Hopewell’s Brody Rock One of Most Underrated AND Most Talented Players in the WPIAL

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A couple of different things can be said about the 2026 Hopewell Vikings football team.

The first and most obvious thing is that they have an extremely talented roster full of players. The other thing that kind of goes overlooked is that this is a team full of some very unselfish players.

Let’s be honest, in today’s society of look at me and players caring more about individual success than team success, it could have been very easy for various members of this team to get frustrated overlook of statistics or opportunities to make plays on the field.

To the credit of HC Matt Mottes and his coaching staff that hasn’t been an issue at all as the players are instead focused on one single thing: win a WPIAL Class 3A Championship.

A perfect example of this unselfishness is with Hopewell junior Brody Rock.

If Rock is on virtually any other team in the WPIAL, he would be the go-to target on offense as either the feature running back or their top wide receiver/tight end/H-Back. However, when you’re in an offensive huddle with James Armstrong, Nasir Wade, Avery Bokor, Tre Cameron, etc., you realize that that’s a lot of talent and on any given game, any of those players can dominate the stat sheet.

Rock is a total team player and like many Vikings has adopted the moto of ‘There’s No I in Team’.

Because he’s not a Diva and isn’t craving attention, Rock has no doubt flown under the radar in Western Pennsylvania in terms of on-field ability. I don’t believe it’s an overstatement to say that Rock is one of the most underrated and most talented all-around players in the entire WPIAL.

Just take a look at what he’s done this season in all 3-phases of the game for Hopewell this season.

HOPEWELL JUNIOR BRODY ROCK
(RUNNING BACK/WIDE RECEIVER, DEFENSIVE END, PUNTER, PUNT RETURNER)

*Rushing: 38 carries for 347 yards (9.1 yards per carry), 2 touchdowns
*Receiving: 26 catches for 691 yards (26 yards per catch), 7 touchdowns
*Defense: 45 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and a team-leading 12 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries and 1 interception
*Special Teams: 1 blocked punt and 200 return yards
*Punting: 11 punts for 366 yards (33.3 yards/punt)

While Rock might be underrated by people throughout the WPIAL, his head coach is well aware of how important he is to the team.

“He returns punts for us, he returns kicks, he’s our punter, he’s our outside linebacker who rushes the quarterback, he’s our H-Back, he’s our running back, he’s our receiver, pretty much Brody does it all,” said Mottes. “He’s overlooked because he missed most of last year with a fractured skull.”

“His biggest year to year improvement has been defensively. He understands the game a lot better, he understands what Coach Tatalovich is trying to do. He now understands our defensive scheme and what his role and responsibilities are. Last year against Southmoreland (in playoffs), we were telling him on every play what to do and where to line up. During his freshman season, he was primarily an offensive player and then he missed most of last year. So, with a full year of playing defense and understanding things, he’s really excelled on defense.”

The other huge difference in Rock this season is the speed he’s showing on both sides of the ball. As a rush end, opposing offensive tackles and tight ends have struggled to block him without committing a holding penalty. Then on offense, Rock has always run with tremendous power and physicality but this year instead of running over people, he’s know shown the speed the run by them.

When you combine all of those physical traits, that makes for an extremely dangerous and talented player.

“Brody doesn’t have long distance speed, he has tremendous, short burst football speed,” said Mottes. “Obviously, he gets to the quarterback very quickly, he can close in on a ball carrier very quickly and also when he makes a play, he can accelerate and get by someone pretty quickly. Brody definitely has a lot of talent.”

“What makes Brody so unique is that he excels at every position,” said Mottes. “He can block for us, he can catch the ball, he can run, honestly, he’s one of the best football players on our team. I think he’s a completely overlooked football players and one of the best football players in 3A.”

With that being said and the fact that he’s an excellent student, I find it hard to believe Rock is not receiving interest from college football programs. Maybe it’s the fact that he hasn’t participated in prospect camps or made recruiting trips, but Brody Rock has the talent to play college football.

“He wasn’t exactly sure if he wanted to play football in college but now that he is sure, I believe his recruiting will pick up shortly. Depending on how hard he works, I believe he can be an FBS talent, but time will tell. Let’s see much he develops over the next year, how much size he puts on, how much stronger he gets. Definitely if he works at it like James (Armstrong) does, he would definitely be the No.1 prospect on our team.”