From Herald Staff Reports

Hopf

Former Forest Park standout basketball player Curt Hopf won’t be able to play for Barr-Reeve right away, the IHSAA announced.

On Friday, Hopf was deemed ineligible to play for the Vikings boys basketball team this upcoming season and will have to sit out his junior year of eligibility.

Earlier this summer, Forest Park confirmed that Hopf had transferred to Barr-Reeve in Montgomery. Hopf was cleared by the IHSAA to spend the summer playing with the Vikings during summer camps and games, including at the Southridge shootout in mid-June.

While the IHSAA declined to comment on the transfer, Barr-Reeve head basketball coach Josh Thompson told the Evansville Courier & Press that Hopf will attempt to overturn this decision.

“He has been ruled ineligible. He now will have to go through the IHSAA appeals process,” Thompson said. “We won’t known anything further until October.”

Hopf, who has received Division I interest from several top programs including Indiana, Purdue and Iowa, impressed many around the area with his performance for the Rangers the past two years.

During his freshman year under head coach Jeff Litherland, the Rangers finished 25-5 and made it all the way to the Class 2A state championship game before falling to Oak Hill by a score of 56-44. Hopf averaged 12.1 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game in his freshman year and scored over 20 points four times.

Under head coach David Welp during his sophomore campaign, the Rangers finished with a 15-10 record before being knocked out by Evansville Mater Dei in the sectional semifinal. Hopf saw his stats go up as the primary weapon — he averaged 16.2 points per game and 8.6 rebounds per game. He notched six double-doubles during the year and scored a career-high 26 points in a January, 12 road game at North Posey.