Oak Hill/Monmouth/Lisbon’s Tiger Hopkins drives to the net while being defended by Edward Little’s Attigan Knight during a May game in Wales. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Tiger Hopkins entered the lacrosse season with high expectations after leading Oak Hill/Monmouth/Lisbon to the Class C state championship game and being named the Sun Journal’s All-Region Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year in 2021.

The senior more than lived up to those expectations.

Hopkins netted 53 goals and dished out 34 assists in 2022 while leading the Raiders to the Class C state semifinals. And, for the second year in a row, he has been chosen by the Sun Journal as the All-Region Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year.

More importantly, though, Hopkins and his coach said that he became a better, more mature leader, which was one of Hopkins’ goal entering the 2022 season.

“(Oak Hill) has always had really good talent, but it’s about getting everyone to buy in,” Hopkins said. “I thought I did a pretty good job as a leader last year, but this year I was able to get other guys to have leadership roles as well.”

“He took it a little further, in terms of being a coach,” Oak Hill/Monmouth/Lisbon coach Joey Hinkley added. “And a lot of the kids took to that very well. He’s learned so much from coaches throughout his career that he brought back and tried to make his teammates better because of that.”

Hopkins had a different mindset on the field, too.

“My riding got a lot better,” Hopkins said. “Junior year, I was almost too cool to ride back on defense, but senior year I didn’t really care as much about the points. I was just trying to win.”

The star player also looked to dish his teammates more during his senior year, despite the impact that it had on his numbers.

“He gave the ball up more,” Hinkley said. “He was looking for his teammates more. He just wanted to win the game; he didn’t care who scored.”

HARD WORK PAYS OFF

Hinkley, who has known Hopkins since middle school, said one attribute separates Hopkins from the rest of the pack: his work ethic.

“We’ve had good lacrosse players, but I’ve never had the opportunity to coach one like (Tiger),” Hinkley said. “He always wanted to be the best and he worked his butt off all the time. He was always the first one at practice. He has a stick in his hands all the time. He always wants to get better.”

Hopkins, out of a love for the game and a desire to be the best, even took on coaching responsibilities this season.

“He studies the game. After the game, if the film was online, you could text him an hour after the game and he’s already watched it,” Hinkley said. “Then he’ll come back to practice with note cards from the film and talk to the kids.”

Oak Hill/Monmouth/Lisbon’s Tiger Hopkins takes a shot on goal as Edward Little goalie Daulton David and Attigan Knight (30) try to stop him during the first half of a May game in Wales. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

This work ethic vaulted Tiger Hopkins into elite company. His 153 career goals and 105 career assists rank third on the all-time Maine high school goals and assists lists. His 258 career points are number four on the all-time list.

Making those numbers even more impressive is that Hopkins didn’t have a sophomore season due to the coronavirus pandemic forcing the cancellation of all spring sports in 2020.

“If he had his sophomore year, I think he would’ve broken those records,” Hinkley said.

NEXT-LEVEL LACROSSE

Next year, Hopkins will be reunited with a couple of familiar faces.

He’ll be playing for St. Joseph’s College of Maine, where his old Oak Hill teammates Xavier Michaud and Ethan Richard play.

“I’m gonna be moving onto St. Joes next month,” Hopkins said. “I’m gonna be reunited with a couple of old teammates, Xavier Michoud and Ethan Richard. Those are some of my best friends, so it’ll be fun to get back with some of those guys.”

Since he’ll have increased talent around him, Hopkins is looking forward to playing a different role at St. Joseph’s than he played in high school.

“Something I want to add onto my game is the passing. Just seeing our roster makeup right now, we have a lot of talented scorers. But last year, they didn’t have a quarterback of the offense,” Hopkins said. “When I play travel ball, I’m usually not scoring all the goals, I’m having all the assists. But then when I go to high school, I have to be a goal scorer. So I’m kind of excited to have a different role of not necessarily being the main guy. It’ll be interesting to play lacrosse in a way where you’re not number one on the scouting report.”

Even if his game changes in college, his love for the game won’t.

“There wasn’t one day of lacrosse practice that I wasn’t excited to go to practice. I play three other sports (basketball, football, golf) and there are definitely days when I don’t want to get tackled in 90 degree weather,” Hopkins said. “I was kind of proud of myself for never getting burned out from lacrosse.”