When he came home from school, he played football.
On the weekends, he played football.
He probably played football in his sleep.
There wasn’t much else Donyae Hopkins did growing up in Baltimore.
“It’s always been football,” said North Lenoir’s junior running back, who started playing tackle football — with a group four years his senior — when he was 7-years old. “It’s my sport. It’s what I grew up watching.
“That’s all I liked to play; every day, outside playing football.”
When Hopkins moved to Lenoir County at 7, he got exposure to basketball through classmates who played the game.
When he got to high school, he joined the class of dozens of multi-sport athletes in Lenoir County by being on both the football and basketball teams. In the United States, there are an estimated 7.2 million high school athletes, according to CDC.gov.
As Hawks basketball players were gearing up for the hardwood, Hopkins was still on the gridiron this year. With all area football seasons completed, two-sport athletes have thoroughly transitioned from football to basketball.
Hopkins, North Lenoir’s MVP running back, joined the Hawks on the basketball court this season after a quick breather in between sports. As an RB, his body took a lot of “punishment” in the hard hits accompanying football season.
“I need about a week to rest my body,” the 5-foot-9Hopkins said. “But after a week, I can go to basketball and be back at it. It’s easy to stay in shape.”
He said there are no issues with making a transition because the athletic ability that comes from playing multiple sports in high school. However, the conditioning is different for each.
Take it from North Lenoir’s Anthony Loftin. He went from coaching football to coaching basketball in a matter of days.
The transition
Loftin is the head coach of the boys’ basketball team and the head coach for the Hawks’ junior varsity football squad.
He said it takes a while for transitioning players to get their bodies adjusted from one sport to the next.
“Sometimes they’ll get down on themselves,” Loftin said of some two-sport athletes. “You can’t go up there and dunk a basketball like you know you can, because when you first come out there, you won’t have the legs to do it.”
Football players obviously have different conditioning, training and body movements from basketball players. For guys who do both, agility and speed take precedence over bulk and strength during basketball season.
But at least multi-sport athletes stay conditioned in between seasons.
“Getting their body to change from strong … to flexible in that basketball season is a big challenge,” said Loftin, who made the gym available for his basketball players while he was coaching football. “I try to tell them it takes time. You can put a lot of pressure on yourself in trying to do so much early instead of just sitting back and letting it come to you.
“Once you let it come to you, you’ll find you’ll probably be a better ball player.”
Although area coaches are flexible with football players’ basketball tryouts and allow a short break in between seasons, some athletes are ready to jump right in.
South Lenoir running back Dion Jones didn’t take his allowed time off before he started playing basketball this year.
“I didn’t want to take a week off,” the 18-year-old Jones said. “I just got to it so I won’t be left out.”
He said when he returned to the gym, he had to catch up on the plays. Jones only focuses on one sport at a time, especially since the two markedly differ.
“Football is different from basketball because it’s more contact,” said Jones, who racked up 1,004 rushing yards on the field this season. “In basketball, it’s all about doing everything right and making the right plays.”
However, skills, drills and attitudes are borrowed from the field to the court.
Jones, for instance, brings the intensity he used during the football season to Blue Devils basketball.
Loftin said he uses footwork drills in coaching both sports because the man-to-man coverage is similar.
Of the area schools that have football and basketball programs, there is at least one student on both rosters. Transitioning between sports seasons becomes second nature to these kids.
Making it successful
Some multi-sport athletes identify stronger with a single sport. While they must shift from one to the next, there’s a fundamentalunderstanding to which one they’re best at.
Hopkins knows his sport is football, even though he plays basketball and even runs track.
But for Kinston’s Qwarri Ham, he said he plays both football and basketball with an equal skill level.
“I like them both evenly,” said the senior guard who’s been playing since he was 6. “I think about that sport when I’m playing that sport.”
Depending on how long football’s post-season last, the transition period can begin to narrow. Vikings football advanced to the second round of NCHSAA 2AA state playoffs before falling to Currituck County last month.
The day before Kinston played the Knights in football, the Vikings’ basketball season opened.
Ham, a receiver, was occupied as Kinston basketball started its run to defend its 2A statetitle, but now he’s back in full-time, hardwood action.
Brent Williams, Lenoir County Public Schools executive director of operations, said coaches and athletic directors have a strong role in facilitating successful and safe changeovers for student-athletes.
“We encourage as much participation in athletics as we can,” said Williams, who oversees the county’s athletics in his role. “Our coaches do a good job of working with them on (the transition) and working with their parents. We as a school system have tried over the last few years to increase what we’re doing overall in terms of safety.”
Williams said LCS have partnered with the local emergency services to have emergency personnel on site at athletic events, while implementing the Gfeller-Waller Concussion Awareness Act. All coaches, administrators, student-athletes and parents of student-athletes must be trained on concussions under the law.
According to Momsteam.com, football players are the most at-risk high school athletes for concussions. They have the highest concussion rate with 6.4-7.6 concussions per 10,000 “athletic exposures” (64-76.8 percent). The concussion rate for boys’ basketball is between 16 and 21.2 percent.
Coaches may have the largest role in a sound transition for the athletes, and the camaraderie built through playing multiple sports is unmatched.
But the players also know doubling up on sports can increase scholarship chances.
“There are a lot of benefits,” Hopkins said, “and college is one. You can get maybe a scholarship for both sports if you’re good enough.”
The Hawks’ multi-sport athlete has an entire senior year left when he finishes this year’s cycle of seasons. While football is his thing, he won’t ignore his appetite to play basketball, too.
“I like both sports,” Hopkins said. “I like both, and that’s why I play both.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 and Jessika.Morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.