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Hopewell High School Football

Hopewell Star Running Back Nasir Wade Had a Great Year and Will Only Get Better

Mike Vukovcan 0 107 5 minutes read

The Hopewell Vikings football program received huge news last offseason when they found out a tremendous talent was moving into the school district.

Following his freshman season at Aliquippa High School, Nasir Wade’s family made the decision to move to Hopewell High School, which was welcoming news to head coach Matt Mottes and offensive coordinator Zach Rosa.

An offense that already had playmakers such as James Armstrong, Brody Rock, Logan Triscilla, Tre Cameron, Avery Bokor, Kingston Krotec returning was now adding Wade.

One thing that became very evident was that this 2025 Hopewell offense was going to be able to move the ball and score a lot of points, which has turned out to be the case. In their 10 games this season, the Vikings have averaged 39.5 points per game and a big reason for that was what Wade brought to the Hopewell backfield.

From the opening game against Riverside, it was easy to see Wade’s unique talent and game-changing ability. It’s not an exaggeration to say that he has the ability to get to the endzone every time he touches the ball.

What makes him different from anyone on the Hopewell roster and from A LOT of players in the WPIAL is his straight-line speed along with his ability to stop, make a jump cut from right to left and turn the jets. If you want an example, take a look at Wade’s first touchdown last week against North Catholic.

The exciting thing for Hopewell and the scary thing for their future opponents is that this was the first year Wade played running back. Prior to this at Aliquippa, he was a wide receiver and safety.

Vikings Sports Now sat down with Wade on Monday as he shared his thoughts on his first year with Hopewell, critiqued himself and talked about what I believe is an extremely bright future.

“I thought something that I did well was my vision, when I had the ball in my hands and seeing the holes that were there and getting thru them,” Wade told VSN. “I want to and I will get better at that because I’m really still learning how to be a running back. Right now, I consider myself an athlete that’s playing at running back.”

“One of the biggest things that I’m learning about playing the position is how to protect myself from taking big hits from the bigger guys but at the same time stay aggressive running the ball.”

Hopewell running back Nasir Wade

When talking about and describing talented players, it’s always interesting to find out if they try and emulate a player either that plays in college or in the pros. When it comes to Wade, the first person that comes to mind is because of his patient style and willingness to let the blocks form would be  former Pittsburgh Steeler All-Pro running back LeVeon Bell.

“Actually, I would say LeVeon Bell and it’s a comparison that I hear a lot from other people.”

Despite learning on the job, Wade had a fantastic first season as a running back, carrying the ball 108 times for 1,172 yards, along with 21 catches for 336 yards and 14 offensive touchdowns.

“Looking back and critiquing myself, I’d say I did Ok but could have done better,” said Wade. “Looking at the goals, I set for myself in the preseason, I came up a bit short in regard to yards and touchdowns. But, for my first year, I’d say I did OK, I just need to get better, and I will do that.”

When looking at those stats from Wade, keep in mind that he shares a backfield with a quarterback in James Armstrong that accounted for over 2,800 combined yards and 33 touchdowns.

Those two players complement each other because when they’re on the field and healthy at the same time, it’s impossible for a defense to totally key on one player. Being on the field together allows both players to have greater success.

To be honest with you, I’m not sure there’s a more talented 1-2 punch in the entire WPIAL in terms of quarterback and running back than Armstrong and Wade, who totaled 4,300+ combined yards and 47 touchdowns.

In terms of the future, Wade is without question a future D-1 running back with the biggest reasons being his cutback ability, his blazing speed and ability to pull away from a defender. Nasir also showed an ability to also be weapon as a pass catcher out of the backfield.

Just take a look at a few of his runs from this past season and you tell me he isn’t a player that you can see running with a D-1 team on Saturdays.

“The one thing I’ve always had is speed, which has helped me do well,” said Wade. “I’ll be honest, it feels good on the runs where I just blow by the defenders and don’t even get touched because of that speed.”

Wade was a bit banged up last game against North Catholic but showed his toughness by staying in the game despite not being 100% and having all of that speed he relies on.

With the regular season over, his focus isn’t on individual stats or college recruiting, Wade wants to make a run in the playoffs and knows that the pressure will be on the Hopewell offense to produce.

“We as an offense just needs to rack up as many points as we can. We’re going to be down some players, so the offense needs to put up points nearly every time we have the ball. Whether that’s a field goal or a touchdown, we need to score as many times as we can.”

When the 2025 season is finished, Wade’s goal is to get bigger, stronger and faster for the 2026 season. Between now and the start of next season, considering his talent and the film he’s put up this year, Wade will be hearing from D-1 schools. However, he tells me that isn’t a big priority right now to him.

Currently, Nasir holds offers from Akron and Buffalo but doesn’t spend a ton of time stressing over when and if scholarship offers will be coming his way.

“I’m not sitting around waiting and anxious for offers. If they come in, they’ll come in. All I can control is working to get better, which I’ll do.”

 

 

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