HHS football players named all-conference

After a four win and five loss season that ended with a tough loss against the eventual state champions Lakeville North Panthers, it’s time for the HHS football team to celebrate.

The Royals held their annual banquet on December 2 and with that banquet came the announcements of the All-District team and Honorable Mentions.

Hopkins took home six first team awards as well as four honorable mentions. Seniors Jadon Washington, Sam Segelbaum and James Klecker took home first team honors as well as juniors Demetrius Patton and AJ Campbell, and lastly, sophomore RJ Chakolis.

“It feels really good and I’m happy but I also believe that since I got it last year in football and wrestling and this year for football and hopefully again for wrestling, I set goals to reach junior all metro and all state senior year,” Chakolis said.

Chakolis is always been somebody to strive for more.

“I guess I just try to set goals and reach them and me being young is just a bonus so that I can try to do more things than other people,” Chakolis said. “I have been put in a place where many people haven’t and I just want to take advantage of it.”

Yakob Ekoue, Rhegan Holmes and Will Stein, seniors and AJ Torfin, sophomore were awarded as Honorable Mentions to the team.

“I worked very hard this year and had a good season,” Torfin said. “I’m very thankful for the recognition I received from the district.”

While Torfin did not win All District first team, he isn’t angry about it.

“It doesn’t bother me at all to not get all district. It’s something I can work up to and hopefully go even further to state recognition my junior season,” Torfin said.

In the 2017 football season, in their first year after leaving the Lake Conference, the Royals put together a less than ideal season, only taking one win, which was homecoming against St. Thomas Academy.

“I’m proud of all the guys that returned from last year and really wanted to strive for a different result from the season before,” Torfin said. “We did a very good on staying focused on what our goals were which lead to some success in our season this year.”

Another player that won a All District award was kicker Sam Segelbaum who got the award in his first year of playing football after he decided to quit soccer.

“I did not expect getting any awards since I had seen better kickers than me,” Segelbaum said. “I will definitely save these awards as amazing memories with the amazing Hopkins Football team.”