By Rob Schabert, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – An “inner drive and commitment to excellence in each aspect of his life” are some of the traits that make Jordan Hopkins a natural leader, according to his coach.

And those are some of the character traits that have led to Hopkins, a senior on the Golden Eagle baseball team, to be selected as the January recipient of the Unsung Leader Award, a monthly honor presented by the Tennessee Tech Athletics Department.

“As a senior and someone who has been in this program for four years, Jordan is uniquely aware of the accountability, integrity, passion and high-level character traits that are expected out of our players,” said head coach Matt Bragga. “He exemplifies these characteristics on a daily basis.

“Jordan has an inner drive and commitment to excellence in each aspect of his life that is unmatched,” Bragga said. “He excels as a leader, which is evident by his near unanimous selection as a team captain, and he excels in the classroom with well over a 3.0 GPA. Jordan has been a key contributor to the success of our baseball program.”

Entering his final season on the Golden Eagle roster, Hopkins came to Tech in 2011 out of Grace Christian Academy in Knoxville, Tenn. After two season splitting time at catcher for Tech, he emerged last year as the everyday starter, either behind the play or as the designated hitter. He led the OVC with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage for the second consecutive year, and managed a .289 batting average with 41 RBI and 43 runs scored.

"I'm really honored to receive this award," Hopkins said. "I'm so blessed to to be able to be a captain on this year's team, alongside two great leaders in [Jacob] Honea and DBO [Dylan Bosheers]. I'm pumped to finally get to start this season on Friday. We have a lot of talent across the board and are ready to do big things and make a lot of noise come tournament time!"

The son of Mark and Karla Hopkins, he is majoring in EXPW/pre-physical therapy and has been named to the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll four times.

“Jordan is an absolutely tremendous leader and top-notch example for players in our program,” Bragga said. “Jordan sets the tone for the unchangeable, unshakeable and unstoppable mentality we desire from all of our players, whether it be in the community, classroom, weight room or on the field.”

The Unsung Leader Award was created to recognize leadership by student-athletes, with an award presented each month throughout the academic year. A year ago, Tech’s student-athletes and staff attended a leadership seminar, and Director of Athletics Mark Wilson wanted to find ways to keep student-athletes motivated toward following the ideals learned at the event.

“The seminar allowed student-athletes to learn, interact and discuss traits of leadership, and in turn we see our student-athletes demonstrating those traits every day,” Wilson said. “This award is a way to recognize that leadership, which many times isn’t reflected in headlines or other ways. It’s quiet leadership, behind-the-scenes leadership, that makes everybody better.

“These young men and women are leaders, pure-and-simple, not doing the right thing for recognition but to make themselves, their teammates, and their teams better,” Wilson said.

One example of Hopkins’ leadership, according to Bragga, is the commitment he demonstrated to his teammates’ academic success as well as his own during the fall of 2014 by leading numerous study sessions in the team clubhouse.

“Often times, these sessions would follow 6 a.m. morning weight training. Several other players would be in attendance and the time would be incredibly focused and intense in nature,” Bragga said. 

“Another example of Jordan’s leadership is the significant amount of time he voluntarily spends on his own working relentlessly in the weight room, cages and on the field,” added Bragga. “The examples he sets for newcomers to our program about what it means to be a TTU baseball player is irreplaceable.  He is also one of the best vocal leaders we have had.  He takes charge of the field from his catching position and this is exactly what we want from our catchers.”

One student-athlete, nominated by his/her coaching staff, is selected and recognized for exemplifying outstanding leadership qualities during the previous month. The leadership can be shown on the field, in the weight room, at practice, in the classroom, in study hall, on campus, in the community, for a student club or organization.

This award honors a varsity student-athlete who has made a positive impact on their team and the Tennessee Tech community as a whole, through his or her dedication to demonstrating leadership traits, such as:
        * Keep Learning, Growing, and Improving
        * Follow Through with Excellence
        * Accomplish More than Expected
        * Inspire and Motivate Others

Previous Unsung Leader Award winners have been Ellen Conti (volleyball in September), Austin Tallant (football in October), Geoffrey Sambu (cross country in November), and Courtney Smith (volleyball in December).