had 4 sacks, 52 tackles and 13 tackles for loss.
When you watch his film, the thing that immediately stands out is his first step and burst off the edge.
”I was very pleased with Aris’ progression” said HC Matt Mottes. “He got a lot better throughout the season against the run. We played against him last year and knew he did really well getting after the quarterback.”
“I’m excited for this upcoming season. He has a lot of potential and has gotten bigger and stronger
Since the end of Hopewell’s season and their playoff loss to Imani Christian, Haniotes set a goal to get bigger, stronger and faster. Knowing his work ethic, it’s not a surprise that he’s been able to achieve all three.
At the end of the season, Haniotes weighed between 205/210 pounds and is currently up to 230 pounds, with the goal of possibly adding 10-15 more pounds. In order to main that speed, Haniotes has been training under Terry Grossetti Performance out of New Castle.
As far as D-1 interest, Haniotes has received interest from Michigan State, Boston College and Pitt, with each of those schools inviting him to attend a spring practice.
The goal for any high school sports team is to try and get their players college interest and that’s currently happening with Coach Mottes’ program.
Armstrong, Wade and Haniotes aren’t the only players on the Vikings roster that have the potential to play in college so Vikings Sports Now will do our best to get these players exposure and do whatever we can to assist in their recruiting.
