Mr. Hoppe has been an icon in not only the Bernards Sports community, but the Bernards community as a whole throughout the past several decades. Mr. Hoppe’s hard work and dedication to Bernards through all of these years has finally been rewarded, as he won the Sectional Award of Merit for North Jersey Section Two. 

The Sectional Award of Merit is given to only four athletic directors across the state, making it so special. The award is given yearly to recognize the top Athletic Directors in the state. “It’s nice to be recognized,” said Mr. Hoppe. 

This award also is an example of how far the athletic program has come after many years of success. Mr. Hoppe goes above and beyond for everything he does. For example, back in 2020, he helped many teams get more games to play while lots of teams were canceling due to COVID-19. “My freshman year was COVID,” said Logan Ritchie ‘24. “We were trying to get games and he got a lot of them for us… best [athletic director] in the country.”

This was just one of the many ways Mr. Hoppe always advocated for our facilities to be used during state and county games. While many schools don’t do this, Mr. Hoppe has consistently done this from the start of his career. “I just thought that was part of the gig,” said Mr. Hoppe. “[I thought] everyone was supposed to do that,” he jokes in an interview.

Mr. Hoppe goes above and beyond for BHS’s athletic department. When asked about Mr. Hoppe, Coach Simoneau says, “I can’t imagine anyone else being the athletic director… He is Mr. BHS” 

Mr. Hoppe truly is BHS, as you can regularly see him engaging with students throughout the day and at sporting events. His vision for athletics at BHS is endless. 

Mr. Hoppe wants to continue to expand the athletics programs and learn from other athletic directors to continue to improve upon what we already have. 

Mr. Hoppe helped turn the baseball program into a successful winning program. He has also worked side by side with every coach to help build up their programs, a reason why all sports at Bernards have become so successful. Mr. Hoppe has dedicated much of his life to this school and has earned long overdue recognition.