Mike Vukovcan All the talk, all the expectations, all the opinions will start to play out tonight.
High school football is back and it just so happens that the top matchup in the entire WPIAL will take place tonight at Tony Dorsett Stadium as Hopewell will host the defending WPIAL and PIAA champion Avonworth Antelopes.
When opening up a season, it would be ideal for a team to dip your toes in the water but that won’t be the case with Hopewell as they’re getting thrown into the deep end of the pool as they will take on one of the premiere high school football programs in the state of Pennsylvania.
Avonworth is the gold standard of what football programs strive to be.
Under head coach Duke Johncour, this team wins year after year, develops and sends players off to college and plays football the right way. Consider that Avonworth hasn’t lost a WPIAL game since 2023.
On the other hand, after qualifying for the postseason and winning a WPIAL playoff game for the first time in 13 years, there’s as much buzz surrounding Hopewell football as we’ve seen and heard in well over a decade.
And for good reason, the Vikings have a talented roster on both sides of the ball, sprinkled with potential D-1 talent and will be looking to win their first section title since Rushel Shell’s sophomore season in 2009. If you want to go one step further, Hopewell will legitimately be competing for a WPIAL championship for the first time since Paul Posluszny was a senior in 2002.
This isn’t just an opinion from a resident of Hopewell, yesterday on their Season Preview Podcast, the WPIAL Insider’s Matt Fargo picked Hopewell to win the Class 3A Championship. To go even further, when listing the preseason Tier List, they put Hopewell in the category of a Championship or Bust season.
Are those extremely lofty goals and expectations? YES, but that’s what happens when you field a roster like Hopewell will and led by junior 4-star quarterback James Armstrong. As we see in all levels of football, when you’re being led by a quarterback with the talent of Armstrong, anything is possible.
I can tell you one thing; any coach and team would rather be playing with these lofty expectations then hoping to just win a few games or to be a possible sleeper.
With all of that being said, this in no means guarantees anything, it just means that the Vikings should be in the running to have a lot of success. Now they have to go out and perform on the field.
Big picture, this should be an exciting next 2, hopefully 3 months for the Hopewell football coaches, players and the community of Hopewell.
Friday nights in Hopewell and the Gameday atmosphere starting tonight at Tony Dorsett Stadium should be electric. The coaching staff and people associated with the program have done a tremendous job of making Friday nights an event.
The journey to hopefully a trip to Acrisure Stadium in November starts tonight and regardless of tonight’s game, win or lose, it’s just one game. A win guarantees nothing and a loss doesn’t end anything.
While this upcoming season should result in a good number of wins, designating this as a ‘Championship or Bust’ season is a bit crazy.
All I know is that this football program has reached a level that the outside world has placed crazy expectations on them, which shows the progress that has been made.
Unfortunately, as we all know, Hopewell HS football hasn’t had the opportunity to celebrate many wins over the past decade plus so with that in mind, let’s all just soak in all the positive talk, media headlines, pride within the community, crazy expectations and just enjoy the ride.
