From Nevada to North Carolina to Southern California, senior point guard Chelsea Hopkins has made the San Diego State women’s basketball team her final home.
Hopkins is a leader who has proven she can adapt to any court, while pursuing a Master of Business Administration at the same time.
Success on the basketball court started early for Hopkins, who played basketball for four years at Mojave High School in Las Vegas.
As a junior in high school, she led the state in scoring with 27.7 points per game and continued to dominate the hardwood her senior year with 28.5 points per game.
While other high school student-athletes may have seen this as an excuse to let their grades slip, Hopkins saw this as motivation to work even harder.
“I was really into academics,” Hopkins said. “I was salutatorian of my class, a straight A-student with a 4.7 GPA and books were my thing and basketball was secondary to that.”
When Hopkins graduated high school, she knew Duke University was the perfect fit for her.
“It was the best of both worlds because it was a prestigious academic school with an elite basketball team,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins attended Duke University in North Carolina for two years. As a Blue Devil freshman, she played in 20 of the 33 contests and averaged 2.7 points, 1.1 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 0.8 steals per game.
However, during her freshman season, Hopkins suffered a left knee injury that kept her from full health and later required surgery.
Despite having a knee injury, Hopkins came off the bench her sophomore year to play 26 games in which she averaged 1.2 points, one rebound, 0.7 assists and 0.7 steals in the season. Yet, her injury still remained.
“After that, I just felt like I needed an opportunity to recovery and rest and with those types of schools, they have top recruits coming in all the time,” Hopkins said. “I didn’t feel like they forced me to leave, but I just didn’t feel like I would be able to perform to the best of my abilities.”
The next season, Hopkins transferred to SDSU, where she could recover, be closer to her family and be a part of a successful and growing basketball program. Because of NCAA transfer rules, she had to sit out the 2010- 11 season.
“I feel like I worked really hard my redshirt year and I know when people transfer, they kind of think of it as a punishment to have to sit out,” Hopkins said. “But honestly, my redshirt year was the absolute best year I had in college and I was able to really restore myself at that time and I was back to 100 percent.”
Once she was eligible to play, Hopkins stepped onto the Viejas Arena court with a vengeance and has never looked back.
As a junior, Hopkins had an amazing season. She started and played in every game, where her talent and leadership skills did not go unnoticed.
She was voted the team captain right before the 2011-12 season started, along with senior forward Gabrielle Clark.
“It was a great feeling to be nominated as captain from my teammates,” Hopkins said.
She was the 2012 Mountain West Championship Most Valuable Player, the 2012 MW Newcomer of the Year, a first- team all-conference pick and was voted to the 2012 MW All- Tournament team.
Hopkins was eighth nationally in assists with 6.5 per game, 21st with a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and broke the program’s single season assist record with 209.
Hopkins earned her bachelor’s degree in public administration last spring. After receiving her MBA, she hopes to manage an National Basketball Association or a Women’s National Basketball Association team and get drafted one day.
“Basketball is really just my passion,” Hopkins said. “I feel like even if I’m not playing, if I could be around the game and make somebody else that much better then that’s good enough for me.”
As an Aztec, Hopkins has already accomplished a great deal on and off the court, but there is definitely still more to come. During her second season with SDSU, her familiarity with the team, plays and wisdom as a senior will surely assist her in having another breakout season.
“We definitely have aspirations of Sweet 16, Elite Eight or even further and I really feel like this is a special team and the sky is the limit for this team,” Hopkins said. “So it’s really going to depend on how we come together and how much we want it, but I definitely think that we are capable.”
