By Brittany Bowyer
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SCOTTSDALE — Notre Dame Prep recently announced the hiring of Alicia Hopkins to take over as the head of the girls basketball program.

Hopkins, who most recently coached at Kingman High School, was named the 3A Coach of the Year in 2026 and brings with her a lot of excitement to the program.

“Throughout our search, Alicia stood out from an impressive group of candidates for her energy, leadership, and commitment to developing student-athletes,” Saints Athletic Director Dennis Coyle said in a press release. “Her combination of basketball knowledge, relationship-building skills, and counseling background gives us tremendous confidence in her ability to connect with our players and help them grow on and off the court. We believe Alicia will build on NDP girls’ basketball’s outstanding tradition while establishing a culture rooted in accountability, teamwork, and personal growth. We are excited to welcome her to the Saints community.”

Long before Hopkins thought about coaching or playing collegitately, she developed a deep love and appreciation for the sport of basketball. Hailing from Indiana where basketball is king, her exposure to the sport began as early as she can remember.

From watching all levels of basketball to playing as a kid, her passion for the game continued to grow. She eventually went on to play basketball in college at Hanover in her home state, where she was a three-year captain.

“When I did reference checks, one of them is the current Hanover coach and said there hasn’t been a three-year captain at Hanover that he recalls before or after her,” Coyle said. “I think that speaks volumes to her leadership, but also her basketball.”

After finishing her playing career at Hanover and starting her professional career in the mental health field, Hopkins found herself in Arizona. Her life partner was the head football coach at Kingman, where she’d frequently find herself on campus helping out with various things such as the booster club.

Last fall, Kingman found itself in need of a girls basketball coach, and after speaking with Kingman’s athletic director, Hopkins took the job.

“I just think that was the perfect opportunity to be dropped in the perfect situation,” Hopkins said. “I loved those kids and I wanted to help them out and they needed a coach. It just worked out, so I started doing it and I was like ‘I can’t believe I haven’t been doing this my whole life!’ It was one of those 'a-ha' moments of like, ‘Maybe I wasn’t even meant to be a therapist, maybe I was meant to be a therapist so I could be a coach.’”

When the job at Notre Dame Prep opened, Hopkins knew she had to apply.

“I think that any coach living in Phoenix would be attracted to Notre Dame Prep,” Hopkins said. “They have a long history of success not only in the girls basketball program, but in all of their athletics. I think any coach would be privileged to be at a school that has such strong academic experiences and expectations as well. It helps with athletes being able to prioritize being a student.”

According to Coyle, Hopkins wasn’t initially at the top of their list of candidates, but after talking with her, they realized the value she’d bring to the program.

“We had a lot of really qualified candidates, and honestly, at first review just looking at the paper, she was not one of our top candidates,” Coyle said. “But I went through and I had 10 phone interviews, and she was the most impressive of the interviews. I think part of it goes to her background and her work in mental health, and that she really understands kids.”

Coyle continued, “She has a proven track record of success as a player and as a coach. She really rose to the top from the initial conversation and throughout the process. Everyone who met her, she was their first choice for the position.”

Hopkins emphasized her ability to help build more than just basketball players, but to help develop players for their future in life.

“Throughout the process, (Hopkins) really stood out that she could help our girls be the best versions of themselves, and to become better people, not just better basketball players,’ Coyle said.

Hopkins said she did significant research prior to the interview with Notre Dame Prep to familiarize herself with the program. She said doing so helped her move forward in the interview process.

“I think that I was able to answer a lot of questions very concretely and give a very clear plan,” Hopkins said. “I was very organized and detailed, and I had an entire 30-, 60- and 90-day plan prepared for them on my first interview. I’m very knowledgeable about the program. I did tons of research. I watched tons of film before I even went to the interview, and I think putting in all of that effort and work to be prepared showed them that’s how I am as a coach, and that’s exactly how I show up for my team. I don’t like to do anything unprepared.”

Her efforts to be prepared didn’t go unnoticed. Coyle was impressed by what Hopkins brought to the table when they spoke.

“She did a great job of researching the school,” Coyle said. “She gave us a nice pamphlet, and we have the three 'Rs'; Reverence, respect and responsibility. She did a great job of laying out how she’s going to tie that into her program. So that was just one of the things she did well as a candidate for the position, was she researched our school and she hit the ground running from the first meeting we had with her, talking about how she’s going to do those things.”

Hopkins said she was lucky to have a lot of continuity among coaches during her lifetime, and each of the coaches she played for have impacted her coaching style.

“I really pull from all of them if I’m being honest,” Hopkins said. “My high school coach had a very offensive mindset and was very big on finding spots for shooters… My college coaches did much better at developing post players, and they were really good about seeing potential in an athlete and changing their position.”

Hopkins said while she’s taken something from each person’s coaching style, it was her college coaches who really taught her how to build a team.

“I would say my college coaches taught me how to build a program, because they’re so excellent at making their athletes feel like family and making their athletes feel seen and heard outside of basketball,” Hopkins said.

The goal for Hopkins at NDP is to create a similar environment where her athletes can thrive. She showed her ability to do that at Kingman through her coaching philosophy, which is a three-pronged approach focusing on the individual as a whole.

According to Hopkins, the first part of her coaching philosophy involves focusing on the process.

“I’m a highly competitive person,” Hopkins said. “I love to win. I think every athlete and coach loves to win, but if you can focus on the smaller controllables like showing up to practice, giving 100-percent, hitting the backboards on your layups, holding your follow through. Close outs, boxing out, all of those little things can really allow you to get to that outcome that you want.”

Second in the approach is clear expectations for each player.

“Each player will know what their role is and what my expectation for them is,” Hopkins said. “If they’re not a starter and they want to be a starter, what am I looking for in practice to help them pick up on those minutes? Honesty and direct communication is a huge part of my process as a coach, because it mitigates a lot of conflict when your athletes know exactly what they need to do in practice and how valuable they can be.”

Rounding out her philosophy is the team’s culture.

“I think team culture is one of the most important things with a girls basketball program because it can go left at any moment, so you have to be dialed in on how your athletes are feeling and how they’re communicating with each other, even when you’re not in the room,” Hopkins said.

In an effort to build relationships among players on the team, Hopkins said she has different things she does at practice to help make the team a cohesive unit. One of the things she’s implemented at the end of each practice is gathering around and discussing each person’s highs and lows.

“It allows my athletes to kind of share what they feel like is going well for them and what isn’t going well, and it doesn’t even have to particularly be about practice,” Hopkins said. “It can be about life, as well. It doesn’t just give me the opportunity as a coach to know how they’re feeling, but it also gives all of their teammates an in on like, ‘Oh this person had a hard day today, let me check in on them. Oh they felt really proud of themselves for going 10 for 10 from the free throw line. That’s awesome, let me give them some encouragement.’ It also gives me feedback of what they like in practice and what they don’t like.”

Coyle said part of what makes this hire so special is Hopkins’ extensive experience in the mental health industry.

“I think that’s a component a lot of high schools miss, but if you look at collegiate and professional levels, every program has someone working with the students on their mental health,” Coyle said. “It’s so important in terms of their health, their safety and their performance on the field and on the court. So I am looking at ways we can improve how we work with our students’ mental health.”

Although Hopkins said being a therapist provides a cheat code of sorts when it comes to coaching, and in the code is the value of a relationship between the coach and player. Hopkins understands, which is why she said she’s already been laying the groundwork to build a relationship and gain the trsut of her players.

“I think building trust happens with daily deposits,” Hopkins said. “I don’t expect to have their trust right now, nor do I expect to have it tomorrow. I expect to have it by the end of the season, you know?”

Hopkins noted everyone builds trust at a different rate, and one of the ways she’s working to earn their trust is by listening to the players.

“I had an all-players meeting (last week) where I was able to sit down and talk with the players about how they’re feeling and what’s going on and how we want to move forward and what we want to focus on,” Hopkins said. “What was working really well and what can we improve on, all of those things.”

Hopkins knows with trust will come success.

In Hopkins' eyes, a successful season for her first year would be giving the seniors a season to be proud of.

“These seniors have put in a lot of work, and they’ve had a big change for them,” Hopkins said. “I just want them to have a season that they can feel proud of and that they feel like they got better and it prepared them for their next steps.”

If Hopkins can earn the respect and buy-in from all her players across all levels during her first season, she said it would make her extremely happy.

With the Notre Dame Prep Girls Basketball team, Hopkins said she believes the sky is the limit for where they can go when crafting exceptional players and people. She’s set specific goals to help the Saints continue to grow.

One of the goals she has for the program is for them to eventually have Freshman, JV and Varsity squads again instead of just JV and Varsity.

“I would love to have a freshmen team,” Hopkins said. “We’re not sure if we’re going to be able to do that this year, but that would be a big hope is that we’re able to have three teams instead of just two teams.”

She also hopes to build connections with summer camps so they can help establish fundamentals.

According to Hopkins and Coyle, the biggest goal is just to develop the players into the best version of themselves they can be, both on and off the court.

“I hope she develops people,” Coyle said. “I’d say you evaluate coaches on what their kids and players say 10, 15, 20 years from now, and what my hopes are is that the young women that she coaches look back and say she helped them become the best version of themselves, and they were better people because they played for her.

“I want it to be a program that helps athletes and people go to that next level, whatever that looks like for them,” Hopkins said.

Brittany Bowyer is a Report for America corps member, covering sports for Independent Newsmedia in Arizona. Report for America places talented journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions.