Top Observations from Day 2 of Hopewell Football Training Camp

404

The Hopewell Vikings officially started things up on Monday as training camp got underway with the start of heat acclimatization week.

For the rest of the week, Hopewell will have five days of non-contact drills and workouts which lead up to the players putting on pads next week.

Vikings Sports Now went over to Tony Dorsett Stadium Tuesday night to watch Hopewell practice for the first time this season. I wanted to check out what they were working on, see some of the young players, along with the core group and some of the new names.

Keep in mind, this is a team practice where coaches are working on specific things to install for the upcoming season, so I’m not going to be reporting on everything I see. I’m a guest of the team at this practice and don’t need to be writing about everything that I see.

With that in mind, here athings that really stood out to me.

1) ARMSTRONG’S ARM: The talent that quarterback James Armstrong possesses has been written about for years. When he graduates in two years, he’ll go down as one of the top couple athletes in the history of Hopewell High School along with the WPIAL.

Me writing that is nothing new and certainly not breaking news. However, I did see something last night that was different about Armstrong and something that was very impressive.

From the minute the offense started working on passing drills, something looked different about him and after a couple minutes, it came to me.

The velocity in Armstrong’s left arm was greater than it has been the past couple of years. I’m not saying that he didn’t throw hard his first two years because he did but it’s very noticeable how the velocity has gone up this year.

The wide receivers were running a number of different passing routes and for the most part, Armstrong was extremely accurate especially with the deep posts across the middle of the field.

With this increased velo, it will be an adjustment for Armstrong’s pass catchers who will have to be able to bring in and be able to catch Armstrong’s new fastball.

2) Weapons, Weapons, Weapons- One thing is very clear is that the offensive targets surrounding Armstrong is obvious.

It’s not an understatement to say that it’s an embarrassment of riches when talking about the Hopewell playmakers.

It will be a legit challenge for Hopewell OC Zach Rosa and HC Matt Mottes when figuring out who to target along with the percentage of run vs. pass.

Not many teams in the WPIAL have legit playmakers such as Armstrong, Nasir Wade, Tamar Tisdale, Brody Rock, Avery Bokor, Tre Cameron and Maddox Fattore.

3) Ground and Pound– Keeping on the offensive theme, if they choose to, the Hopewell offense will have the capability of wearing down and pounding a team by just running the ball with the 3-headed monster of Armstrong, Wade and Tisdale.

Each player possess the size or speed to pick up chunk plays or in the case of Wade, take the ball to the endzone every time he touches the ball.

The rub with that is that Armstrong is one of the top quarterbacks in the country who can lead a team up and down the field using his left arm

The bottom line is that this is a great ‘problem’ to have.

4) Another Team Strength– While the offense will get plenty of headlines, another area of the team has the potential to be very productive.

At least one paper, I believe the Hopewell defensive line has the chance to be very good. Once again, this is on paper so let’s see how things play out.

New Hopewell DC Wayne Tatalovich Jr. will have guys like Aris Haniotes, Keith Young, Landon Matthews, Joey Barkovich, Richie Johns, and others getting after the opposing quarterback and disrupting things in the backfield.

5)